Tony Franklin and His Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© Sent Packing

Tony Franklin and His Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© Sent Packing
for The Bleacher Report



"I could always write a tell-all book about the 7 games and 10 months I spent collecting dirt on Auburn and it's employees."

"I think Tony's done a good job of adjusting," Tuberville told ESPN's Chris Low just days ago, "I don't know whether we've done a good job of adjusting to what we've gone to. But he's our offensive coordinator. He's worked as hard as anybody here, and he's as disappointed as anybody here. We've got to find some answers. He knows he's the guy who needs to find those answers, and he's looking hard ... along with the other coaches."

Then the answer was: "It's no time to panic".

Apparently Tommy "The Riverboat Gambler" Tuberville and Auburn University officials reversed course, and are now panicking, releasing a press release at 3:44pm this afternoon that Tony Franklin had been fired.

Franklin quickly cleared out his office and departed in his Hyundai Veranza after reporters refused to help him stuff boxes into his automobile.

"After evaluating where we are at this point of the season offensively, I felt it was in the best interest of the Auburn football program to make this change," Tuberville said in the official press release. "I'm not satisfied with where we are and I am personally going to take a larger role with the offense the remainder of the season. We are going to work harder than ever to make sure we consistently improve as we move forward."

Tony Franklin had been under intense fire following Auburn's poor showing against a surging Vanderbilt team this past Saturday.

Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© never truly found a home at Auburn--a traditional power running school--and even Tuberville previously admitted that giving in to "The Spread" was as much a recruiting tool as a revamping of Auburn's offense.

Auburn's offense is near or at the bottom in most offensive categories in the SEC and the country. Auburn ranks 104th in total offense (309.2 yards per game), 105th in pass efficiency (104.98), tied for 111th in red zone offense (65 percent) and 112th in third-down conversions (29.7 percent).

Tommy Tuberville has gone through 12 offensive and defensive coordinators in 10 years, and his 4-2 Tigers are next visited by Arkansas.


"It's either him or me?... Him!! Him, damn it, HIM!"

Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© Under Extreme Fire

Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© Under Extreme Fire
for The Bleacher Report



Vanderbilt, which does NOT run Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System©, remained undefeated by beating Auburn 14-13.

“We don’t run Tony Franklin’s spread offense,” Tuberville said. “This is Auburn’s offense. It’s like our defense. We’re going to run what works and what we’re going to match up better with the other team. Everybody has to do that. You can’t put a square peg in a round hole. Why would you do that?”

"It takes 100 percent commitment to run the spread offense because you have to practice it daily plus run it in your offense. We have been doing this for years," Said Coach Hortmann, whose high school team runs the spread offense, "let Franklin run the offense or get yourself another Offensive Coordinator. Let Franklin go elsewhere where the spread is appreciated."

"I live in Alabama and I attended the game between Auburn and Tennessee. I also am a OC for a high school football team that runs the system." Said another coach, "From what I have seen this year from Auburn, this is not the system. It seems to me that Franklin is getting told what to run on offense. Tuberville wants to run the ball to set up the pass and Franklin likes to set up the run with the pass. I never saw any hurry up offense from Auburn at this weeks game. I saw the freeze quite a bit, but they never got into a hurry up mode. Franklin has said that to be sucessful in this offense you must be good at the screens, and get a lot of snaps (maybe like 80) on offense. I dont think I have seen but maybe 4 screens all year and I don't think they are close to getting 80 snaps.At the high school level we have been getting 70 snaps. That is with us slowing down in the 4th so we dont run up the score."


Kodi "Blunt" Burns Career Stats: 20 completions out of 50 attempts for 224 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

"We've got to figure something out," Burns said. "This … man, I don't know. This isn't the Auburn I saw when I was recruited. This isn't the Auburn I saw last year. I don't what's going on."

"This is a tough loss," receiver Rod Smith said. "Everybody's hurt right now. Just to come out and play so well on offense and drive down the field and put up points and then just watch it disappear like that, it's hurting us right now."

"We've got to turn it around," Tuberville said. "We'll go back and we'll look at it and see who's healthy."

"I don't know what we are right now: spread, old Auburn offense," Smith said. "I'm just really confused right now. Everybody's confused. Everybody's hurting and speechless and confused. We just have to go back to work (today) and whatever changes coach Tuberville makes, we just have to go with that."

