Smells like Team Spirit
Things are not as they seem on the Plains. In fact recently there was an ambush on the plains and it came replete with casualties. Auburn offensive coordinator Tony Franklin was abruptly fired on Wednesday, Oct 9th by head coach Tommy Tuberville. This came less than 24 hours after Tuberville told the media that he had confidence in Franklin and there weren’t any staffing changes planned. Obviously by the next day the situation had changed.
In addition there have been rumors floating around about how the firing had nothing to do with coaching but involved “personal issues” like not getting along with fellow coaches, berating players and using racial slurs. Well gosh golly gee . . . it’s a good thing we got rid of that mean old racist Tony Franklin then. The Auburn administration and coaching staff had their hands tied right? What were they to do?
Cough, bullsh*t, cough. Sound familiar? We all know that thanks to the rumors that Terry Bowden was fired for cheating on his wife and not his football issues. The ranks of coaches who have been fired/paid off at Auburn is truly staggering. Doug Barfield, Wayne Hall, Pat Dye, Terry Bowden, Al Borges, Tony Franklin, etc - the beat goes on. There are two kinds of coaches at Auburn University, coaches who have been fired and coaches who are GOING to be fired. Unfortunately for Tommy Tuberville, he looks to be on the list for the latter.
Anyone familiar with Auburn knows the rumors being told to boosters and “insiders” are standard operating procedure on the Plains. Only one man is capable orchestrating this type of death march, Bobby Lowder. Lowder has been gunning for Tuberville’s head for years now ever since Tommy was able to turn the Bobby Petrino disaster into a half decade’s worth of coaching autonomy. That “get out of free” card seems to have expired. While Lowder doesn’t yet have the clout to openly fire Tubs he’s positioning himself to arrive to that conclusion shortly.
Losing brings enemies and Tuberville’s perpetual underachievement since 2004 has brought him a fair share of critics within and outside the program. Lowder has capitalized on this and is currently attempting to divide the program. Tuberville has now fired 2 offensive coordinators within 12 months. I’m sure after some strong “encouragement” on behalf of Trustee Lowder. Such a conversation likely boiled down to “either you fire so-and-so to placate some angry boosters or you can go pack your own bags“. (more…)

For those who don’t remember Terry Bowden’s career, Terry began his career coaching at tiny Salem College in West Virginia where he coached current FSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher (who later followed Terry to Samford). After leaving Salem to coach Samford, Terry coached the Bulldogs for 6 years accruing at 45-23-1 record and earned enough recognition to finally land a high level college coaching gig at the University of Auburn. At the time Auburn University was in a state of panic as claims of illegal benefits being paid to players had reached the press. The King of Auburn football, Bobby Lowder, finally decided it was time for Coach Pat Dye to resign before the Eric Ramsey allegations exposed further wrongdoing. What better way to right the ship and steer press coverage away from scandal than to hire the “innovative” and “up and coming” son of Legendary FSU coach Bobby Bowden?

Auburn takes on our Gators in the O’Connell Center today. Tip is at 12:00PM ET.
Paul Finebaum of the Register Herald has addressed a possible resolution to the crisis at Auburn University; a crisis named Tommy Tuberville. Auburn sits at 3 wins and 2 losses for the season. Ahead the Tigers face road games at Arkansas, LSU and Georgia and home games against Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Alabama. While the home games seem manageable the road slate is grueling and lets not forget Auburn’s two losses this year have been at home and they trailed late in the fourth quarter at home in their season opener. Should the Tigers play hard the rest of the year and upset a few teams they could still be looking at an 8-4 season.













