Wrappin it up: Auburn 14, Tennessee 12
I'll be posting information here as I progress through the tape and the stats and the scuttlebutt.The Mea Culpa Project was in FULL EFFECT down there. He called himself a "dumbass" at least twice and said the WR pass option was the dumbest call he's ever made. You guys are going to love this.
AFTER SOME THOUGHT ...
- The propensity for penalties and miscues on offense has to fall on "the coaches." I mean, this is beyond a fluky trend. This happens every week. The only new offensive assistant is Tony Franklin, so it's reasonable to think he's somehow lax on fundamentals. I've never heard that. I'm just observing that based on what we all see on Saturdays.
- I don't think Chris Todd deserves the angst. Auburn's offense was almost adequate with him in the game PRE BURNS. Then he gets yanked, doesn't understand why, and that's basically a wrap.
- It's interesting to me that Franklin mentioned several times that Tuberville made the call on Burns. Here's the quote that made me wonder ... though Franklin made several additional references:
"It was basically through no fault of his own," Franklin said. ``Coach Tuberville made a decision to make a change to try and give us a boost. It looked like it worked for a while and then we couldn't finish." - Auburn's defense is really good. How long before that begins to create an internal divide? The disparity is an every-week thing.
- What has happened to Wes Byrum? Someone search the milk aisle tomorrow for clues.
TONY FRANKLIN SPEAKS
- On the unusual WR option pass on 3rd-and-18: "It might be the dumbest call I've made in 10 years. It's a third-and-short call, not a third-and-long call. I was being a total dumbass. That's what I was.
- On quarterback development: "They both believe they can win. They're both confident. They both believe they're the best one. I honestly have failed them both. I haven't done as good a job coaching as I should have done. Neither one of them have played as well as they should have. It's a little puzzling to me because they played very well in the spring, they played really well in the summertime."
- On the offense in general: "If you don't have a great defense (today), you lose. You can't win against great competition doing what we're doing. We are bumbling and stumbling on little stupid things. That's coaching. That's not their fault; that's my fault. I need to do a better job."
- On Mario Fannin's expanded role: "It's another sign of me not being smart enough. I haven't gotten him the ball. If I line him up at quarterback, snap it to him -- he'd have the ball and wouldn't have to think as much. I've proven that I'm not very smart. We snap it to him, he runs. It's easy."
posted by Jay G. Tate at
6:32 PM
82 Comments:
Jay G,
TF's self-imposed hatred only makes me sad for him. He needs a counselor.
Our offense...like (Jack Nicholas as) The Joker said...needs an enema.
Good job Defense.
Special thanks to Jonathan Crompton for screwing up multiple opportunities. We appreciate it.
Peace out, my man.
I am offically done trying to justify why Todd is the starter. Kodi is the better runner and he looked like the better passer as well.
Jay G ... you got a shout out from Vern on TV. No kidding.
I heard about that.
Talk about exciting.
Based on TF's latest commentary, I'm with Phred. He's a self aware loser...whatever that totally means. I'm down with it. We're in trouble.
The absolute, I'm talking extreme vast majority, has Kodi as the guy from here on out. Anything else will result in mutiny.
The End.
question: why did we abandon everything we did well in the first half? the second half had no mario at QB, no runnimg plays under center. I dont understand. Lets send Todd to Iraq or make him a manager. his arm is awful. He made some dub throws today.
I agree with Tony. He is a dumbass.
How much are we paying this guy to be a dumbass?
That was an embarrasing display of football. I feel sorry for CBS.
Once, and it's admirable, twice it's ok, but having to apologize 5 times in a row now it's pretty pathetic.
Will he ever get to the point where he isn't a dumbass?
What next?
Tony Franklin announcing he is going to hand in his resignation.
I think that Nick made a deal with the devil. I'm watching it and I still don't believe it.
Franklin unites the Auburn family. 100% of those polled agree he is a dumbass. Isn't the goal to improve each week. A total embarassment.
When they would show clips of him in the pressbox, the expression on his face said it all. It was, "dude, I am SOOO fired."
Looks like Bama is for real. In a very, very large way.
If I have to hear Tony Franklin's 12 mea culpa of the season after the Tide beats us in T-town, I will go completely koo-koo for cocoa puffs.
The UA coverage is going to be gonzo in every newspaper, TV station and radio network this week.
I may not even bother writing.
"In other news, Auburn beat Tennessee ..."
