Why would any coach ever work for Tommy Tuberville?
Why would any football coach ever work at Auburn?
If it wasn’t a legitimate question before (and it was) it certainly is now after Tuberville, or Auburn, or both have fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin this afternoon just six games into the 2008 season, saying that the Tigers needed a change since the Tigers are ranked 104th in the nation in total offense.
Six games?
Incredible.
Bad enough that Franklin, the former UK assistant, got less than a year to install his offensive system. Bad enough that no coach fires a coordinator in the middle of the season, it’s practically unheard of, unless you’re Al Davis. Bad enough that Tuberville now makes himself look like a fool for hiring Franklin in the first place. Bad enough that you have to wonder if the forces that be at Auburn, i.e. booster Bobby Lowder, did order Tuberville to push Franklin out the door. Wouldn’t be the first time.
But the whole thing is so Auburn.
Tuberville goes through offensive coordinators the way most people go through paper towels. He fired Ron Borges just last year after what had seemed like a successful run. He’s had three defensive coordinators in the past five years, mainly because at the first sniff at a better job, coordinators are out the door.
Why would anyone want to work for a head coach like that?
Why would anyone want to work for a school whose officials in the middle of the night, with their head coach still employed, boarded Lowder’s plane and went on a secret mission to Louisville to interview Bobby Petrino about replacing Tuberville a few years back. How ironic that Auburn entertains Petrino and the Arkansas Razorbacks this Saturday.
It is true that Tony Franklin is no shrinking violet. He butted heads with Hal Mumme during his final year at Kentucky and was fired at the end of the season before probation caused Mumme to lose his job. Tony has been known to say what he thinks. (And write what he thinks, as demonstrated by his book, “Fourth Down and Life to Go.”) But Tuberville had to have known that when he hired him away from Troy to install the Tony Franklin offense at Auburn.
Six games into the 2008 season, Franklin is no longer the Tigers’ offensive coordinator.
But the way Auburn does business continues to be a joke.
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com.
Here is another reason that The Barn is a joke. Even though they are firing Franklin, they are going to keep running his offense. Makes no sense at all! I hope they lose the rest of their games this year, but I would hope that anyways.
Roll Tide Roll
I couldn’t agree more. The should have never fired Borges in the first place. Dark days ahead for Auburn football…
http://siddfinchsports.blogspot.com/2008/10/auburn-football-franklin-hit-has.html