"Guys are confused because this isn't Auburn — just watching on the sideline and seeing this offense put up 13 points," Burns said. "We're capable of putting up 35 or 40 a game. That's why guys are confused. We're not producing like we should be. A lot of guys are confused. We are a team. We're looking out for each other. Nobody is pointing fingers, but a lot of us are talking about how we've got to figure something out. We can't keep going out like this."

"A lot of guys are upset because we should be putting up more points than this," Burns said. "This is unacceptable. You can't play in the SEC and put up 13 points and expect to win. All we can do is get better. We can't really take a step back from this point. I guess that's the good thing. All we can do is improve."

You're not going to sneak up on people by being a "spread" team. It just doesn't happen anymore. People have seen it, kids have played against it for years, and there's not going to be a scheme advantage. So the learning curve is steep since it involves learning the system and getting the players, like anything else. So the spread is in a tough bind, because it gets sold as a quick fix, but it's not. It's just another offense you can run, and it needs to be well coached and you need players. There's at least fifty major college teams running some a good deal of spread, if not more. How different is it then to be spread?

When asked if the changes would be drastic, Smith said it would "probably will be drastic changes.” We need to get back to old Auburn football,'" said Smith.

ESPN reported that Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville told his team following Saturday's loss to Vanderbilt that changes were coming on offense. How in the name of Toomer's Corner did the Tigers get to this point after being such a successful tailback-oriented, power football team under Tuberville the last few years? The spread is clearly not the answer, at least not the version of the spread the Tigers have tried to run under first-year coordinator Tony Franklin.


Chris Todd Career Stats: 83 completions out of 146 attempts for 885 yards, 5 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.

Franklin was not allowed to speak with reporters following the loss to Vanderbilt, nor was defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads.

"How do we continue this downward spiral without making some drastic changes? What are the real problems with this Auburn football team? Can the Auburn men and women continue to trust Coach Tuberville? Is Tuberville only a one hit wonder with the remarkable 2004 team?" Asks The Bleacher Report's Deric Winslett. "There are too many questions to answer. We the fans have zero power to do anything about it. What—start-up a Fire Tuberville.com website? The Auburn players should not be blamed. This season’s failures thus far fall squarely on the coaches. Every coach on the sideline bares responsibility for the loss to Vanderbilt. With some last minute hope to salvage what is left of this terrible first half of the 2008 season, some changes may be on the way and I mean soon."

"These guys are professionals," Tuberville said. "They're all in it together."

Tuberville said Sunday that changes to the offensive staff were "not even talked about."

He said Franklin works harder and is more disappointed than anyone about the offense's poor performance.

"He takes probably more blame than he should," Tuberville said.

Tuberville said adjustments to the Tony Franklin System have not been foisted upon the coordinator: "It's all him. He's the one making the changes."


Welcome to The Hot Seat, Tubby.

Les Miles Hopes For Divine Intervention

Les Miles Hopes For Divine Intervention
for Gods Among Men: Coaches and Coordinators in the SEC



When Tropical Storm Faye turned towards Alabama on August 26, 2008, Les Miles knew that his question-mark filled 2008 LSU Bayou Tigers, defending National Champions, would have to play darkhorse underdog Appalachin State. The Three-Time Defending FCS (formerly Division II) National Champions had defeated Les Miles' beloved alma mater Michigan in the season opener the previous year, and he must have been plagued by nitemares for months in consideration of lightening striking twice.

Accordingly, the game officials moved the game time up from 7:00PM to 10:30AM, which, on the surface looks like it would have been a handicap for LSU (notoriously sloppy in Les Miles era in games before 3:00PM). After LSU handily tore Appalachin State apart, the App St. players and staff were rushed off field, forced to change out of their game uniforms without showering and ushered out of town without even the customary post-game meal.



On September 6, 2008, Les Miles was incredibly relieved and knew that he could do a lot more relaxing and beer drinking when Hurricane Gustav postponed LSU's next matchup against Sun Belt Spread Offense Powerhouse Troy until November. Imagine Les Miles' surprise, relief, and feeling of a wasted week of practice when he found out he was "coaching" all week as opposed to sleeping, eating, bullshitting with his assistant coaches, napping and drinking beer.

Nick NITELITE Saban, head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, on the other hand, has earned cudos for his treatment of the Tulane team following Alabama's home win over the Green Wave.



