It’s too early to pass judgement. To say that the program is in a downward spiral is a bit too much. Clearly something was not working. To decide NOT to decide would have been a worse decision.

Jay,
 I appreciate the positive voice you’ve always had on Auburn. I also appreciate the HONEST voice you provide on this page. Like everyone esle I’ve been concerned with the offense.
I’m sorry that cooler heads could not prevail between Coach Tuberville & Franklin. However I believe you got it right. I only hope that somehow Coach can pull it out . If a miracle can be performed ( like winning seven over bama) maybe the recruits & the season can be salvaged. But at this point I am as anxious about our season as I am My 401k.

This is tough to see for any school to go through. The things I’ve read and heard on the radio mirror what was said above about Franklin and Tubbs clashing this week, and Tubbs had the bigger stick. I posted here last week the post from Smart Football explaining that Franklin wasn’t running his system. It seems like Auburn never fully made the commitment to him. If they wanted to go to the spread and use Tony Franklin’s system, then give him the reins. They should have let him bring in his position and assistant coaches that all believe in the spread as an offensive philosophy. When Bob Stoops took over at Oklahoma, he wanted to run the spread because that’s what terrorized him at Florida from those Kentucky teams. Guess who was the coordinator at Kentucky terrorizing Stoops? But what Stoops did was bring in guys like Mark Mangino and Mike Leach, who all believe in the same offensive philosophy. I don’t think Franklin ever got a fair shake, and he probably shouldn’t have been hired in the first place. That’s my two cents, but I could be wrong.

I think there is a slight distinction in what Tubby has said over the last two days that is important.

No way. Tuberville is much too shrewd to make such a knee-jerk decision in the middle of the week. Less than 24 hours ago, he said it would be catastrophic to make a change at this time.

I believe what Tubby actually said was that it would be catastrophic to go away from the spread at this point. I never really heard him give a vote of confidence to Franklin. It was always a vote of confidence to the offense not the coordinator.

One thing that is troubling, and the radio guys have been all over this, is that in the same interview yesterday Tubbs said things like, “It was all about production, and this offense wasn’t progressing” and then followed it with statements like “we aren’t going away from the spread, it’s a good offense, and we’re getting better at it”. To me this is a big deal. Why say we are firing our OC due to lack of progression, but we will continue to run the same offense because we’re improving?

To me this says it had nothing to do with production. It had to due with personalities not meshing, Franklin couldn’t teach an old dog (Tubby’s assistants) new tricks. This creates a huge problem because if Tubbs is committed to the spread, who in the world can he hire as his OC? Who wants to work for a man that set this precedent? Listen to how ridiculous this now sounds as a job description…Institute a new offense using position coaches who don’t know anything about it, and if you’re 4-2 with those two losses coming against top 15 teams in your first 6 games, you’re fired. Oh and by the way, every chance I get I’m going to create hype about the offense so the fans have huge expectations no matter how bad your practices look.

Wow, I bet people will be lining up for miles and miles to take on that job.

I suppose i’m torn between whether or not he should have been given more time. Surely the offensive production was bad at best, but given the fact that he couldn’t bring in his own assistants to teach the spread should have granted him more time to teach this offense to the team and the assistants alike. According to Rivals, the recruits for the most part aren’t waivered by the firing, but that could certainly change in the near future. These are kids we’re talking about here. As far as getting in another coordinator, It will be interesting to see not only the direction that the offensive philosophy goes towards but who will be willing to take the job. Sure Tubs said that he wants to stay with the spread but he also said that he wanted to keep TF, and we see how fast that went down hill. I don’t think that Paul Rhoades would go anywhere though. Unless he is offered a Head Coaching job somewhere. But then again Muschamp left because he said that it was too unstable for the coordinators at Auburn among other reasons.

Interesting to say the least, But So are the “Days of Our Lives”.

War Eagle

I do not look at this as being so negative, we had a problem and we got rid of the problem. Regardless of the difference of philosophies Tony was not a fit for Auburn, and it was apparent on the football field. Sure it was was uncomfortable for the players yesterday, Esminger is probably not the guy to lead us to the promise land, but the reaction from the skill offensive recruits has been very positive, will we probably have a little attrition probably. At any rate Tubberville is an exceptional coach with integrity and he WILL right the ship. If we beat Bama or Georgia everyone will wonder what all the fuss is about. I personally do not see this as causing irreparable damage, I look at it like a blip in the long term radar.

