CTF, Spread helping recruiting

[quietfan 233]

http://blog.al.com/goldmine/2008/04/tuberv...ad_helping.html

Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville was in a chipper mood Thursday. His annual end-of-spring-practice individual chats with his players were going well, he was a day away from going to Augusta National to watch the second round of the Masters and he was feeling good about recruiting.

That's important, at least the recruiting part, because signing day is only 300 days away.

Tuberville said Auburn's new spread offense has not only created excitement on the team, but in recruiting. He said the interest in Auburn's summer camps ``is up tremendously'' because of the spread.

Auburn has three commitments for the 2009 signing class, but you get the sense other players could be had. Tuberville said he's telling his assistants to be patient.

``We want to make sure we take the right ones,'' he said. ``We've got people calling us. All the coaches who have been with us are saying, `Have you seen anything like it?'"

Tuberville hasn't forgotten about his current players. The spring exit interviews are mostly about academics and to answer any questions the players may have about the upcoming season.

Guess kids want to at least camp, if not yet sign, with the guy that literally "wrote the book".

[WAR-MATT 2]

Here's a good article on CTF from The Lexington Herald-Leader.

Link

Franklin finds comfort at Auburn

PRESSURE THERE DOESN'T COMPARE TO POST-UK BLUES

By Mark Story

HERALD-LEADER SPORTS COLUMNIST

Todd J. Van Emst

Tony Franklin was a coaching pariah after writing a book on the Hal Mumme regime at UK. Photo by Todd Van EmstTony Franklin thought the call to the big time would never come again.

It came late in 2007.

During his days as a Hal Mumme-era offensive coordinator at Kentucky, Franklin got caught up in the bitter staff feuding that helped doom Mumme's coaching tenure at UK in 2000.

In response to the infighting, Franklin penned a book containing his view of what had really gone on during the turbulent Mumme era. Given the speak-no-evil code that guides the big-time college football coaching fraternity, it made the one-time Kentucky high school coach a professional pariah.

For five long years (2001-2005), Franklin was exiled to the college football wilderness. "I'd pretty much given up," Franklin said Thursday of returning to college coaching. "And I was OK with that."

In 2006, Troy University -- desperate to invigorate a stagnant offense with Franklin's pass-happy system -- finally threw the Princeton, Ky., native a lifeline back into college coaching. For a guy who had coached in the Southeastern Conference, this was starting over at a very low rung of (what used to be called) Division I football.

By the end of last season, a friend on the Auburn University staff rang Franklin to sound out his interest on possibly becoming offensive coordinator for Tommy Tuberville.

"They said, would you be interested? I said, 'Yes, absolutely,' " Franklin recalled. "But I said, 'You all do know what I do? I spread the field. I throw the football. It's all I know and I'm too old to learn something new. If you aren't willing to totally commit to this, there is no point in either of us wasting each other's time.' "

No brownie points there.

Franklin, 50, reported to Auburn and went through an interview session with Tuberville and his entire staff. "When I left, I did not feel good at all," Franklin said. "I just wasn't comfortable with how things went."

Yet not long after, there came another call from Auburn. "They said they wanted to do it," Franklin said.

The decision to leave Troy and head coach Larry Blakeney was not easy. Blakeney, after all, was the man who gave Franklin the second chance in college coaching it long appeared he would never get.

"Larry understood," Franklin said. "That made it easier."

If you're like me, when you play word association with "Auburn offense," what comes to mind is "punishing running game." In other words, the diametric opposite of the five-wideout, short-passing system with which Franklin is synonymous.

A coincidence in scheduling likely played a vital role in Franklin's spread-the-field approach catching the eye of Tuberville. Last season, Troy played three SEC teams -- Arkansas, Florida and Georgia. Auburn also played all three of those teams.

In Troy's three matchups with that trio of SEC big boys, Franklin's offense averaged 30.3 points and 400 yards a game. In Auburn's matchups with the same foes, the Tigers managed 16.3 points and 277.3 yards.

Tuberville's team went 9-4 last year in spite of gaining fewer than 350 yards in eight different games. So this seems a program that could use some new thinking in how to move the football.

Still, in terms of culture shock, the approach Franklin is bringing to Auburn would be akin to introducing bluegrass music at Bad Boy Records.

One wonders if the Auburn fan reaction to the new approach has been more excited or more skeptical. "I think it's both," Franklin said. "The best thing that ever happened, though, was the Clemson game."

After Franklin was hired last December, he used Auburn's nine practices in advance of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl to install a Cliff Notes version of his offense. "I was hoping like crazy it wasn't a total disaster," Franklin said.

Against a stout Clemson defense in the bowl game, Auburn accumulated a season-high 423 total yards. More importantly, the Men of Tuberville won 23-20 in overtime.

