You'll love this one
Rod Smith on changes to The Auburn Offense today: "(Tony Franklin) said we're going to cut back on what we've been doing and just try to keep it simplified because he thought we tried to do too much on Saturday. We're just going to cut it back and run a few simple plays and get good at it and just go out and lay it out on the field and see what happens."
Recall that Franklin already has trimmed the playbook twice. This is the third episode.
MATH UPDATE: With an assist from Charles Goldberg, I now have an official tally from The Tony Franklin Playbook Erasure Project.
After the Tennessee game, he said they already had trimmed 60 percent of the playbook.
He said Auburn would trim another 30% during the week leading up to Vanderbilt. So that's 30% of the 40% remaining ... meaning the Tigers were down to 28% of their opening-day offense. Give or take.
Now the Tigers are back on the whittle. How much is left?
This sounds like a really good SAT question.
Recall that Franklin already has trimmed the playbook twice. This is the third episode.
MATH UPDATE: With an assist from Charles Goldberg, I now have an official tally from The Tony Franklin Playbook Erasure Project.After the Tennessee game, he said they already had trimmed 60 percent of the playbook.
He said Auburn would trim another 30% during the week leading up to Vanderbilt. So that's 30% of the 40% remaining ... meaning the Tigers were down to 28% of their opening-day offense. Give or take.
Now the Tigers are back on the whittle. How much is left?
This sounds like a really good SAT question.
posted by Jay G. Tate at
8:02 PM
38 Comments:
To, or to not. There is no try.
-Yoda
Auburn is to not. And a lot of it.
Well put, Crudup.
Auburn has become one of those demotivational posters.
I'm afraid Rod's kind comments are all the evidence we need to clearly determine that this season is pretty much over. We're not fooling anybody.
Each day I understand just what a mistake it was to change directions and fire Al. This would be very we'll been anÓther breakout year for him. Don't laugh. You never know. He would have had more talent than he's had since '05. His QB quandry might very well have been solved by Field or even Caudle.
*Sorry for the blackberry typos. I'm tired.
I find it sad that even BMatt and JLee are laughing at Tubs' predictable comments today at his PC. They characterized Tubs by "blah blah blah".
That's pretty bad. Those guys are pretty damn orange and blue.
Honestly, how do the players keep from laughing at these clowns? By my count we were already down to 10% of the offense that was so easy to learn (we were told) during the off-season.How long before they totally tune out these coaches? I think that that explosion we kept hearing was coming turned into an implosion last night. Of course we would only know this by hearing from the players because our high-dollar "leaders" were nowhere to be found(or at least talked to).
as if the offense wasn't predictable enough... i hope one of those plays he "trimmed" was the handoffs out of the shotgun. I'd be shocked if we are averaging over 1.0 yard a carry on those.
So we ran the Ace to great success but we stopped because there was only a few things we could do with it (too basic) and Vandy was catching on to it.
Now, we are going to cut back our entire offense to ...the very basics. You know, do a few things well and stick with that.
Look Kids! Big Ben! Parliament!
Can he cut the false starts, holding penalties, sacks, and missed kicks out of the playbook?
How can AU expect to get any momentum when they make a mental error every series. Im a huge Tubs fan, but that's on him.
I had a feeling that quote would be a hit around here.
It's a mess. It really is.
But Tate said AU's struggles on offense are much deeper than a formation or playcall can change.
"We're definitely trying to find our identity," he said.
"As an offense, to be truthful, we're just awful. There's no other way to put it. Your numbers don't lie. When you look at yourself on film, that doesn't lie either. Other teams are probably just licking their chops.
"We're just not good on offense right now. We just have to find a way to get better."
So does Tate just keeps it real or what? What a disparity between Smith and Tate. Totally clear there's absolutely no chemistry on the field or off. This is Alabama 2006 and 2007.
Jay I greatly appreciate your blog. It gives us insight that used to be off-limits through a "beat writer". I remember countless years at some schools where there would be a problem on the field and never really spoken of (in terms of cause).
The next fall it would be written about and referred to casually as the reason for the past season failing. Nothing in between. Drove me crazy.
Your "front line" reporting (blogging) is a breath of freash air.
I know those two guys do not want to blast their teammates or coaches. I still remember the quote from Tate before the season began. Something like "you can tell who should be starting, as long as we win a national championship, no one will care".
I wonder if anyone can ask him about that quote now. Seems like he is willing to be real. I just want to fix the problem and not talk around it like CTT.
I understand CTT is not one to come out and explain the problems in the middle of the year; but, guys that will at least talk (tate, pugh) are a breath of fresh air.
So much talk of a national championship in fall camp. So much like 2003 it's ridiculous. Hate when I do this, but I made fun of that talk in August and some in here defended it.
You just don't talk NCs without knowing what you're truly made of on the field against a team that literally doesn't room with you.
When Tate is asked why they went away from the traditional formation and he said "I don't know", his laugh said that he does know. He wanted to say that it was because CTF is a hard headed SOB and a dumbass.
Now on the spread and its viability in the SEC, I've been keeping an eye on Mizzou for a while now, and I have no doubt that system can work well enough in this conference. Especially with a D like AU's. Do you realize that if our O could score 3 TDs a game (not asking much) then we would be 6-0 and in the top 5? The O doesn't have to be outstanding; just not horrible.
so, so true. I am going to be very interested to see these few plays that we learn to run well. Punt on fourh down. We are getting pretty good at that one, for sure. How many plays do we have now 6 or 7? What a freakin' joke.
