Hey everyone. One of my good friends from high school is getting married in a few weeks, so we had a "bachelor party" in the woods of Tennessee for him this past weekend. That said, I did not get to watch the Auburn game on TV, and only could sneak away and listen to the last ten minutes on my XM radio. Plenty of people on this site have offered their opinions about the team and particularly the offense and Tony Franklin, and obviously, it is a cause for concern. What I want to do is take a look at the relationship between offensive coordinator and (current) starting QB Chris Todd.

As you may remember, one of the first things Franklin did after accepting the Auburn OC job is to give a call to Troy commitment Chris Todd, a junior college QB in Kansas originally from Kentucky who started his college career at Texas Tech. It has been documented often that Todd has been running this offense since his high school days in Kentucky, and he would be a natural fit in Franklin's offense, despite the fact that he was only a three-star recruit after two years of college experience. After the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Burns seemed like the heir apparent to the Auburn QB position after a pretty decent performance against a good Clemson defense.

Fast-forward to 2008 spring practice. By all accounts in the papers and on the internet, Burns had outperformed Todd at the QB race, but a starter was not named due to a "shoulder injury" to Todd. Watching the A-Day game, I remember thinking Todd looked like a decent option at QB, but the real deal was Kodi Burns because he had an arm and some speedy legs. However, Burns still wasn't anointed the starter.

Going into this season's opener against Louisiana-Monroe, the starting QB still had not been named, and it was assumed that a fair "trial by fire" between the two during the first two games would determine who would receive the majority of snaps the rest of the season. Kodi received the "start" in that game, but the two alternated series, allowing neither to get into any rhythm in the offense. Once Burns got hurt, Todd finished the game.

In the second game, Todd received most of the snaps in the whole game, mostly due to Burns being injured. The few plays Burns was allowed to run, he either ran it or handed it off, with the exception of one throw that was poorly thrown for an interception. The bottom line is that Todd has been allowed to get into a rhythm, while Burns has yet to see action in consecutive series.

In this weekend's game against Mississippi State, Burns did not play a single down, while Todd danced around in the pocket all game and took too long to make decisions. His final line looked decent enough, but to be honest, I have yet to see anything out of Chris Todd this year that Kodi Burns isn't capable of doing. Burns may not be as accurate as Todd, but Todd isn't even as accurate as Brandon Cox.

It really makes me wonder if there is any favoritism being shown by Franklin to Todd, simply because Todd is "his guy." I sincerely hope not, because anybody on Tubby's staff who makes a personnel decision based on personal feelings rather than wins and losses, should be immediately fired. It's just something to think about considering what's gone on since Todd arrived at Auburn.

To me, Todd should be relegated to a backup role, someone who can fill in decently enough if the circumstance arises, but is not a good enough QB to take Auburn to the top of the SEC. Our defense is good enough to be a top 25 team regardless of how good (or bad) our offense is. But the fact of the matter is that the offense we have is the difference between spending our New Year's holiday in Shreveport or New Orleans. Burns at least has the ability to make things happen with his legs when everything else falls apart, and can be a burst of energy for the offense. I'm not sure Chris Todd is the guy to lead us to the promised land.