Auburn Fires Offensive Coordinator Tony Franklin

Only six games into the 2008 season, the Auburn University Athletics Department and Head Coach Tommy Tuberville announced that Offensive Coordinator Tony Franklin was being let go.

Tony began his stint at Auburn just last year when he filled former Offensive Coordinator Al Borges' position just prior to the Chick-fil-A bowl in Atlanta, GA. He held previous positions with Kentucky and Troy and had developed a spread offense package that many high schools are now using. The "spread guru" as many called him made his way to Auburn and took his high tempo offense with him. With only a few days to work, Coach Franklin took Auburn's offense somewhere that it had rarely been before...over 400 yards of offense. This is an Auburn team that has struggled offensively for years, so to have a game like that left fans and players alike with great hopes for the 2008 season.

The spread offense is not something that Auburn would welcome easily. A traditional running team, that has recently been dubbed "Running Back U" a pass happy spread offense was going to take some time to adjust. The very interesting part was that Auburn apparently had two quarterbacks that were very similarly talented and a race to be Auburn's quarterback would soon ensue. A mobile quarterback does very well in the spread and Auburn has Kodi Burns (a very mobile quarterback). The players, coaches and even fans knew that things might not be that rosy in the 2008 season, but all still held high hopes for Franklin and the spread. What was to come would shock everyone.

Auburn began the season picked to win its division (the Western Division in the SEC), and that would probably be the high point. Auburn started out the season winning ball games, but winning very ugly. One of the best defenses in the country is what kept Auburn in and even won some of the early games this season. A 3-2 win over Mississippi State, and other wins were squeakers. Also a heart-breaking loss to LSU (a division rival), and then came the deal breaker...the 13-14 loss to Vanderbilt. A loss to Vanderbilt was not something Auburn was used to since it has not happened in 50 years or so.

An obviously heated Tommy Tuberville came out after the game and declared that major changes were going to take place the next week and he left what those changes were to the speculation of the media and fans. No one really knew what was going on. Was Franklin gone? Is Auburn going away from the spread? On Wednesday, all the questions were answered. Early in the week it was announced that there would not be any changes in the staff and that Auburn was sticking by Franklin and his offense. Tuesday there were reports of Franklin showing a lot of energy and enthusiasm at practice and the players were responding to it. Then came the news. It was announced on Wednesday that Tony Franklin had been relieved from his duties at Auburn, and that assistant coach Steve Ensminger would take over the play calling duties.

Two days after declaring that there would not be any changes in the offensive staff, Tony Franklin is fired? These events have led to many questions and even more speculation on what actually happened with Tony Franklin. Was there some dissension in the ranks? Franklin's dismissal has been blamed on lack of production and rightly so. There definitely was a lack of production that resulted in the 104th best offense in the country. Former Offensive Coordinator Al Borges was removed for the same reason and his offense was better than Franklin's spread. What actually happened we may never know, but rest assured that Auburn will figure things out.

This season is on the verge of being lost for the Tigers aside from a bowl game and the grand season finale...the Iron Bowl with in state rival Alabama. Alabama can taste blood after a phenomenal start this season. After loosing six meetings straight to the Auburn Tigers, the Crimson Tide is definitely looking for revenge. Auburn has half a season to get the offense turned around and ready for what will probably be Auburn's biggest game (at least this year). You can rest assured that this will be the talk of the state from now until then, and every day in between for that matter.