Bleacher Report - Articles by Liger

Is the Spread Dead at Auburn?

Liger — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:53:22 -0400

Tony Franklin now has at least one thing in common with his quarterbacks—they’ve all been sacked unexpectedly.

Sports fans and journalists are going to say a lot about the midseason firing of Franklin over the next couple of days, and I’m sure Franklin himself will soon provide some interesting sound bites saying, in essence, that he was never allowed to run his offense.

That’s a moot point because I believe the issues that led to his dismissal had more to do with play calling and discipline than with offensive schemes.

Let’s face facts: I’ve never seen a more undisciplined and confused offense than I’ve seen on the Plains this year.

In addition (as I’ve written before in this space), Franklin insisted on playing an injured quarterback. I have no doubt that a healthy Chris Todd could be an excellent player, but his injury prevents him from being able to get the ball downfield, which is an essential part of the Spread offense.

Kodi Burns has also not developed at quarterback and at times seems lost during plays, most notably last week against Vandy. Coach Tubs really believes in Burns, and seeing him looking confused at this point of the season also contributed to the firing, I would guess.

Remember, Franklin wasn’t just the offensive coordinator. He was also the QB coach, and both of his QBs looked horrible against the Commodores—in the sixth game of the season.

But what has been done is in the past now, and I, for one, say let’s leave it there.

The question of the hour is simple: Is the Spread dead at Auburn?

No. It’s not. Franklin is (allegedly) a Spread guru, but his Spread offense is not the only type of Spread being run in college football today.

One of my complaints this year has been that the Franklin offense is really simplistic compared to, say, Urban Meyer’s more developed and sophisticated version, or even the Spread variants run by Kansas or Missouri.

For example, Auburn essentially had one running play—the Read-option play, which was rendered ineffective without a run threat at QB.

And, if your opponents are not convinced that you can beat them deep, running the football from the Spread doesn’t have a chance to work for the fact that there are five linemen trying to block eight or nine defenders. Simple mathematics says it’s not happening.

As recently as yesterday, Tuberville stated that he still believes in the Spread offense, and I believe that he still does. But I think he wants to get the right guy to run it: a guy who will put the best players on the field (heaven forbid) and who can find ways to get the ball in the hands of Auburn’s skill players.

And if most of the skill players are running backs, then he needs to find a way to get the running backs the ball.

Over the next few days we’ll hear a lot about how Franklin didn’t get a chance to run his offense. Well, uh, Mr. Franklin, I do believe that’s the problem. Auburn football is not about your offense. It’s about the Auburn players who are executing the offense, so technically it's their offense.

One of the most basic elements of being a coordinator (offensive or defensive) is to scheme around your players. In hindsight, Auburn should have seen these problems coming.

When Tubs hired defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, Rhoads continually talked to the media about getting to know the Auburn personnel. He never said what kind of defense Auburn would run, other than the fact that he wanted the unit to tackle well. For Franklin, however, it was all about his offense.

Raymond Cotton, Sr., whose four-star son is an Auburn QB recruit, also emphasized Tubs' commitment to the Spread. After hearing about Franklin’s firing, he said, “from what we were told, Tuberville supported the Spread—he just didn’t support Tony Franklin.” He went on to confirm that his son is still planning to enroll at Auburn.

Make no mistake: This is not a good time on the Plains. Auburn should expect to lose some offensive commitments because of Franklin’s firing, although as of now they all say they’re sticking with their decision. But undoubtedly a few prospects will lose interest in the midst of the turmoil.

Recruiting aside, firing any coach at any time leads to instability. But firing a high-profile offensive coordinator who has another year and a half left on his contract can lead to some serious unrest amongst the powers-that-be at Auburn, as well as fans.

But as bad as firing Franklin is for the Auburn program now, I’m convinced that to not fire him would have been the greater evil.

OK, maybe evil is a little too dramatic, but certainly Auburn will be better off in the long-run with a coordinator who appreciates Auburn's players and who will build his Spread around them.

