Tony Franklin, Scapegoat: Why Auburn Deserves to Lose Every Game This Season

Auburn's offense is ranked 104th overall in the country, and something had to give. Something, or somebody?

On Wednesday, Auburn fired first year offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, who brought with him the spread offense that the Tigers have run this season.

Things haven't taken off as quickly as expected, but of course Auburn people probably expected a National championship this year. Keep in mind, this is the same bunch that can't decide what their mascot is.

Folks, the offense works, but it doesn't work miracles.

The "Air Raid" is certainly capable of running up big numbers against SEC-caliber talent. In 2007, it rolled up 26 points against Arkansas, 31 against Florida, and 34 on Georgia. That team was Troy University, and they by no means have the same athletes that most SEC teams have. The sky is the limit if you actually put SEC players at the helm.

The proof is in the pudding. In 2000, when Franklin was the offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky, the Wildcats finished the season ranked second nationally in passing offense and 11th overall.

During his time at Kentucky, Franklin had three different starting quarterbacks—Tim Couch, Dusty Bonner, and Jared Lorenzen—all of which led the SEC in passing at some point in their career, and all three of whom played at the next level. Couch broke many NCAA, SEC, and Kentucky records, and Lorenzen went on to break several of those.

System quarterbacks? From a numbers standpoint, you betcha, but let's not say that like it's a bad thing. They still have to go out and make the throws.

Franklin spent the 2003 season as head coach of the Lexington Horsemen of the National Indoor Football League, where he led the team to the playoffs in their inaugural season with an average of 53 points per game with Dusty Bonner as his quarterback—one of his "system" guys.

In 2006 Franklin was hired as offensive coordinator at Troy University. He helped turn around a Trojan offense that had previously ranked last in the Sun Belt Conference to one that ranked second in the league, leading the team to a conference title.

In 2007 Troy finished 16th nationally in total offense, and the Trojans won their second consecutive Sun Belt crown.

In those two years, Trojan quarterback Omar Haugabook shattered school and conference records. Another "product of the system," Omar threw for over 5,000 yards and 39 touchdowns in two years in Franklin's system.

Since leaving Troy, it seems that Franklin has forgotten how to coach football and is to blame for Auburn's lack of offensive productivity.

Wait a second. That doesn't sound right to me either.

Maybe it's the fact that it takes system guys to run an offense like the spread: linemen who can pass block in their sleep, receivers that run crisp routes and make catches, and running backs who can both catch and block.

Last but not least, it takes a quarterback who can run the whole system.

Kentucky and Troy already had these people in place. Auburn could have given him a year or two to recruit the right players.

With the offense that Auburn has been in, the players just don't fit in the new system. They have linemen whose sole purpose in life is to blow people off the ball, receivers who can block in space, running backs that lower their shoulder for two more yards, and a quarterback who is really good at carrying out play fakes.

There's certainly nothing wrong with that—it just doesn't translate to the spread.

In my first year of high school coaching, we ran this exact offense. We went to seminars led by Franklin, who broke down every step of the thing.

Each player on the field wears a wristband with his assignments on it. A coach signals in a number from the sideline, and the player finds the number on his band with the corresponding assignment. Pretty simple stuff. It's all spelled out for each player.

The only way it doesn't work is if you don't have the players.

The day after Auburn's loss to Vanderbilt, head coach Tommy Tuberville defended Franklin and his system. A couple of days later, Franklin was out. We can't say that someone in the Auburn athletic department pulled rank on Tuberville, but we can think it. If that's not the case, then Tuberville is just a liar.

Tuberville was quoted on ESPN.com as saying, "(Franklin's firing is) not going to change our philosophy. This is a good offense. Our guys like it. They understand it. They're getting better at it."  Which could be translated as: "We have your system, so we don't need you and your hefty salary anymore."

Either way, this is a shady situation, and Tony Franklin is the scapegoat, forced to bear the brunt of the frustration of the Tiger nation.