Yea seriously. Bama is going to start getting AP #1 consideration
First off... Jay the shout out on CBS was awesome
Tony Franklin has zero confidence. He does some things that have potential, and the first little sign of adversity he chunks out the window, and we are back to weak armed lobs down the field. If you think something is going to work... stick with it.
We got handed a touchdown (literally), and played against the worst SEC quarterback i have ever seen in my lifetime. Final score 14-12... not good.
I think Alabama should be ranked #1. Why not?
Jay, did you hear about the comment Danielson made? Something like "If you are going to run this offense you can't hide the quarterback." What do you think CTT feels deep down when he goes to bed tonight about Franklin? I keep hoping things will improve but I see nothing to make me think that they will.
Pred I was thinking the same thing and about to post that very comment!!! Bama is definately back!
I'm going to head home and ponder this game during the trip. When I got home, I'll return here to the HABOTN to pass along anything that struck my fancy.
I'm just basically all written out. I haven't done a good job coaching, writing, note-taking, blogging.
It's all my fault. I may even have a role in the mortgage crisis.
My players of the game...
Defense...
Josh Bynes- i thought he played terrible in the first half went into the locker room took a handful of horse steroids and dominated the second half
Marks and coleman- they don't suck at all
Offense...
Brad Lester- he was smart enough not to be associated with the offense today
Special Teams...
Clinton Durst- he showed alot of endurance out there today
I think CTT rips CTF a new one tomorrow. Result - we live an die by Kodi the rest of the year. Win, lose or draw. We don't get the first down at the end without him in there. I'm wondering if he called that play or made it up on the fly. I thought he was going to throw his helmet at the pressbox on the series before - the one with three consecutie QB sneak/draws or whatever the hell they were.
Mario showed signs of life. He's not far away now. Starting to feel it again. If he could do some things, it would give Tate some room to do his thing.
Everybody else just needs to tighten up.
Defense continues to look better and better. Thankfully, UT sucks like a blackhole.
Todd needs to call plays and work on his coaching career. Give Kodi a full quarter at game speed, everybody getting a feel for his timing and him for theirs, and I promise things will start working.
You listening Tony? Soul searching is better than job searching.
Offense...
Brad Lester- he was smart enough not to be associated with the offense today
Great stuff RON MEXICO
I thought Todd had some zip on the ball on his TD throw. But that seemed to be all he had as the rest of his throws appeared not to have much at all---some looked more like heaves.
Heaves ... such an appropriate word for this discussion. It's what I was doing as I was watching ... heaving up my lunch.
UA at #1? Nope. UGA gave them that first half. Now that UGA is actually trying, we'll see how that game turns out.
You have to give Bama credit for playing hard and taking advantage of all of the opportunites UGA gave them, but UGA would've made even our offense look incredible in that first half.
Back to the topic, I think our offense looked best when we had a good balance of running and passing. It actually had some rhythm on Kodi's first drive until the WRs had a few drops. As soon as Kodi learns to have a great pocket presence like Chris, I think they'll let him stay in for more than 5 minutes and we'll actually have an effective offense. Until then, we'll continue to have Borges-like offensive production.
Bama's going to be ranked 1 or 2. Bank on it. They're gassed but UGA didn't play it's game until 3rd qtr. Depth, once again, was not considered.
There's a long season yet ahead. I hope we go into the Iron Bowl with the Bama at the top. I like our defense. With a miralce we'll find some offense by then. Because it would be too easy to line up and power it down their throats like we do EVERY YEAR!
Damn this spread crap bugs me.
Can Franklin go ahead and apologize for the Vandy game or would that be against protocol?
Watching that game, I'd take UT's offensive coordinator. They called some good plays, just didn't execute.
Franklin called a horrible game.
Seriously, when Mumme got fired at KY, was Franklin homeless then made a couple of bucks opening an E-bay sellers account and pawning off his system to HS coaches?
Jay G T, it would be hard to put into words what happened in Auburn today so don't waste your time.
Ron Mexico, that's the Brad Lester comment is the funniest thing I've heard this week.
I live in Georgia and would have to say I'm pleased with the Bama v UGA game. I'm not someone who usually roots for teams to lose, but I thoroughly enjoyed UGA getting throttled. UGA fans are just like Bama fans, except without all the NCs.
