Tony Franklin speaks ... and speaks ...
By Mike Szvetitz
Sports Editor, Opelika-Auburn News
Published: September 28, 2008
I’ve never been around a coach—on any level—who’s as honest and forthcoming as Tony Franklin. You ask him a question, he’ll answer it.
Period.
The media sat down with Franklin, as we do every Sunday, and peppered him with question after question about his offense and why it’s so bad and all that jazz. He took every question and answered it.
Here are some highlights:
TONY FRANKLIN:
DAY-AFTER THOUGHTS?:
We got to get better. That’s pretty obvious. It’s confusing to say the least. We come out and we play pretty good early. We have a good opening drive, we have a penalty. Then we come back the next drive and drive it down, overcome, I think two penalties that drive, and still take it in, score a touchdown.
Then Kodi comes in, makes a couple plays. We get it down again and don’t score. Then after that, we just laid an egg. It’s bewildering to say the least. But we, just like I’ve said time and time again, words are cheap. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to find the answers. We’ll keep looking for them. I hope to go out and show the answers on Saturday.
ANYTHING YOU CAN PUT FINGER ON?
No. I got no clue. And we’re searching, trying to find out why.
I felt comfortable in the opening drives. Felt like we had a good rhythm – had a good click going. And just lost our rhythm and never got it back.
IS THIS STILL THE ‘TONY FRANKLIN’ OFFENSE YOU’RE RUNNING?
Well, I mean, there’s the quote “Tony Franklin Offense” that I’ve run most of my adult life, since the Kentucky days of being able to go and freely do whatever. And then work with different high schools throughout the country and do all that stuff, but this is definitely not that.
We’re having to try to adjust. We’re trying to adjust what these guys can do. So that’s a never-ending challenge, trying to figure it out. And just when you think you might have your finger on it, there’s another adjustment to be made.
So we’re still searching, trying to figure it out. Trying to figure out what works best for Auburn.
It’s not the Tony Franklin Offense, it’s the Auburn Offense. It’s Auburn’s offense. It’s these players’ offense. And it’s my job to find out what they can do.
I think anybody who knows, and who’s watched most of the stuff I’ve done throughout my life, there’s a lot of adjustments that have been made since I’ve been here. So, it’s just a part of coaching, you try to adjust to your talent each place you go.
PLAYING AT THE TEMPO YOU WANT?
No. We’ve never played at the tempo. We don’t understand tempo, yet. We think we do, but we don’t have a clue. We’re not playing as fast. We don’t understand what it means to play fast. We think we do, but we don’t.
We still struggle with the snap count. So, it’s challenging to play at the tempo when you struggle with the snap count. We only have one, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to learn. But we struggle with it for some reason.
We’re not anywhere near the tempo that we need to be. We’re not playing as fast as we need to play. But we’re going to continue probably to slow down to try and get where we can do what these guys can do, rather than what people have been able to do in the past. I’ve got to do what these guys are capable of doing.
TEMPO COMPARED TO NOW AS TO THE BOWL GAME:
Again, I guess I coached them down since the bowl game, because they certainly haven’t gotten any better. That’s for certain.
Like I said, it’s a mystery. It’s a mystery right now.
IS THE PROBLEM NOT HAVING THE RIGHT ATHELTES FOR THIS OFFENSE?
No. I think, honestly, I just don’t think I’ve done a very good job of coaching it. I mean, hell, it’s pretty obvious that these guys don’t look well coached. And that’s me. I have not done a good job of coaching. The finger’s pointing at me and it deserves to be. I’ve done a crappy job coaching football.
HOW DO YOU CHANGE THAT?
Keep working hard. It’s all I know to do. It’s all I’ve ever done in my life. You look in the mirror and you know what the answer is. It’s always you. You’re always the problem. So you look in the mirror and you go back to work. You work harder, you keep looking for answers, you ask for help, you listen to people, see what they say, and try to fix what’s broken. That’s all I know to do.
ON THE CROWD BOOING:
Well, they should. Hell, if I was them, I’d boo. I’d boo me. I’d be angry. Everybody’s expectations were high. My expectations were high. Hell, if I was a paying fan I’d be (ticked). This product has not been good, and it was my product. I don’t blame them for being upset. I don’t take it personal. When they said how wonderful you were, I didn’t take that personal because I knew it wasn’t true. I said all along that I wasn’t very smart and y’all thought I was joking. Now you know. It’s pretty true.
