Auburn OC Franklin gets the pink slip

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

October 08, 2008

With an offense ranking 104th in the nation, Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville has seen enough and is making some changes in hopes of finding answers with his team's offensive woes.

Tuberville fired first-year offensive coordinator Tony Franklin Wednesday after just seven games with the Tigers. Tuberville said he was not satisfied with the progress being made on offense and that he will be taking on a bigger role on finetuning the offense that has sputtered almost the entire first half of the season.

"After evaluating where we are at this point of the season offensively, I felt it was in the best interest of the Auburn football program to make this change," Tuberville said. "I am personally going to take a larger role with the offense the remainder of the season. We are going to work harder than ever to make sure we consistently improve as we move forward."

He added that he will be announcing Franklin's replacement for the Arkansas game in the next day or so.

Franklin was hired just prior to this season after spending a couple of years at Troy. His spread offense, a.k.a the "Tony Franklin System" has not worked wonders with the Tigers much like it has with some of the high school programs in the nation.

Auburn is currently ranked 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 Tigers are also still searching for an "identity" on their offense, with Kodi Burns and Chris Todd alternating on the quarterbacking spot.

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