Players see a ‘different’ Franklin at practice

This wasn’t the same Tony Franklin wide receiver Rod Smith had seen before.

Sure, Franklin has tried to be hands-on with his installation of what has become one of the most highly scrutinized offenses in the country.
Before he moved up to the coaches’ box for Auburn’s 26-21 loss to LSU, Franklin would conduct business from the sidelines “because of the emotional part” of the game.

But the much-maligned Franklin that took the field Tuesday morning at Auburn’s practice facility had a different sort of edge to him, Smith said.

It was an edge that brought the 51-year-old offensive coordinator onto the field instead of watching the team run drills from the sidelines, his previous standard procedure.

“He told us the old guy’s back,” Smith said. “Whoever he was at Troy, he said he’s back. I guess we can expect different from him. Just the intensity he had today in practice, he was just crazy.

“It was a different coach I saw out there today. He was out there on the field correcting everything that you did.”

It made for quite the ruckus, players said. Even the defense, which ranks second in the nation in points allowed per game (11.2) and has kept Auburn afloat through the offense’s growing pains, took notice.

“I could hear it,” nose tackle Tez Doolittle said. “Everybody turned around looking, ‘What’s going on?’ I see everybody getting down and running plays real quick and fast.

“Just a lot of noise out there today.”

There is certainly plenty to correct and plenty of noise left to be made as the Tigers continue to seek an offensive identity heading into the second half of the season. The noise from Franklin, who has been frank and blunt when describing the woeful offense, has been and continues
to be muted.

Franklin was not available to the media Sunday or Tuesday, and it is unclear when, or if, he will speak publicly again this season.

The Tigers rank near or at the bottom in most offensive categories within the SEC and don’t fare much better when compared to the rest of the nation. 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).

The scapegoat among the majority of fans and media, of course, has been Franklin, who brought his highly publicized “Tony Franklin System” spread offense to a team that had previously relied on pounding the ball on the ground with a mix of play-action passes.

“The System” has since been simplified and mixed in with old fashioned Auburn power football, which was displayed last Saturday at
Vanderbilt.

“We’ve all been sick to our stomachs for the last three weeks of how we’ve played in terms of offense, even in the Tennessee game,” coach Tommy Tuberville said.

The spread, though, isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, Tuberville said. Besides, it’s tough to say how effective the offense could be if the Tigers could avoid the myriad of penalties and mental mistakes that have plagued them since the season opener against Louisiana-Monroe.

“We are our worst enemy in terms of penalties,” Tuberville said of the Tigers, who have averaged just under eight penalties for 58.7 yards per game. “We have cut back on the turnovers. We’ve just got to be a better machine in terms of having a lot more consistency.

“It’s going to come. It’s going to happen.“

Until it does, though, the Tigers will continue to have practices like Tuesday’s.

“Sometimes the coaches have to pick the mentality up and you’ve got to ask for more,” Tuberville said.

As far as Smith is concerned, message received.

“That definitely got everybody’s attention today, that they need to be on their Ps and Qs,” Smith said. “As far as what I’ve heard, nobody’s job is secure right now.”

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