John Franklin III

[lionheartkc 6,150]

17.5 yards per carry... Does anything else really matter at this point? We know he has the work ethic, so if he keeps grinding he WILL be a weapon when it matters.

[Strychnine 1,804]

6 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

17.5 yards per carry... Does anything else really matter at this point? We know he has the work ethic, so if he keeps grinding he WILL be a weapon when it matters.

 

No, and yes.  17.5 yards per carry is nice to look at, but it does not really tell us anything.  He was able to run well on a few attempts, late in a game where KJ and KP had been gashing them quite well for three quarters already.  I did like what I saw though, and I agree with the coaches bringing him along slowly.  I think the coaches are now wishing they had a backup they could count on, so they could risk using JFIII in other roles.

[AUinfusion 390]

18 hours ago, DAG said:

It would be a teaching moment. Yes, there is a reason for him to pass when he is potentially your second string QB. If you don't trust him to pass at all, then move him to another position and get JJ in there. God forbid SW gets hurt. Then what? 

I guess we will be running the triple option.

I don't believe for a second that he is actually the second string QB, not at this time. It may be the plan to get him there, but I don't think that he is there, yet. He has a canon for an arm, but I think that the targeting mechanism on that canon still needs a good bit of tuning.

[TheMayorOfChillville 31]

20 hours ago, selias said:

Anyone got a link to this so-called tantrum? I didn't notice anything when watching the game.

There wasn't one. JF3 came off the sidelines at the end of his drive with an upset look on his face. Coach Malzahn and Lashlee were both on him to keep his head up. Malzahn was telling him his drive resulted in points (a field goal) and as long as we get points, the drive is a win. JF3 is taking his coaching, but it's a hard thing for him to deal with at this point, I believe. Here is the truth....(blurry, wavy vision and twinkly harp music)

Imagine you were as fast or faster than Micheal Vick in his prime, with a strong throwing arm. You weren't as accurate as you wanted to be, but with coaching and repetitions you think you have a decent shot at the NFL. You sign with FSU and get stuck behind older, better players because of your raw passing ability and lack of college playbook knowledge and reading defenses. You get stuck on the scout team where you get no reps with the offense and you aren't really getting the coaching attention to get better the way you want. You transfer to a JUCO where again, you get beat out by an older, more accurate and knowledgeable player. When you do get in the game though, you go off every time. Not just go off, but score like 6 touchdowns in a half, go off. You go off enough to where, as a back-up, you re selected to the All American team and offered a scholarship by Auburn. Finally, you get to Auburn and are beat out a third time by an older, more knowledgeable, more accurate passer. The coaches tell you that you will be playing a lot however, so starter, second string, it doesn't really matter. The first game you get in, national television, family is watching, girlfriend is watching, etc. etc. and you are used as a hand off specialist. You are the fastest player on the team and they won't even let you run the ball. Fine, whatever, you are where you want to be, playing big time college football, maybe next week will be better. The next week rolls around and you are watching the clock....1st qtr....nope.....2nd qtr.....we're up a couple td's now......nope....3rd qtr....we're up big now....hello???....I'm over here!!!.....nope.....You finally get in the game and this time they let you run it a little bit.....you go off....17.5 yards per carry....Alright it's 3 and 9, can I get a throw?....nope QB sweep off tackle....You're like....man...come on coach, let me throw the ball (in your head). Let me develop. Let me try. I might surprise you. Dang. (All of this in your head, of course). You run the QB sweep, it doesn't work and you come off the sidelines frowning. (blurry, wavy vision and twinkly harp music)

That's where we are. JF3 is a very talented competitor who is dying for a shot and has to be as frustrated as Jesse Jackson at the air port having to use the white courtesy phone. ($1 to Larry the Cable Guy)

[lionheartkc 6,150]

5 minutes ago, TheMayorOfChillville said:

There wasn't one. JF3 came off the sidelines at the end of his drive with an upset look on his face. Coach Malzahn and Lashlee were both on him to keep his head up. Malzahn was telling him his drive resulted in points (a field goal) and as long as we get points, the drive is a win. JF3 is taking his coaching, but it's a hard thing for him to deal with at this point, I believe. Here is the truth....(blurry, wavy vision and twinkly harp music)