Pugh and Tate said, without actually saying it, what I was thinking last night. I knew they had to be thinking that they were being coached by a bunch of idiots. I think they all ought to band together and go on strike. Just kidding but not really, you know?
And then the goaline stand at....
Drumroll...
...Vandy.
We run "Ace" with the greatest of ease and then get to the 1 and try to run a play out of shotgun. And then a misdirection. And THEN we try to pound it in with a Tate that can't even stand straight he's so tired. That's the third TD. Screw the missed point after.
In the fourth quarter we're sitting pretty at 2nd and 2 on a critical, crucial drive. What do we do next? We line up shotgun and nearly throw it to the other team. Third and short. Sack.
All it took was Ben tate and "Ace" and the drive lives. Always take the first down.
Jay - This is great stuff. Well the content sucks, but the access is great. Thanks for the blog. I hope they aren't keeping it so real that you stop getting this kind of access to them.
Can anyone remember the last time an AU offense scored a touchdown on a play longer than 50 yds? It seems like YEARS since it has happened...
The last time i remember being really impressed by the offense was the Washington St. game in 2006. What is that 30 or so games ago?
This is my last insane post.
Here goes.
We totaly disrespected Vandy last night. Tubs didn't want to make post game excuses as to not disrespect them. But we did pregame big time.
We thought we could go up 2 TDs and then turn the game into spread offense practice on Vandy's turf. I think Tubs and crew pretty much got what they deserved.
oohhh, that was excellent. good stuff. I've been trying to figure out how to say that but you just nailed it. That's why you are Crudup.
I think Mario had one last year that he fumbled at the three and recovered on the bounce in the endzone. I guess that counts.
I just added a math update to this initial post ...
Thanks for the love, Mark and mond.
The ROF salutes Jay G as well, it is a given.
how in the heck are we favored by 18 over Arkansas and UGA is only favored by 13 over UT.
Am I missing something. Seems like the point and arky would be in the money this week.
The only math I can cling to these days is 6 in a row...shout out to Tre Smith and Reobert Johsnon from 2002!
jay or anybody else - do we think that cutting the spread down to 10% (or whatever the remaining percentage is) means that we are going to replace what we're removing with more ace formation stuff?
i'm reaching here.
Yes. I think that's a reasonable leap. I don't think they're adding shotgun stuff back into the fray.
And that's a wrap on another day of HABOTN excellence from The Loveliest Village.
The campfire eventually included 155 people at its max. That's pretty incredible.
I'll talk with you all tomorrow.
So we are cutting back on the 10 plays that we run. Interesting.
Can they do an online poll as to which plays we cut out? I bet there would be a record number of people registering to vote.
155 people? I guess sucking does breed conversation....
Last night I had a dream... Tony Franklin was fired and Chris Todd transferred to Troy. Tubs brought Lane Kiffin in. Auburn's offense caught fire and the streak was extended to seven... Then I woke up and read how there were no changes after all.
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
"..sucking breeds conversation"
On that note, later and WDE
Tubs won't make a move on Franklin until he's sure he's got someone in the bag for the job. Tough to do midseason. I'm afraid he's (Tubs) going to try and tough it out until the end of the year, but I can guarantee back to back losses to UGA and Bama would seal at least Franklin's fate.
The other option is to pretty much abandon the Spread and Franklin, and just keep him on staff. The downside of this is you'll have existing staff (probably Nall and Ensminger) running the offense. We all remember how well that worked out...
Either way I think Tubs' "Spread" experiment is over and he will either hitch his wagon to Franklin and the Spread (and probably go down in flames with him) or let him go and write the whole episode off as a "very bad idea". Hard to fathom that we may have basically wasted an entire season and somehow managed to make our offense WORSE than the year before, but it is equally as hard ot imagine the offense getting any better.
An anonymous said if we could score three TD's we would be undefeated, if we had just had 2 td's and a field goal, like the one we didn't try on the first possession last night, we would be 5-1. Although I know there is no guarantee that Byrum makes it but it was the higher percentage call.
Anon, lets hope this experiment only hurts us this year and not the next 1-3.
I borrowed this from PM if you don't mind. But it's tell tale in how Tuberville has ruined any chances of this team's offense to have any success. Remember the hoopla surrounding fall camp's mythical offensive prowess? Well, I can't help but think it was what it was in myth.
...This is NOT the offense Tony Franklin brought from Troy.
How does Auburn’s offense compare to what was run in preseason practice?It really doesn’t compare much at all. Many of the plays that were seen frequently in practice are seldom if ever seen in games. Passing to set up the run, a major part of Franklin’s philosophy, seems to have been abandoned early.
Again I ask, who is the con man here?
Tuberville or Franklin?
I really hate to use that word but others here have used it frequently as an insult to Franklin. I'm just not sure that's fair. But that's just me.
I try to look at things from varying perspectives. And I have been awed by some things that Tubs and crew have done during their tenure here in terms of utilizing the personnel and philosophy.
Why can't an OC come to our little town and bring their QB coaches or WR coaches with them? We know the answer. But this is a business and it should be treated as such. I have tons of respect for the family atmosphere and fellowship these coaches enjoy. I just see too much complacency as a result.
Has anyone ever seen Todd throw from under center?
Tubby has imported a system that takes these players away from their strengths. So, CTF imports a QB with a hurt shoulder to be his starter and then tries and tries to pound a square peg into a round hole with dismal results. Tate and Pugh say as much in the video.
These players will have to live with the fact that they lost to Vandy despite having much better talent. But Vandy had the better coaching, and on Saturday the coaching won.
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