LSU made contingency plans to move the North Texas game to Dallas, Atlanta, Shreveport or New Orleans with Hurricane Ike approaching but the storm took a turn for the south Texas coastline instead. Les Miles was incredibly disappointed when the game was not cancelled or postponed.



Now Les Miles is currently hoping that Ex-Hurrican Josephine can re-generate in the Atlantic and swoop up near Alabama in the next few days, postponing the upcoming game in Auburn versus the Tigers. Otherwise the now largely unproven Bayou Tigers will have to go into Jordan-Hare Stadium without having worked out the kinks that Auburn no doubt has ironed out it it's tune-up games versus Louisiana-Monroe, Southern Miss and Mississippi State.

In particular the damage done to the LSU Bayou Tigers by not playing Troy could be in that Troy is a reverred Spread Offense school and most recent previous home for Auburn's Offensive Coordinator Tony Franklin. Franklin's Undefeateable Patented Offensive System© is so far still undefeated in Auburn, although Saturday's meager baseball-score win of 3-2 over Mississippi State may mean that the Auburn Tigers are just weak enough for a lazy and ill-prepared LSU team to face and do well against.

Les Miles' dream of playing LESS, not MORE, games of college football each year is so close to coming true he can taste it.

Chris Todd wins The Job, Auburn Hopes For Revenge Against Mississippi State

Chris Todd wins The Job, Auburn Hopes For Revenge Against Mississippi State
for 24-Hours of Propaganda



Chris Todd, Auburn's Official Starting Quarterback, Finally.....

Following a surprisingly sloppy Louisiana-Monroe game in which neither Chris Todd or Kodi Burns were able to break through and outshine the other, Chris Todd had the chance to win the starting job last week against Southern Mississippi. He delivered to the tune of going 21-31 for 248 yards. Kodi Burns was expected to be out entirely for the game, but came in for a few plays in the third quarter, throwing an interception among his three pitiful pass attempts.

Many Auburn fans are no doubt disappointed, as Kodi Burns has been a known quantity since last year, and many expected that he would be the heir-apparent to Brandon Cox, last year's senior starter. While Burns is unquestioningly electric in certain running situations, his passing has always been the weak part of his game. Through last weeks game his career passing statistics are 14-38 for 159 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.


Sylvester Croom, if he doesn't sleep through the alarm clock like he did in week one against Louisiana Tech and entirely miss the game, looks to continue his personal sparring match with Tommy Tuberville.

Sylvester Croom, quarterback Wesley Carroll, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs look to see if they can make lightening strike twice as Auburn seeks to avenge the 19-14 upset the Bulldogs brought to Jordan-Hare Stadium last year.


Wesley Carroll, like Chris Todd, is looking to make a name for himself this Saturday.


Todd played in five games for Texas Tech in 2006. He completed 25 of 35 passes (71.4 percent) for 241 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Todd's best game of 2006 was a 10-of-12 passing effort for 151 yards and one touchdown against Southeastern Louisiana.
Todd played in three Big XII games against Missouri, Colorado and Baylor. He completed 11 of 18 passes in those three games for a combined 69 yards. Todd redshirted in 2005.


Coming out of high school, Todd was a Top 300 recruit by Man Emfinger Recruiting, a three-star recruit (Rivals.com) and was rated the No. 21 pro-style quarterback in the nation after his senior season. Todd threw for 10,776 yards and 120 touchdowns in his high school career.
As a senior in 2004, Todd guided his team to its first state championship since 1981. As a junior he completed a state-record 303 passes for 4,595 yards and 50 touchdowns in taking EHS to the state championship game. As a senior, Todd threw for 3,180 yards and 38 TDs.

My Picks for Week 2 of SEC Action

My Picks for Week 2 of SEC Action
for 24-Hours of Propaganda


S Carolina (1-0) at Vandy (1-0) USC: 87%. My Pick: South Carolina. While Vanderbilt impressed with a win over a veteran Miami (OH) crew last week, The Ol' Ball Coach will put them at 1-1 by Friday morning.


Southern Miss (1-0) at Auburn (1-0) AUB: 97%. My Pick: Auburn. At least one analyst has put Southern Miss at beating Auburn. Could Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© fail this time out? It's unlikely that Southern Miss' offense can get through Auburn's stiffling defense. Also they lack Brett Favre.

Ole Miss (1-0) at Wake Forest (1-0) WF: 60%. My Pick: Ole Miss. In my ritualistic once-a-week longshot I pick Houston Nutt to scare the fuck out of Wake Forest at home.