Imagine you were as fast or faster than Micheal Vick in his prime, with a strong throwing arm. You weren't as accurate as you wanted to be, but with coaching and repetitions you think you have a decent shot at the NFL. You sign with FSU and get stuck behind older, better players because of your raw passing ability and lack of college playbook knowledge and reading defenses. You get stuck on the scout team where you get no reps with the offense and you aren't really getting the coaching attention to get better the way you want. You transfer to a JUCO where again, you get beat out by an older, more accurate and knowledgeable player. When you do get in the game though, you go off every time. Not just go off, but score like 6 touchdowns in a half, go off. You go off enough to where, as a back-up, you re selected to the All American team and offered a scholarship by Auburn. Finally, you get to Auburn and are beat out a third time by an older, more knowledgeable, more accurate passer. The coaches tell you that you will be playing a lot however, so starter, second string, it doesn't really matter. The first game you get in, national television, family is watching, girlfriend is watching, etc. etc. and you are used as a hand off specialist. You are the fastest player on the team and they won't even let you run the ball. Fine, whatever, you are where you want to be, playing big time college football, maybe next week will be better. The next week rolls around and you are watching the clock....1st qtr....nope.....2nd qtr.....we're up a couple td's now......nope....3rd qtr....we're up big now....hello???....I'm over here!!!.....nope.....You finally get in the game and this time they let you run it a little bit.....you go off....17.5 yards per carry....Alright it's 3 and 9, can I get a throw?....nope QB sweep off tackle....You're like....man...come on coach, let me throw the ball (in your head). Let me develop. Let me try. I might surprise you. Dang. (All of this in your head, of course). You run the QB sweep, it doesn't work and you come off the sidelines frowning. (blurry, wavy vision and twinkly harp music)

That's where we are. JF3 is a very talented competitor who is dying for a shot and has to be as frustrated as Jesse Jackson at the air port having to use the white courtesy phone. ($1 to Larry the Cable Guy)

Solid analysis.  

I think this week will be really good for them as they finally have film to go over with him.  He will be able to see that he isn't quite there with command of the offense, yet and, as has been mentioned by Bird, they really did him a favor by not letting him make a mistake on his first major outing.  After all, he wasn't surrounded by the 1s when he was out there, so that would reduce his chance of success even further.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if a combination of Franklin, Davis, and Hastings became a nightmare for defenses before the year is over. 

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

24 minutes ago, TheMayorOfChillville said:

There wasn't one. JF3 came off the sidelines at the end of his drive with an upset look on his face. Coach Malzahn and Lashlee were both on him to keep his head up. Malzahn was telling him his drive resulted in points (a field goal) and as long as we get points, the drive is a win. JF3 is taking his coaching, but it's a hard thing for him to deal with at this point, I believe. Here is the truth....(blurry, wavy vision and twinkly harp music)

Imagine you were as fast or faster than Micheal Vick in his prime, with a strong throwing arm. You weren't as accurate as you wanted to be, but with coaching and repetitions you think you have a decent shot at the NFL. You sign with FSU and get stuck behind older, better players because of your raw passing ability and lack of college playbook knowledge and reading defenses. You get stuck on the scout team where you get no reps with the offense and you aren't really getting the coaching attention to get better the way you want. You transfer to a JUCO where again, you get beat out by an older, more accurate and knowledgeable player. When you do get in the game though, you go off every time. Not just go off, but score like 6 touchdowns in a half, go off...

 

You were doing really well until those last two sentences.  JF3 did not "go off every time" at JUCO. He went off once, in the six TD game against bottom of the barrel competition.  That's really it.  Kid has potential. but it's up to him to live up to it. No one is gonna hand the job to him based on unrealized potential.

[ellitor 33,114]

On 9/11/2016 at 8:35 AM, ClaytonAU said:

Would like to say two things on the guy, he's fast as hell and we need to get him in the game with the ball in his hands more.

 

But I do not like his attitude at all. I don't care what the issue is, don't ever treat a coach like that on national television. He needs to start looking a little happier on the sideline and on the field because regardless of who is starting or what's going on the field, he gets shown on the cameras more than any other player. 

 

Thoughts? 