Auburn Needs a New Offense or a New Offensive Coordinator

Liger — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:42:25 -0400

OK I admit it, I was wrong. I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong, and I’ve had lots of practice doing so, especially concerning Auburn football as of late.

I admit it. I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when I heard that Tony Franklin was coming to Auburn. His offense had had more success against Auburn’s SEC opponents last year than Auburn had, and every Auburn fan knows that we’ve been one good offense away from seriously competing for an SEC or maybe even National Championship for the past few seasons.

First, I would like to apologize to Al Borges. He became a true Auburn man during his tenure on the Plains, even finding a wife and having a son during his time here. His offense was frustrating last year and in 2006 as well.

But for all its faults, it never left me embarrassed. His offense had become bland and unimaginative, but it was still an SEC-caliber offense that made few mistakes and kept the ball for long stretches of time.

What we saw last night in Nashville was embarrassing. I give all the credit I can to Vandy. They played with grit and tenacity, especially at QB. Mackenzi Adams played a heck of a game against a stout (although injury-riddled) defense. Incidentally, this makes the second loss of the season that we’ve been beaten by the backup QB.

But I’m not blaming the defense. Anytime your defense holds an opponent to 14 points, it’s supposed to be a W, particularly on the road. And especially against Vandy.

So who do I blame? As far as I’m concerned, the Tony Franklin experiment is over. I know he doesn’t have the best players to run the Spread, but really, that’s just my point.

An offensive coordinator at this level should have the ability to make the necessary adjustments for his players while working to get the players he wants into his system. Franklin has proven incredibly reluctant (or just plain hard-headed) to do that.

What’s more, for the past three games we seemed to have figured out how to get the ball moving in the first quarter, then Franklin completely abandons what was working.

That’s my problem with ideologues, they are more interested in their ideals than doing the best thing. Franklin’s goal is not really to score points or move the ball, but to run the Tony Franklin offense, the Spread. (And apparently to use Chris Todd to do it.)

Last night our offense gained 129 yards and scored 13 points in the first quarter running mostly from a two-TE, QB under center formation. But after such a great start Franklin completely abandoned that attack, moving more and more to “his” offense.

Late in the fourth quarter, Franklin went back to the QB under center formation and Tate ran for 9 yards against a much undersized defensive line. Then on the next play, Franklin returned to the Spread and we lost a yard. We ran the Spread on third and two and Tate got one yard. We went for it on fourth down from the Spread and got one yard, barely making the first down.

The offense, however, would stay Spread from there out and we hardly made any plays for positive yardage the remainder of the game.

Last week against Tennessee, we ran several formations at the beginning of the game, including using Mario Fannin in the Wildcat formation. We scored a TD on that drive, but then pretty much abandoned what had worked so well for the rest of the game, and the offense didn’t score again.

Franklin has an uncanny ability to stay away from what works. Why? Because he wants to run the Spread more than he wants to move the ball.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the Spread. I think the Spread can work at Auburn. But you have to be smart about implementing it. If our team moves the ball better against some teams under center, employing a power running game, we should do that.

I can name four reasons why that’s a smart move right now: 1) Ben Tate 2) Brad Lester 3) Tristan Davis, and 4) Mario Fannin. Probably the best group of running backs in the SEC, except for maybe Bama's group. And Bama coaches have this crazy idea that they should actually give the ball to their best players. What on earth are they thinking?

And besides four great runners, we have an offensive line that loves to line up in the three-point stance and attack defenses. I mean, why on earth would we not use power formations regularly?

I congratulate Coach Tubs for trying something new in his efforts to move the program to the next level, but at this point we need to cut our losses and get a good OC who can adapt his offense to our players rather than trying to get our players to adapt to his ideals.

I’m not for firing coaches at the first sign of trouble. I think it’s bad for the program to go through so much change in such a short period of time. But I am for admitting a terrible mistake, and fixing it as fast as possible. Franklin’s refusal to execute an offense that has been proven to work with these players, even at the cost of losing a game, demonstrates that he doesn’t have Auburn’s best interest at heart as much as “selling” the Tony Franklin offense.

