Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville took a radical turn from his past when he hired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin away from Troy last December. For all of his 14 seasons as a head coach, Tuberville has believed in offenses built to chew up yards on the ground and chew up the clock in the process.
When he decided it was time for a change, it was all about trying to break through. The Tigers have won 50 games in the past five seasons. They have won or shared the Southeastern Conference West Division championship five times in Tuberville’s nine seasons. But their only league championship came in the perfect season of 2004, and Tuberville wants more.
That, he says, is why he turned to Franklin.
“It's hard in this league to consistently pound and pound the ball,” Tuberville said. “People were ganging up on us, putting eight, nine, 10 people in the box. if we wanted to consistently say, ‘Okay, we're going to stay with winning eight, nine games, sometimes maybe win 10, I think we could have stayed with the two-back offense.
“I also looked at recruiting. I've looked at the change in football. I looked at quarterbacks, what is available. I think that this offense gives you an opportunity for a lot of variables to improve on. “
In the past, Tuberville said, he has leaned toward coordinators who could adapt to different schemes. But when he turned to Franklin, he knew just what he was getting. Franklin believes without qualification in his rapid-fire version of the spread. He has taught it to high school coaches from coast to coast.
“Tony Franklin is a one-direction guy,” Tuberville said. “He understands this offense. He's worked with it. He's tweaked it. He knows how to practice it. He knows how to recruit for it. He knows how to game plan for it.”
Franklin installed parts of the offense in time for the Chick-fil-A Bowl against Clemson, and the Tigers ran won 26-23 in overtime. There’ll be a lot more in place in the season-opener against Louisiana-Monroe on Aug. 30.
“Last year we averaged 56 plays a game in the regular season, and in the bowl game we ran 93,” Tuberville said. “If we can continue that, I think we can have some success. “
But the real tests will come against SEC defenses. Franklin’s Troy offenses put up some good numbers against Florida, Arkansas and Georgia last season. But it’s a different matter when it’s an SEC game.
“It's a little bit different when you're a conference team playing a conference team,” Tuberville said at SEC Media Days. “It’s a different mentality. When we play Georgia, we're going to get a different mentality of them getting ready knowing it's a conference game.”
Tuberville insisted, as he has all along, that Auburn has not abandoned the running game. Franklin, too, has said repeatedly that he believes in a hard-nosed running game. Auburn offensive line coach Hugh Nall even called Franklin’s philosophy “three yards and a cloud of dust from the spread.”
“You have to prepare your team and be able to use the players that you have,” Tuberville said. “That's one thing I like about this offense. One week one guy's going to be the star or get the ball more than other players. The next week we can use another guy. It's not going to be week in, week out of, ‘Hey, it's just got to be the tailback.’ I like the diversity of this offense. “
Tuberville said Auburn’s players have bought into Franklin and his system with enthusiasm. Many of them ran some version of it in high school.
“This offense puts a smile on their faces,” Tuberville said. “They have fun running it. It's always something different, and I think it gives you the opportunity to use more than one player. You can spread it around and use the talent you have on your team. Plus, it's helped us recruiting.”