I'm not going through 4 pages to look for the answer so will someone kindly tell me what this is in reference to? If it's really about not "looking happy on the sidelines" then that is being overly picky & critical IMO. TIA

[AUinfusion 390]

9 minutes ago, ellitor said:

I'm not going through 4 pages to look for the answer so will someone kindly tell me what this is in reference to? If it's really about not "looking happy on the sidelines" then that is being overly picky & critical IMO. TIA

I didn't see it either, but I did see the Netflix documentary, and JF3 did criticize his offensive coaches on camera (If I remember right, he called the play calling "stupid").

I'll also say this: in the documentary, he had exactly ONE good game, and it was the one that Lashlee showed up for. It looked like his JC coach *wanted* JF3 to take over, but that his passing was too inaccurate and his decision making (on the field) was not great. It also looked like that while JF3 supported the starter, he also had an extremely high opinion of his abilities. Hopefully, that's the sort of thing that the coaches "de-recruit" out of him and others.

[ellitor 33,114]

2 hours ago, TheMayorOfChillville said:

There wasn't one. JF3 came off the sidelines at the end of his drive with an upset look on his face. Coach Malzahn and Lashlee were both on him to keep his head up. Malzahn was telling him his drive resulted in points (a field goal) and as long as we get points, the drive is a win. JF3 is taking his coaching, but it's a hard thing for him to deal with at this point, I believe. Here is the truth....(blurry, wavy vision and twinkly harp music)

Imagine you were as fast or faster than Micheal Vick in his prime, with a strong throwing arm. You weren't as accurate as you wanted to be, but with coaching and repetitions you think you have a decent shot at the NFL. You sign with FSU and get stuck behind older, better players because of your raw passing ability and lack of college playbook knowledge and reading defenses. You get stuck on the scout team where you get no reps with the offense and you aren't really getting the coaching attention to get better the way you want. You transfer to a JUCO where again, you get beat out by an older, more accurate and knowledgeable player. When you do get in the game though, you go off every time. Not just go off, but score like 6 touchdowns in a half, go off. You go off enough to where, as a back-up, you re selected to the All American team and offered a scholarship by Auburn. Finally, you get to Auburn and are beat out a third time by an older, more knowledgeable, more accurate passer. The coaches tell you that you will be playing a lot however, so starter, second string, it doesn't really matter. The first game you get in, national television, family is watching, girlfriend is watching, etc. etc. and you are used as a hand off specialist. You are the fastest player on the team and they won't even let you run the ball. Fine, whatever, you are where you want to be, playing big time college football, maybe next week will be better. The next week rolls around and you are watching the clock....1st qtr....nope.....2nd qtr.....we're up a couple td's now......nope....3rd qtr....we're up big now....hello???....I'm over here!!!.....nope.....You finally get in the game and this time they let you run it a little bit.....you go off....17.5 yards per carry....Alright it's 3 and 9, can I get a throw?....nope QB sweep off tackle....You're like....man...come on coach, let me throw the ball (in your head). Let me develop. Let me try. I might surprise you. Dang. (All of this in your head, of course). You run the QB sweep, it doesn't work and you come off the sidelines frowning. (blurry, wavy vision and twinkly harp music)

That's where we are. JF3 is a very talented competitor who is dying for a shot and has to be as frustrated as Jesse Jackson at the air port having to use the white courtesy phone. ($1 to Larry the Cable Guy)

WHOA!!!!!  Is this who I think it is?!?!?!?! In my best Jim Ross voice, OH MY GAWD! HE'S HERE! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! THE MAYOR IS BACK FOLKS! THE MAYOR IS BACK!!!

For me this is tantamount to...

 

Glad to see you @TheMayorOfChillville

[ellitor 33,114]

14 minutes ago, AUinfusion said:

I didn't see it either, but I did see the Netflix documentary, and JF3 did criticize his offensive coaches on camera (If I remember right, he called the play calling "stupid").

I'll also say this: in the documentary, he had exactly ONE good game, and it was the one that Lashlee showed up for. It looked like his JC coach *wanted* JF3 to take over, but that his passing was too inaccurate and his decision making (on the field) was not great. It also looked like that while JF3 supported the starter, he also had an extremely high opinion of his abilities. Hopefully, that's the sort of thing that the coaches "de-recruit" out of him and others.

Yeah. I know about the documentary. I was looking more for this season as Clayton implied at the very least.