C Michigan (1-0) at Georgia (1-0) UGA: 99%. My Pick: Georgia. Are you kidding? I'll be pissed off if Central Michigan puts up more than 11 points.

Norfolk St (1-0) at Kentucky (1-0) UK: 99%. My Pick: Kentucky. I'll go with the boys this time.

Tulane (0-0) at Alabama (1-0). BAMA: 99%. My Pick: Alabama. Nick NITELITE and crew will make Tulane feel bad about themselves.

SE Louisiana (1-0) at Miss St (0-1) MSU: 96%. My Pick: Mississippi State. Sadly, this pick makes me nervous in a way it probably shouldn't. I pray to god that Sylvester Croom got that alarm clock situation straightened out.

UL Monroe (0-1) at Arkansas (1-0) ARK: 98%. My Pick: Arkansas. If a sloppy Auburn offense can put up 34 points, Bobby Petrino's team of the week should be able to go at least as far as 17. UL Monroe is still looking for their first score of the season.

Miami (1-0) at Florida (1-0) UF: 92%. My Pick: Florida. As long as Tebow is alive Florida is hurricane proof.

Troy (1-0) at LSU (1-0) LSU: 99%. My Pick: LSU. I'd try to take another mid-major to take out LSU but I got burned by Appalachin State. This isn't to say deep down in my soul I don't want Les Miles to flop and flop embarassingly bad, like Tommy Bowden bad.

Inside the Tony Franklin Undefeatable Patented Offensive System©

Inside the Tony Franklin Undefeatable Patented Offensive System©

by Michael Bernard

It is well storied that Tony Franklin designed and started consulting with his Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© after the fall-0ut caused by his authoring Fourth Down and Life To Go about his time and controversies surrounding his tenure at the University of Kentucky. Black-listed from coaching, Franklin slowly lost everything while trying to create and promote his niche football system, eventually building that audience in Texas, Alabama, and his home state of Kentucky.

As he told ESPN's Pat Forde. "It was desperation," Franklin said. "I was broke and trying to survive. A lot of great things happen out of desperation."

Now no less than 300 High School teams and a handful of college programs use their own version of Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System©, and Franklin first revitalized Troy's offense before being tapped by Tommy Tuverville to resurrect Auburn's floundering offense prior to last year's Peach Bowl versus Clemson. Under Franklin, the Trojans progressed from 109th in total offense and 111th in scoring in 2005 to 16th and 25th in 2007, Franklin's second year, while leading the Sun Belt in yards and points in '06 and '07 and winning 13 of 14 conference games.

One of the secrets to the Franklin/Troy success was Omar Haugabook, who, as an extrodinary run-pass option quarterback, led the Sun Belt in completion percentage and total offense two consecutive years. And the greatest stumbling block for the implementation of the Tony Frankline Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© in Auburn this year may be the tremendous amount of talent equally split between their two primary quarterbacks, arm-cannon Chris Todd and run-option quarterback Kodi "Blunt" Burns. Both are highly vaunted, and the party line coming out of Jordan-Hare is that both are so good that choosing one or the other is too difficult. Which many understand in doublespeak to mean "neither is what we need to run our offense".

Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© caught on with high school programs because, in part, it was the first to comprehensively unravel and explain the nuances of the Spread Offense, which was just gaining national luminance in the late 1990's. Most high schools still ran modified versions of the Veer-Option and simplistic passing attacks, with versions of the spread offense popping up randomly, independantly, in various places, largely the work of zealous coaches reinterpreting onto their teams what they saw teams such as the University of Florida doing each Saturday. Later, teams that signed up for one of the $3,000 seminars ran by Franklin could even elect to exclude other teams from their competitive districts and regions, ensuring them a monopoly on the underground phenomenon slowly sweeping Football Nation. It could be argued that at this late hour, Auburn is behind the curve in adopting a spread offense into their playbook, and Tommy Tuberville has admitted that the old-school perception of Auburn as a 3-yard and a cloud of dust rushing program has deterred the program's ability to sign highly touted reciever recruits. Indeed, many think that Auburn's shift to the Spread Offense may, in fact, be more of a ploy to woo blue-chip recruits that a shift in actual style of play, if we are to ignore the Peach Bowl.......