With Auburn spring practice already over, sophomore Kodi Burns (who scored the winning TD in the win over Clemson) and Kentucky product Chris Todd (Elizabethtown) are still competing for the quarterback job. "If we had to play tomorrow, both would play," Franklin said. "And I have no problem playing two quarterbacks."

In the meantime, Franklin reports that everything you hear about how all-consuming the Auburn-Alabama rivalry is in that football-mad state is true. It's even more all-consuming than the passion for Kentucky basketball here, Franklin says. "Truly, 365 days a year," he said. "That's all that's talked about."

During the years in the coaching wilderness that followed his rancorous departure from UK, Franklin had to file for bankruptcy. He said he and his family -- wife Laura and three daughters -- at one point had to move out of their home for financial reasons.

His middle daughter, Caroline, suffers from a disease (ulcerative colitis) that landed her in the Mayo Clinic (she's doing OK, now) at one point.

So the pressure of installing a radically different offense at one of the most scrutinized programs in all of college football really is no pressure at all, Franklin said.

"A sick kid is pressure," he said. "Having to scramble to have money so your kids can eat lunch is pressure. Moving out of your house is pressure. When you've gone through what I've gone through, football is not pressure."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reach Mark Story at (859) 231-3230, or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3230, or mstory@herald-leader.com.

[PChamp119 96]

I agree it is helping recruit new athletes.

One thing that worries me a bit is when you change your entire philosophy, is that when you first start out - you generally don't have the athletes for that new offense. In our case, we have average receivers / QBs and lineman that like to run the ball with a tailback - not to mention the position coaches that have to adopt. When Franklin leaves, we may end up going back to traditional I-Form, in which at that time we will have skilled receivers and athletes, but not necessarily the athletes to run that offense. We may have the receivers that can run fast and catch, but will they be able to block when the day comes? Plus you lose out on having the tailbacks with the spread that we once had. Will the QB be able to throw and use his mind rather than his feet?

Sounds weird and something I probably shouldn't worry about. I'm not saying the spread is a bad idea (I still think it is a gimmick offense), but it is such a big change that it has affects. I just hope it doesn't hurt us much.

IMO, major changes to a philosophy have to be given a legit shot of being permanent in the long run. With the change of pace in coordinators these days, I don't think we can afford to do this spread thing for 2-3 years and then abandon it.

[AUtigersAUsome 1]

I think that the spread is going to be here to stay. If you look on the high school level you will see a number of schools moving to it to add to the numerous schools that already run a form of the spread. I don't think that this is going to be some gimmick that goes away. It works too well. Look at Appalachian State for example. They do not have premiere athletes but they managed to beat Michigan because of that offense. The spread makes it immensely difficult to cover all players which opens someone up and "spreads" the field. It is very difficult to defend no matter what caliber player has to. Look at the offensive production of Troy against SEC defenses. I really do feel that this is going to be the move for the future.

Imagine though that offensive production with an SEC caliber defense. I am obviously one of the ones excited about it because I feel this is a big advantage for Auburn.

[OKieAuburnDoug 1]

AU is not giving up their running game...sorry but they will not become like Texas Tech..this will open up the running game if anything!

[IndyTiger 3]

AU is not giving up their running game...sorry but they will not become like Texas Tech..this will open up the running game if anything!

Does anyone not notice the top running backs going to the draft right now were in somewhat of a spread offense. Rashard Mendehall(sp?), James Stewart, Even Arkansas spread the field a lot and had different formations with McFadden and Jones.

[PChamp119 96]

AU is not giving up their running game...sorry but they will not become like Texas Tech..this will open up the running game if anything!

Does anyone not notice the top running backs going to the draft right now were in somewhat of a spread offense. Rashard Mendehall(sp?), James Stewart, Even Arkansas spread the field a lot and had different formations with McFadden and Jones.

Seeing that Auburn has had the best set of backs since Tuberville got here, I don't see how the spread has anything to do with it. And McFadden was McFadden - had little to do with it being a spread. They did not have the spread before he got there. You will find great RB's in both offenses, but IMO they are more difficult to find in spread offenses.

[ProgRock 0]

The thing that I don't understand is why do we(most) think passing is a gimmick and running is a rule?The NFL passes more and it's not consider a gimmick.I think it's in part of loosing identity.We are running back U and now that might go a stray ....or it might not.I do think it's time to throw the ball more,perferably longer routes.The only the that scares me is coming full circle back to the Noel Mazzone type "swing" passes.

[SouthLink02 8]

I wouldn't worry about the players but more the actual offense.

I think AU will have plenty of players to run the spread properly. What I wonder is how well the offense picks up the schemes and different defensive packages that teams will throw at them especially with a new QB for AU

UF's O was really something last year but I also saw how quickly they would go 3-and-out at times and it REALLY strained their D at times. Of course, AU has RB's and UF has no RB's so I suspect that to be a difference in how both Meyer's O and Franklin's O is run (and they aren't the same spread anyway)

But, if Franklin keeps it simple and your running game continues, the problems will probably be minimal.