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MIKE CUMMINGS: Future less than certain in Auburn
Michael CummingsAl Borges must be mad with glee.
No, not that kind of mad. Mad as in crazy, loco, knocked senseless — like I said, with glee.
For the other kind of mad — irate, furious, berserk, what have you — see: Franklin, Tony.
For those of you living under a rock — or failing to see the upper portion of this page — Franklin was dismissed as Auburn’s offensive coordinator Wednesday, just seven games into his tenure.
Under his watch, the Tigers scored 135 points — or just over 19 per game — played and won a baseball game against Mississippi State, and dropped a contest with Vanderbilt for the first time since 1955.
Auburn, in the meantime, went from preseason favorite in the SEC West to a team with an identity crisis.
For his role in all that, Franklin now has something in common with Borges. Once the toast of the town, both suffered through worsening results before being driven out of town by Tuberville.
On the bright side, Franklin won’t have to go too far to find commiseration.
Borges — who was so unceremoniously dumped as Auburn’s offensive coordinator between the Tigers’ final 2007 regular season game and their Chick-Fil-A Bowl date with Clemson — still resides in the Loveliest Village on the Plains, where his wife Nikki works for the university’s athletic department.
So there’s always that.
Scant consolation for either, I’m sure, who have to feel done wrong by Tuberville.
There’s a saying that fills the air here in the office from time to time, and it goes something like this: When problems keep happening and you’re always the one fighting it out with someone else — it might just be you that’s the problem.
Which has to make you wonder about Tuberville, if only just a little.
Sure, we all know by now that this was a recruiting ploy. A devilishly clever — though maybe a bit hare-brained — scheme to steal some of Nick Saban’s recruiting thunder. Or at least deflect some recruits east up I-85.
So where does that leave the Tigers now? With the much-ballyhooed spread scheme dismissed along with Franklin, will the recruits Auburn managed to snatch away from Alabama decide to renege on their commitments?
I wouldn’t put it past them.
Nor would I put just about anything past Tuberville at this point. Even a sub-.500 season.
You just have to wonder how patient Auburn Nation will be with him now.
‰ Michael Cummings can be reached by e-mail at michaelc@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 258.
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