9 days and eight practices. Tony Franklin was brought in to replace abruptly departed Al Borges, the West Coast football guru that proceeded him as Auburn's Offensive Coordinator. Senior starting quarterback Brandon Cox was embattled from all sides, many in the media and fans calling for his being replaced by the younger run-option quarterback Kodi Burns. The Peach Bowl, against a very strong Clemson team, was approaching, and time was short. All year Auburn had been plagued by an inability to put points on the board, and against a potentially explosive Clemson rushing attack led by C.J. "Lightning" Spiller, Auburn would need to score. While Al Borges had his own cult-following, it was mostly out west, mostly nuanced by experiences with Bill Walsh and many others whose names mean nothing to SEC Football. Tony Franklin has a coaches-coach grassroots following that rivals Dionysus himself, and his being brought into Auburn had immediately tangible possibilities--with a greater sense of wonder considering that an entire off-season would not swell with the possibilities, but that they would be immediately apparent in the Peach Bowl.

Tommy Tuberville's Indecision Will Destroy Auburn's Season!

Tommy Tuberville's indecision will destroy Auburn football season!
for 24-Hours of Propaganda


Despite affirming at SEC Media Days less than a month ago that a 2-quarterback system (aside from using a gimmick running qb on third down and goal line situations) is one that he whole-heartedly disbelieved in, Tommy Tuberville is not steering his ship any closer to chosing a starter, and essentially, a leader for his team. There will be a lack of focus early, and with big games coming quick in Auburn's schedule, any sort of stumble can be mega-disasterous.

Chris Todd, the veritable arm cannon, is competing for the starting job with the prototypical gimick running quarterback--Kodi "Blunt" Burns--whose effectiveness as a passer or leader has yet to be seen. And instead of deciding between the two sometime during-or-after spring practices and scrimages, thus allowing a summer and pre-season to gear toward a specific assemblage of skill players, the coaching staff has found it more wise to put off making this all-important decision until, presumably, opening kickoff.

Which is exactly what a team with many question marks on both sides of the ball needs to do more than anything. It needs to let lingering uncertainties fester in a sort of sargasso-like purgatory, letting the media hawkishly hover and peck at the obviously divine decision-making ability the new Tony Franklin offensive regime brings to the table. Obviously Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© is so good it doesn't even matter who run's it.

This is good news to Tommy "The Riverboat Gambler" Tuberville, who likes to know that his often sublimely idiotic decisions late in the game can be bailed out by an undefeatable© patented offensive scheme that is ran by over 275 high schools and universities. Surely no one has ever devoted ANY TIME AT ALL to devising a defense to defend against such tom-foolery.Only time will tell, and it seems that it is Auburn's die-hard fans who will be punished for the next few months.

Top Wide Reciever and Linebacker Prospects eye Auburn

Top Wide Reciever and Linebacker Prospects eye Auburn
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

Jheranie Boyd, the number 5 wide reciever prospect and number 37 player overall rated by ESPN told AuburnUndercover.com on Monday that he has narrowed his choices to Auburn, Clemson, Florida, North Carolina and NC State. Boyd is an UnderArmour All-American who plays football for Ashbrook High School (2007 record 8-6) in Gastonia, North Carolina. Many feel the The 6-foot-3, 180-pounder, who totaled 47 receptions for 1,151 yards and 11 touchdowns while earning first-team all-conference and all-area honors last year, is North Carolina's top wide reciever prospect. Boyd sports 4.4 40-speed and a 40+ inch vertical jump.

Boyd says that one of Auburn's biggest selling points is Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System©, which he says is a mirror image of what he runs now at Ashbrook.

Fredrick Douglass of West Atlanta, Georgia, linebacker Jonathan Atchinson appears to be one of the finishing touches of Auburn's 2009 recruiting class. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Atchinson committed to the Tigers over Alabama, among other colleges. Rivals.com have Atchinson rated as the nation's number 59 outside linebacker prospect.

Auburn now has 23 commitments for its 2009 class. Atchinson is the fifth linebacker who said he intends to sign with the Tigers, joining Jonathan Evans of Prichard, Ala., Donald Ford of Odenville, Ala., Harris Gaston of Bessemer, Ala., and Eltoro Freeman of Perkinston, Miss.
Atchinson said he was informed by Auburn coach Tommy "The Riverboat Gambler" Tuberville that the Tigers were going to sign five linebackers. Atchinson said he wanted to be the fifth, as the Tigers have offers extended to several other top-rated linebackers.