I was overly optomistic about our offensive performance last week, nearly to the point of taking something positive out of a loss. I apologize for taking up for CTF...there are, I don't know at least 2000 high school OC's that could have called a better game than that (or any of them for that matter). I have said it before but it bears saying again that it is a crime to waste a championship defense on so pathetic an offense. The really bad thing for Franklin is that the "system" he once sold for 3 grand is worth now as much as bear sterns stock. I don't care how many commits we lose, he needs to be canned now before they jump ship due to outright sucking. If Todd takes another freakin snap the rest of the way what little bit of pride CTF has is right out the window. I think he could literally produce more velocity with his arse cheeks....
Let me be clear. If CTF does not resign tonight, CTT should demand it.
If no arm is a qb next week, we need to quick kick every series.
If kodi can't learn the offense, lets do something that he can learn.
Put Todd out there again and I am out.
The only thing TF got right today was his self-evaluation.
I truly wonder if some of the offense's problems come from the tendency of Coach Tuberville to want to sit on a lead. This seems to happen with every offensive coordinator we get.
Also, how come nobody's saying anything about the offensive line's propensity for stupid, drive-killing penalties?
anon...
dude, calm down. did we look horrible? sure...is todd's arm worse than my five month old daughter's? sure...did alabama look freakin' awesome? sure...but i'm simply glad our defense is unbelievable and we are winning some games as we figure this crap out. There's a lot of football left, its a long season. If you're "out" after a rough start to the season...well, bye.
I'm really worried about Vandy. They've had 2 weeks to prepare for our offense. I'm sure they will find a way to shut it down.
How can Vandy find a way to shut our offense down? We dont even know what we're gonna do. lol
What are you talking about Jim? Good Lord. They don't even need to practice for our offense. Just work on our defense. Hell, they should just quick kick. That is basically what UT did today and it almost worked. If they had anything more than a single cell organism at QB they would have won.
It is hard to listen to the coaches post-game show as they squirm to answer questions about this offense.Paul and Andy try to lob them softballs to crush to no avail. I don't think I have ever seen an offense continue to get worse and look more confused the more they play. It is getting hard to remember the optimism after the bowl game. Was that like 5 years ago?
big difference, Brandon was the QB. He could make a decision.
Sorry, the sarcasm should have been noted.
I just added some thoughts to the main page ... including another weird comment from Franklin.
I just deleted a comment that used a nasty name in reference to Chris Todd.
I have no problem with you all criticizing people. Remember that some younger people read the blog. Tailor your language accordingly.
Thanks.
So Todd gets upset that he got yanked and can't perform after that?
As Dan Hawkins said "Its Division I football. It ain't intramurals. Go play intramurals brother"
He could not complete a pass in the two series before he got yanked. Kodi deserved to come in.
If DumbA__ CTF had worked Kodi's strengths into the games sooner, there would be no controversy. Now, it is full blown.
The entire fanbase can see that Todd is terrible.
Please tell me that Todd will never ever see the field again. Please transfer. Better yet, please have Zac kick his butt like he did the Furr whimp.
OK a question. We've been told time and time again that Franklin is running the offense as he sees fit. Now he says CTT decided to play Kodi. Doiesn't this get back to the question many of us had before about CTT wanting Kodi and Franklin wanting Todd? My gosh could this QB fiasco have possibly been handled any worse? One more thing does anyone think Todd could have made the throw Burns made in the 2nd quarter after scrambling and throwing down the sideline? Oh but wait he doesn't know the offense. After seeing this pee-wee offense I think not knowing it is a plus at this point.
After a few hours and beers, I think we take a deep breath and see what happens from here out. We have a favorable schedule and should continue to win until we meet Georgia.
Tough game, but Bama gave us the blue print for victory there. Our d is better than their's as well.
Then Bama. We would be 10-1 and they will have at least 1 loss as well.
I hate the O and think the Guru should be fired. Having said that, we are in a good spot and we will continue until the end.
We could easily be ranked in the top five by year end.
Hows that for pumping.
From another blog(sorry Jay)- Franklin says 60% of the offense that was installed has been removed and they will remove another 30% this week. So by my poor math that leaves 10% of an offense that was supposed to be easy to learn? I am speechless. I want to like Franklin but these type of comments have me laughing to keep from crying. When does basketball season start?
Jay, I'm going to make this as kid freindly as I can....
Chris Todd can NOT MAKE THE THROWS NOR THE RUNS. So what does that leave? He can get the snap count?
Did you watch the game Jay? Did you see the balls floating into coverage? Did you see the balls that were thrown on such a loop that coverage was able to get there (see Dunn vs LSU)???????
Take Chris Todd and his Middle School arm and get him a baseball cap. Give this offense to Kodi Burns and lets be good the next two years.