I think we shouldn’t stand in his way of selling his offense if that’s what he really wants to do. Let’s let him do it full time.

Besides, I understand Coach Borges is still in town.

Auburn's Tony Franklin Stakes Career on QB

Liger — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 03:04:07 -0400

Shortly after Kodi Burns scrambled into the end zone to win Auburn the Chick fil-A Bowl in overtime last December, Head Coach Tommy Tuberville made the following remark about Kodi.

“He’ll go in as No. 1. He’s earned that.”

Of course, Coach Tubs was talking about spring practice, not the first game, but many Auburn fans saw Kodi as the heir apparent, and a perfect fit for the Spread offense.

Yet, almost immediately, Auburn's newly-hired offensive coordinator, Tony Franklin, countered Tubs in the media, stating, in effect, that there would be no No. 1 going into the spring.

When spring rolled around, Todd, Franklin’s long-time student from his days consulting with high-school football teams, injured his throwing shoulder, and it obviously affected his play. But still, Franklin refused to name Kodi the No. 1.

But even Franklin couldn’t deny that Kodi’s passing ability had improved a great deal during the spring.

In the final scrimmage of the spring, Kodi completed 12 of 15 passes for 213 yards and two touchdowns. In fact, in that scrimmage, Kodi completed his first 10 passes and also ran for 39 yards. This came against the a very stout Auburn defense.

Coach Tubs said, “I am really proud of Kodi Burns. He is very much improved. I like the way he ran the offense, and that is what you are looking for in a scrimmage like this at the end to see the control your quarterbacks have, especially in a new offense.”

But Kodi would still not be named the No. 1.

I know some people are saying, “But that’s a scrimmage. What has he done in a game?”

That’s the problem.

Kodi has played very sparingly so far this season. After the first game, in which Kodi and Todd alternated every other series (until Kodi was pulled for a slight injury in the third quarter), Franklin excused Todd’s abysmal performance by stating that it’s hard to get into a rhythm when you’re alternating series. I agree.

So the next game, Franklin started Todd and let him play in all but two series in the second half of the game. It was after this game, against Southern Miss, that Todd was named the starter.

My problem?

In spite of Franklin’s statement about getting into a rhythm, Kodi has not played in consecutive series at all this year. Not even once.

Just like that, the QB race was over. That’s tantamount to me binding Usain Bolt’s ankles together and giving myself a 50 meter head-start and pretending I’m a faster runner than him. (Incidentally, I think Bolt would still beat me, but I’m trying to make a point here.)

Why am I sold on Kodi over Todd?

Two reasons.

Kodi is a better runner.

And, it’s not even close. Todd is about as mobile as a sitting duck. He is no threat to run. I’m not sure why we run the option-freeze play, because no one is thinking he’s going to run. Also, Kodi’s mobility can provide some semblance of rhythm and consistency while this offense matures.

Kodi has the stronger arm.

For all the talk about Todd’s passing ability, it is apparent that he can’t pass the ball much farther than 30 yards. There were several occasions in the Mississippi State game when Todd had open receivers and he just under-threw them—the TV announcers commented on it, too.

Even when Todd completed these passes, the receivers had to wait on the ball, thus denying the potential for even longer gains or touchdowns.

Typically, in a QB race of this sort, you have a guy who passes better versus a guy who runs better. After the Mississippi State game, I'm convinced that Todd is the worst of both worlds. He routinely under-throws or just plain misses receivers, and he is no threat to run.

In addition, Kodi has more upside. He has more room to improve. Todd is already intimately familiar with this offense, and still, this is all he can produce. Kodi is still learning the system, yet he is at least as good as Todd is now.

The bottom line is that Tubs gives his coordinators a lot of rope. But he is not afraid to hang them with it if they don’t produce. And, over Tubs' tenure at Auburn, he has demoted or fired two coordinators after only one year of service.

For whatever reason, Franklin has decided to stake his job (and Auburn’s season) on Chris Todd. I’m just not sure that’s the best career move.