[ellitor 33,114]

I will say this though on JF3. The whole world knows what he can do running the ball. If he is in there in a blowout he needs to be throwing the ball because that is his weakness & needs to be developed. If that results in more points for us then oh well. It's the other team's job to stop our offense, not AU's staff.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Eh. Other guys need practice doing their thing, too. 

As for the emotional plea, it was well written and thoughtful, but some version of that probably describes another dozen guys on our sideline. It's interesting how Franklin has captured the hearts and minds of so many AU fans without really doing... anything...

[ellitor 33,114]

2 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Eh. Other guys need practice doing their thing, too. 

As for the emotional plea, it was well written and thoughtful, but some version of that probably describes another dozen guys on our sideline. It's interesting how Franklin has captured the hearts and minds of so many AU fans without really doing... anything...

Yeah but other guys aren't your #2 at the most important position on the field & have to be in there in ready at an injury's notice.

[bigbird 60,580]

I disagree. When your up big, you run the ball and get off the field. No matter who is in.  Game experience is great, but it's not where you need to get exposed.

[LKEEL75 2,566]

Game experience is great and throwing in a game is a good idea as well.  But if you have your 2s in then how much of a chance are you giving him.  If he would have stepped back for a throw and a DL sacked him and tore his knee up, then all these people would be here crying that CGM should never be throwing when winning so big.  He is just running the score up.  Get out of the game as quickly as possible without giving up many more points and with as few of injuries as possible.

[ellitor 33,114]

18 minutes ago, bigbird said:

I disagree. When your up big, you run the ball and get off the field. No matter who is in.  Game experience is great, but it's not where you need to get exposed.

What does that mean?

[bigbird 60,580]

You try and cover or disguise your players inadequacies. The coaches know what he can do in the passing game. They aren't going to let him pass until they feel confident in him being ready to.

[DAG 34,034]

35 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Eh. Other guys need practice doing their thing, too. 

As for the emotional plea, it was well written and thoughtful, but some version of that probably describes another dozen guys on our sideline. It's interesting how Franklin has captured the hearts and minds of so many AU fans without really doing... anything...

Being on the Auburn football team should be enough, no?

[Barnacle 9,064]

1 minute ago, bigbird said:

You try and cover or disguise your players inadequacies. The coaches know what he can do in the passing game. They aren't going to let him pass until they feel confident in him being ready to.

Yeah, I can understand that, but the counterpoint is that you don't know what you really have until you see it in a game. Jeremy Johnson should have taught all of this. 

[ellitor 33,114]

3 minutes ago, bigbird said:

You try and cover or disguise your players inadequacies. The coaches know what he can do in the passing game. They aren't going to let him pass until they feel confident in him being ready to.

Yeah. Sadly the reason I'd want him to throw in blowouts is I believe the way Gus has practice structured, Throwing even in a blow out seems better for him than practice. However, from a poker mindset I understand not letting him throw so teams don''t see how much of a weakness it is.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, DAG said:

Being on the Auburn football team should be enough, no?

There are lots of guys on the Auburn football team, but very few of them have a segment of the fan base so blindly desperate for them to play more.

[ellitor 33,114]

3 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

Yeah, I can understand that, but the counterpoint is that you don't know what you really have until you see it in a game. Jeremy Johnson should have taught all of this. 

And I think that would have been snuffed out quicker & Gus understand his teams better before week 4 or 5  if say the QBs were live once a week or 2 weeks in practice instead of once a year.

[DAG 34,034]

8 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

There are lots of guys on the Auburn football team, but very few of them have a segment of the fan base so blindly desperate for them to play more.

To play more? A small faction if any is saying the dude should start and I think you know this. Many are saying , they would've liked to see him pass the ball in garbage time .

[The Plainsman 948]

I thought the attitude was in the post game locker room,. But I read that somewhere else and not sure if accurate. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

7 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

There are lots of guys on the Auburn football team, but very few of them have a segment of the fan base so blindly desperate for them to play more.

While I wouldn't put myself in the "blindly desperate for him to play more" category... I can't deny 17.5 yards per carry.  If we match up with a team that has a suspect run defense, he should be a nightmare for them, and if we can get him to develop some timing with Hastings on check downs and Davis on long passes, he could be a formidable weapon against anyone.

All that being said... I don't disagree at all with how he was used on Saturday.  He didn't get to run the previous week and look how that turned out this week.