Bottom line, Chris Todd doesn't have the arm, the legs nor the talent to be a CHAMPIONSHIP quarter back in the SEC....Maybe Troy, but not Auburn.....Chris in Inverness, Al.
On the issue of the divide between the offense and defense, I don't think we should have that yet. I mean the offense did score the go-ahead touchdown against LSU late in the 4th. I think we'll get Kodi going against Vandy and he'll carry us to 9-1 into the final games against UGA and UA.
Dear lord, half of you would put this man's head on a stake it seems to me. Now I am just as frustrated with the lack of offensive production, but we are still 5-1 under CTF. I know that is thanks in a very large part to our offense, but we have found ways to win as the players are picking up the offense. You have seen the stats. Troy's stats under CTF did not pick up until after 6 games of his first season. There is a learning curve. You can't expect for an ENTIRELY different system to be installed and the players pick it up easily. I firmly believe that if we had QB that could effectively pass and run this offense then we would be Oklahoma and having an NC season(which isn't out of the entire realm of possibility, but very unlikely I know). With one QB like Colt McCoy and CTF looks like a genius. Todd was that guy, but now is a shadow of his former self. Kodi has great game breaking realities, but he definately isn't on that level yet. Where is your patience?
On the penalties falling on the coaches...
I don't think the penalties are going to go away. I think they come with the system. There are way too many moving parts, something is bound to fail.
We don't huddle, we get up to the line, fake the snap, look to the sideline, decipher the play from the spastic moving people on the sideline, get back set, usually put someone in motion and then snap the ball.
Hell, I almost jumped offsides typing this comment.
I thought CTT didn't interfere in the offense. Now we learn he pulled the trigger on the Burns move.
As I suspected all along...
I know he doesn't punt. But does Wes Byrum=Damon Duval? Great one year...can't get a 30 yarder the next.
Troy doesn't have an inordinate amount of procedure penalties.
Just sayin'
Defense wins Championships. This reminds me of the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. Just hoping Trent Dilfer did not mess up. That team went 5 games without a touchdown. Not that this is the NFL but sometimes they are close. Just don't let the offense make too many mistakes and they will find a way to win.
The first quarter was a great example of how a team can use this offense and make it work.
The CBS team even said Tubs told them he wanted to look more like Oklahoma than Texas Tech. And that's what it looked like.
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I think Chris Todd works very hard and is limited by an injury that doesn't allow you to come back to full potential. I agree with J's assessment that he could be kind of like Trent Dilfer for the Ravens in 2002 who was a QB that struggled some while the defense on that team was dominating. Except the Ravens didn't ask him to be a big part of things. Auburn needs the QB to do big things.
I think Kodi Burns is an exciting player, who is frustrated with the lack of creativity in his called plays. On the other hand, he reminds me a lot of Vince Young - one read and run. Which won Texas a lot of games.
comment yesterday from my brother (who is not an Auburn fan)...
"Todd defies the law of physics when he throws he ball, how on earth can you make the ball move that slow in the air?"
The fire Franklin crap right now is ridicilous. If it doesn't get better than after the season is when you look into that. You people calling for that garbage are no better than bama fans. Sorry if that makes you mad, but its the truth. I'm guessing anybody who wrote that just had too much to drink yesterday
I haven't lost faith in TF yet. No matter what he or the other coaches said pre-season, this is a completely new offense and as easy as it may be to understand, it can't be that easy. I mean, there are 20 some guys who all have to understand the plays and their individual roles completely before this or any other system is going to roll smoothly. I see improvements, although I will admit they seem to have been isolated to the first halves of the last few games. And Kodi Burns is just a better athlete with an uninjured arm. Sorry but Chris Todd has to sit.
DON'T BLAME IT ALL ON FRANKLIN YET...
"My sources" told me that Tubs and Nall have their hands all over Franklin. That Frankling has to ask permission to pass in certain situations. That's all find and dandy you might think. But is it really? Does Tony really not know how to run the offense he sold for $3,000 for years? What else are you going to do to seal the game as Kodi and Billings did in the end? Run left or right with Ben Tate? Yuck. Frankling has to ask for permission to call that play. No lie.
^pardon the typos^
"Franklin has to ask permission to pass in certain situations."
Are you for real, crudup?
I'm all for conspiracy theories, but even this seems a little reaching.
Then again, JGT did confirm that Tubs made the switch at QB...