Auburn Football: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Liger — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:42:33 -0400

I’m as excited about the upcoming season as any fan could possibly be.

Of course, that usually means the Tigers are going to do their best to perform a massive belly-flop, and we’ll end up winning seven or eight games, and our school administration will be taking a midnight trip to Kentucky the Thursday before the 'Bama game.

But more about predicting Auburn’s on-the-field fortunes later.

Let’s take a few moments to talk about the 2009 recruiting class. Nothing real exciting going on with that. I mean, we’re still getting quality players with loads of speed…everybody say that word with me…SPEED. I love it. We’ve got plenty of it in this class, including five commits who run sub-4.45 forty times.

But the really interesting thing about this class (besides great speed) is the fact that we’ve already got 16 commits, and we’re barely into the third week of June. At the rate we’re going, I’m sure we’ll have even more commits by the time you read this post.

Auburn coaches seem to be quick to point out that our quick start to recruiting has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa last year as the head coach of the Crimson Tide. OK, tell that to the Pope, guys, 'cause I don’t believe a word of it.

There’s no doubt that we had our butts kicked by Alabama in recruiting last year, losing every single prospect that had both Auburn and Bama on their short list. Of course, we lost a few of these recruits to other schools too, but the point is, we didn’t win any.

So in light of that fact, is it such a bad thing that Tubs and company have decided to try a different tactic? You know, that’s actually one of my favorite qualities about Coach Tubs. He’s not going to keep doing the same things over and over when they don’t work.

Most coaches (in any sport) cannot honestly claim that. Typically coaches will continue running headlong down a path of destruction simply because it’s what they learned when they starting coaching, or because they had success with whatever method in the past. Who knows why this happens—maybe it’s pride.

So certainly a slight change in recruiting philosophy is understandable and even warranted in our current situation. The one thing that has not changed, though, is that Tubs is still seeking speed. Speed. A’ight?

Plus, Tubs is demonstrating now, more that ever, the fact that he could care less about the star ratings from services like Scout and Rivals. In fact, I think he has yet to receive a commitment from a player for the 2009 class who had a star rating at the time of the player’s verbal commitment.

All in all, fans shouldn’t be too concerned with this year’s seeming change in recruiting philosophy. Coach Tubs knows what he’s doing. I mean, goodness, what does a guy have to do to prove himself? He currently has more than 40 players in the NFL.

OK, in case you don’t know, that would be EXCELLENT. Magnificent even.

Forget about stars…you’ll learn real quick I don’t believe in them. Look at the stats and come to your own conclusions, and I think you’ll realize that we’ve got something cookin' for us.

By the way, did I mention speed?

Terrence Coleman DT 6’1” 244lbs 4.8 forty 385 bench

Raymond Cotton QB 6’4” 216 lbs 4.6 forty 315 bench

Jonathan Evans LB 6’0” 205 lbs 4.5 forty 285 bench

Nick Fairley DT 6’4” 295 lbs 4.89 forty 315 bench

Eltoro Freeman LB 5’11” 218 lbs 4.5 forty

Harris Gaston LB 6’2” 210 lbs 4.6 forty

Andre Harris OL 6’4” 327 lbs 5.67 forty

Brandon Heavens ATL 5’10” 165 lbs 4.43 forty

LaVoyd James WR 5’10” 175 lbs 4.4 forty

Wilfred Journet DE 6’3” 247 lbs 4.65 forty

Philip Lutzenkirchen TE 6’4” 245 lbs 4.73 forty

Aaron MooreOL 6’5” 255 lbs 4.89 forty 360 bench

LaDarius Perkins ATL 5’9” 180 lbs 4.4 forty 330 bench 36 vertical…goodness

Jamontay Pilson DT 6’3” 265 lbs 4.9 forty 330 bench

Rodney Scott RB 5’9” 185 lbs 4.4 forty 300 bench

Travante Stallworth ATL 5’10” 180 lbs 4.4 forty 230 bench