Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville addressed the media on Friday and talked about the changes on both sides of the ball on the Tiger’s coaching staff.

By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



HOOVER — Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville said he hired Troy University offensive Tony Franklin so that his Tigers would have the newest most innovative offense of any of the 12 schools in the SEC. However, along with the innovation, Tuberville wants to make sure the Tigers stay close to their roots, featuring a strong physical running game.

“Offensively, we’ll be new, we’ll be different, totally different for me, for Auburn, even for the SEC,” Tuberville said. “Everybody says, ‘Well, some teams run this.’ But, not like we run it. It’s no huddle and it’s fast paced, fast tempo. Involve your quarterback in running the football, spread the field, use a lot of wide receivers. You know, really it’s a change for us.

“But we are going to run the football more than we’re going to throw it. The thing about Tony Franklin and I, we sat down before I hired him. And he understands that. You’ve gotta be on the same wavelength. There might be some games that we go into and find out, hey, you know, something’s working in the passing game, and we might throw it 50 times. But our game plan is to go into the season, use our running backs, use our offensive line, you know, move the ball down the field. When people start creeping up, you know, get the ball deeper down the field and make big plays. I think this offense can do that.”

Franklin isn’t the only new coordinator on the plains, as Tuberville hired Paul Rhodes to take over the Tiger’s defense.

“Defensively, Paul Rhodes, a guy I tried to hire back seven or eight years ago from Pittsburgh, is a great teacher. A lot of enthusiasm. Knows his defense. We won’t make a lot of changes. I’m gonna let him use his imagination in terms of what he thinks will help this football team with the talent that we have.

“But we still live on speed, putting as many people out there that can run as possible. I look at the defense from inside out, starting with the defensive line. You have to be good on the defensive line in this conference to have an opportunity to get to Atlanta (SEC championship game). If you’re weak or short in that area, you have no chance,” Tuberville said.

Tuberville pointed out that despite the Tigers losses to graduation, there are still some outstanding defenders who will wear the orange and blue this fall. The Tiger’s head coach is expecting the tradition of strong Auburn defenses to continue.

“We lost Quentin Groves, we lost Josh Thompson, who was our leading tackler at nose guard position, and we lost Pat Sims who went in the draft early. I like who’s coming back, Sen’Derrick Marks, Antonio Coleman. We have some good young players to go along with them,” Tuberville said. “After watching spring practice, it could be one of our better defensive lines, if we stay healthy as everybody will sit up here and tell you. But I like that. I like our linebackers. Tray Blackmon, I think, is finally settling down into a position. He was picked by a lot of people across the country as the top linebacker coming out of high school football. He’s had some problems, but I like his mentality and where he’s working from. But defense is gonna be solid.”

During the three-day event, the 704 members of the working media selected the Tigers as the favorites in the SEC West, ahead of defending national champion LSU. Tuberville joked the pick could turn out to be a curse for the Tigers.

“I was really excited till I got up this morning, you guys picked us to win the West. Y’all are never right. That puts me in a bind. I don’t know what I’m going to tell my team,” he joked. “Actually we’ll use this. It’s probably good for us. You know me. You’ve heard me several times. I’m not big on predictions. But we need something to get us going.”