I don't think Franklin has to ask permission all throughout the game. I think he had to ask permission to throw with two minutes left inside our own five, which i have no problem with. The head coach should make that call it is his job to win us football game at the end with crucial decisions, which Tuberville does a pretty good job at.
Everyone always has "sources" and it's always funny that those sources always have something controversial or negative.
Do sources every have positives?
Hat's off to the D, but I don't think Crompton was going to beat anyone yesterday.
We'll need more than one offensive score to win on the road at Vandy this week. So the dumbass better get a lot smarter in the next week.
That's why I put "my sources" on quotes as I did. So you would not allow something as simple as the small matter of truth get under your skin, rk . I believe Ron is right in his post. Head coach has to make those calls. But the problem is Franklin's attitude (not in the press).
Franklin knows Todd gets the offense. We ALL know Todd doesn't have the most important physical tool anymore. Franklin also has so confidence in Kodi as evidenced by his lack of playing time until Tubs steps in and also his comments that JGT highlighted.
Nall and Franklin are butting heads. Bottom line. This isn't Shane from Center Point talking. He has something legit to discuss today.
Ok so here is my thought. I asked last week if CTT becoming to conservative is a positive thing....we got the W. As long as that happen then blame CTF for a bad performance but WE STILL GOT THE WIN! And I'm gonna keep telling myself that until it is a loss then well I don't know...WAR EAGLE folks.
Time to hand Vandy there first loss of the year. And Bama is for real. That is until November however.
rk, who is the bigger dumbass? Frankling or the man who brought him in?
I have a hard time believing that Franklin called those plays on the 1st series when Kodi came in the 4th. That was horrible.
Although, I'm not sure why he continues to take the blame if he doesn't have complete control.
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from Phred Jr.
The sad thing is that Tubs was watching the Bama game thinking.....'thats the kind of offense I would like to run'....power running game with timely passing
A voice of reason!
I can't wait for this afternoon.
Tommy Tuberville explaining his decision to infuse Kodi Burns. Why things became so incredibly conservative during the second half. Why Franklin is asking him for permission. Why there are so many penalties and mental errors week after week.
Then the same questions for Franklin.
Then it comes to Rhoads and it's like ... "Hey, Paul. So your defense was outstanding again. Your guys scored again. What do you think about the offense?"
The thing is I didnt see why we had to blow the whole thing up...Brandon Cox won big games but he couldnt beat you with his arm....I think if we had the running game and some pro set passing plays that allowed Kodi to scramble and innovate we would be in a much better situation and probably 5-0. We cant keep this up much longer although there is a shot we enter the UGA 9 - 1......Here is my biggest two points....1) This is too good a defense to waste with this pitiful offense and 2) How easy must it be to game plan for Auburn's offense!
Jay, poor, poor Chris Todd didn't understand why he got pulled? This is why stunk it up in the 2nd half? What about a qb that has a nice 1st game, maybe not all world but every bit as good as his competition, yet his reward is getting benched for the better part of the next 4 games? You think that might have had an effect on kodi?
I don't think I'm going to spend too much time feeling sorry for Todd. He is the luckiest sob on the planet to even have a scholarship at auburn and has been the benefactor of some of the most Mis guided and inexplicable loyalty ever seen. Letting kodi get a long overdue opportunity has nothing to do with todd's lame arm. Enough already with this reclamation project.
Sorry for the double post. Trying to do this on the blackberry while driving up 280. Speaking of being a dumbass...
auburn guy, can you be perfect?
"rk, who is the bigger dumbass? Frankling or the man who brought him in?"
Excellent question. Both have used car salesment type qualities, so who knows, maybe they thought they would be a good match for each other.
The sad thing is, we are one play away from being undefeated and probably in the top 5 despite playing horribly almost every game on offense.
I thought I made a mistake once but I was wrong.
I am so tired of Hugh Nall. I wouldn't be surprised if Crudup's sources aren't correct. Something happens with every offensive coordinator we get to make them go mysteriously conservative if Auburn gets a 1 point lead.
I personally don't understand why Tommy Tuberville always seems to play not to lose rather than drive a stake in somebody's heart when he has the chance. Riverboat Gambler my butt. If he plays poker I'll bet he doesn't raise with less than a pair of aces or kings.
Seeing as how Tony Franklin admits that he is a dumbass, I am making a mental note not to listen to any of his opinions on Auburn in the future. On account of him being a dumbass.
Also, I know things look rough now, but I also feel like Auburn is just a couple years away from being a championship level team. Just a feeling in my gut.
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