WAR EAGLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what a disaster.

the firing. 1st its never prudent to fire your OC mid season. 2nd its scary to think of the return to Nall Ball. 3rd Franklin should have the whole season (probably 2 seasons to fail or succeed). Sounds like I’m siding with the Franklin wasnt given enough time….and I am (sort of). Here’s the “yeah but” (kinda like a rabut without the ears): If coach Franklin was unable to bend to the wishes of his boss (who’s only agenda is to win games now and in the future) he was deserving of release. If you look at it that way it may have been Franklin who was the impatient one. If Franklin in the heated argument said things that could not be overlooked in a Boss Employee relationship….whose fault is that. We have all had bosses and we have all disagreed or felt that we could have “done it better” but did we stand up to the boss and say “you are wrong” or “your way sucks”? No (if you did then you probably got the axe). I have been on both sides, the boss and the employee, and I can relate to both. Franklin may have been fed up with the watering down of his offense that Tuberville was performing (that is my theory) but It didn’t happen all at once and it was happening for a reason. So before everyone jumps on either side be objective if you can and look at it from both perspectives I know that if I were in Tubervilles shoes and I had an employee that refused to do it my way (especially after his way has not been effective) that employee would have hit the door running ( I have had that experience as an employer and it is a rotten place but unavoidable).

Now as far as the “irreparable damage”? No I don’t buy it. I think that Tuberville can and will find a strong replacement (sexy hire) to run the spread. People keep referencing Stoops succes at OU and comparing it to Franklins situation. Can’t do that. Stoops hired all of his coaches not Mangino. There is no doubt that AU has had trouble keeping Coordinators. of the last 2, Borges and Muschamp, Borges got the axe for losing ground in the offensive productivity department (understandable in todays produce or lose atmosphere) and said he was not the guy to install the spread ( something that Tuberville was obviously committed to before Franklin came in), Muschamp made the lateral move to Texas for the same position to improve his chances of being a head coach (at least thats perception and perception is reality? I have read that statement alot on here lately). Everyone was saying last year that he would have trouble replacing Muschamp because he is going through Coordinators like Oprah through a pint of Ben n Jerry’s. But what came of it? Not only did he replace Muschamp but the Defense didn’t miss a beat (if anything they got better). The reality is that there are a great deal of OC’s out there that would love to move up to AU and I believe Tuberville can find one that will fit and get the job done. He is more than capable.

Would you rather have a head coach that treats his program like a business (Tuberville)? Or someone who treats it like a family (Fulmer)? To me, Tuberville seems a little quick on the draw. I wasn’t against firing Borges last season, but it did kind of surprise me. The offense this season seems dreadful, so I’m not as surprised that Franklin was shown the door, although the timing was intriguing. However, someone like Fulmer probably wouldn’t have relieved Nall of his OC duties after 2003 because of loyalty.

To me, the answer is somewhere in the middle. Both coaches have great qualities that have made them successful over the years. How far along the spectrum, however, is a question I can’t answer.

And I’m not gonna pile on you Jay. I think you raised several good points and hit on a couple of key issues. I am very concerned about the state of our football program.

That is one of the dumbest posts I’ve seen in a while. If you read my post I spell out why Franklin had to go. College football is BIG business and you can not afford to get humiliated on the field. Other than 8-10 drives that resulted in points this year from the spread, it has been total ineptness on the field, TOTAL. How many times do you run a sweep into the teeth of the defense. 100 times? How many times to you throw a wounded duck on a wide receiver screen as the defense swarms all over the receiver, tackling him for a loss. It was MADNESS!!! I would rather run between the tackles every play than watch that monstrosity of an offense take the field again. The offensive line was in retreat every play and I won’t go into how stupid it is to run the ball without them in a 3 point stance.

Franklin may not have had a chance to incorporate his scheme to his liking but THAT IS HIS FAULT!!! Tuberville is the head man and he is the one whose head rolls if Alabama had beaten us 38-7 after getting stomped by Georgia. There is NO WAY Franklin was making it through the year because things were getting WORSE not better. I’m sorry but Football is not that rocket science and obviously Franklin could not lead. If he and Tubs had words, I don’t think Tubs had any choice but to fire him. Franklin was dealing from a position of total weakness and chose to press the issue. What kind of defense could he have possibly mounted against Tubs? He couldn’t is the answer and Tubs would have looked weak if he kept him around while he groused about not having the control he needed. When you have cancer, you cut it out and go through chemo. Thats what were facing now but eventually we will be healthy again.

calm down. Time will tell if this was the right decision or not. The bottom line is this: The spread was not working for one of (if not both) two reasons; either Franklin had a poor relationship with the players or Franklin had a poor relationship with the other coaches on the staff assisting him in coaching the spread. Either on of those will rruin a football team’s offense. It’s a terrible thing and very unfortunate. I remember being so excited in the days coming up to last years Chic-fil-a bowl and being more excited when we won and Burns playing well, and now 2008 has just sputtered out. Much like 2003 did for us as well. And everyone remembers what happened the season after 2003…