Lack of offensive identity dooms Auburn

By John McMullen  |   Thursday, October 09, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

Auburn Tigers
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Tommy Tuberville took the bull by the horns last week and intimated that Auburn would shelve first-year coordinator Tony Franklin's much-hyped spread offense and get back to what brought the Tigers to the dance over the years -- a power running game.

And early in the team's 14-13 loss to Vanderbilt last week, that's exactly what Auburn did. The Tigers took a 13-0 edge while utilizing a balanced attack.

Inexplicably, Auburn went away from a solid game plan and tried to attack the Commodores by spreading the field. This despite the fact that Tuberville said the team just didn't have the weapons to do that before the contest.

The Tigers never scored again against a staunch Vanderbilt defense and fell for the second time in three weeks.

So what gives?

Well, instead of focusing on the lack of an offensive identity, the Auburn coach placed the blame squarely on his O-line.

"You've got to start with what they did on defense," Tuberville said after the game. "We tried to attack them with crossing routes. We didn't have enough time to throw it at times. They did a good job of zone blitzing and bringing five guys and it seemed like we never picked a guy up. We tried to cut the screens. It seemed like the only thing we could do to get going was to get a penalty."

After mulling things over for a day, Tuberville then blamed the loss on the team not executing for a full four quarters.

"We lost a game, one that we thought we could win in terms of going and playing our game and playing for four quarters, but we didn't get it done," said Tuberville. "Vanderbilt played a good game. They played four quarters and they finished. As I told our team, neither in coaching or playing did we finish that game. The players played hard. I thought the effort was good but somewhere down the line we have to find a way to finish a game."

By Wednesday, Tuberville had fired the embattled Franklin just six games into his first full season.

Whatever you believe is going on at Auburn, clearly Tuberville is in panic mode and has no clear vision of what he wants for the Tigers' offense.

It's anyone's guess what type of Auburn team will show up as it looks to bounce back against Arkansas (2-3, 0-2 SEC) this Saturday. While their record is far from impressive, the Razorbacks have dropped three straight games against nationally ranked teams, so they aren't exactly falling to mediocre competition.

Translation?

Expect another tough game for an Auburn team with no offensive coordinator and no offensive identity.
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About John McMullen

John is the managing editor of The Phanatic Magazine, the assistant managing editor of The Sports Network and the co-host of the highly rated 'Johns on Sports' radio show on WTBQ in New York. Every Saturday from 6:30-9 p.m. (et) you can hear John along with his co-host, John Gottlieb, talk to the ...
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