Tony Franklin at a speaking engagement....flead off another board

[The Prowler]

Here's some good quotes from an email I got yesterday about one of his speaking engagements a couple days ago:

One other thing he mentioned during this segment I was not aware of but am sure the spread coaches on this board who have taken his "classes" are aware of ... and that's his use of the "no call" or "no play" call several times during a game. He was explaining to a questioner about how he signals in plays and why his OL keeps looking over to the sidelines. He explained the approach and the use of multiple players or personnel on the sideline signaling in plays and formations but only one of them being "hot" or the real play caller. But, he said, sometimes we signal in what we call a "no play" and you'll notice that the OL will line up and, although you may not hear it or recognize it from the stands, the QB will bark out the signals but the ball will not be snapped. This is not meant to draw the opponent off sides -- but after barking 3-4 signals or "hut huts", everybody will stand up and look at the sideline again for the "real" play call...after he has observed how the defense is lined up when they "thought" a play was about to be run. They then signal a play quickly against that defensive formation. The DC now has two choices -- (1) stay in the formation he has already given up, or, (2) change it in about 2 seconds (without substitution) by getting in his signals as quickly as possible.

Franklin indicated that that might work or it might not (defensively) but the advantage is clearly his. If just "one player on defense" doesn't get the signal or understand it or adjust correctly in about one second, the play CAN go for HUGE yardage or even a TD. He said it doesn't always work but when it does (the "no call" or "no play") the DC will NEVER make another split second adjustment during the game. He said in his experience, once burned, the DC has never changed his defense after the "no play" call any any time during the game. Never.

He concluded that explanation by saying that if we run 80-85 plays a game, he will call the "no play" about 20 times. All it has to do is work once...and he has won a battle against the DC he needs to win...and, Hell, it might even result in a TD. If it works more than once, get out your slide rules because the yardage and the points will need to be added up quickly.

- He cautioned the audience (and our fan base) not to expect this much ballyhooed offense to win every battle, score every series, or to score a record number of points. It just doesn't work that way. There will be times, he said, especially early in games where we struggle and a lot of plays just don't work. That's why we have defense and a kicking game. But don't be surprised to see some of the same stuff that might not work early work extremely well in the 2nd half, and, sometimes, explode on our opponent as the game wears on. He repeated the much used phrase of "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." and how much the no huddle, fast play calling and execution, and making the defense, especially the BIG lineman, run from sideline to sideline impacts a defense during a game. He noted that, looking out at the audience, that he saw many men with crooked or broken noses, indicating to him that several obviously knew what it meant to get into a fight. He reminded those of us that have how quickly you get fatigued in an all out physical battle combined with emotion and adrenalin pumping -- most grown men expend all their energy in a full out battle in 90 seconds or less. He also asserted that once you had expended all your energy with maybe 7-8 full round house, knock out punches, if your opponent was still standing, he was gonna' whip your ass! It takes longer than 90 seconds in a football game but if Auburn is still standing in the 2nd half and our opponent has thrown their best punches for 90 - 120 minutes, we're gonna' whip their ass.
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I asked him a question from the floor before he concluded. I referenced his "Fatigue makes cowards of us all" mantra and the 80-90 plays a game thing and asked, "But, coach, does that also mean we'll have to play more offensive linemen since they'll have to play more plays as well?" He replied, "I haven't had to do it yet...at UK or Troy. There are probably a couple of reasons for that. Number 1, even though they'll play more plays they won't have to run or expend as much energy as the defensive linemen or any of the defensive players, for that matter. We know where the play is going and the defense doesn't; they'll have to chase the QB first, then the RB or the WR until the play is over. Secondly, OL line coaches are a strange breed -- sort of like DCs -- they are just not comfortable with mixing and matching or interchanging OL. You ever tried changing your golf grip? Not very comfortable is it? A starting OL sort of has a feel or a fit among themselves -- they play as a unit. Most OL coaches see that and have a "feel" for it, too, and changing OL in and out is sort of like changing a golf grip for them -- they just don't like it. With that being said, I'm sure we'll have to look at it and Hugh will make that call but the answer really is, I just have never had to do that because of fatigue in the OL due to the number of plays we've run."
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Someone asked him about his perception/evaluation of his incoming WR class; he named them all and said they each brought something different to the table (size, speed,etc.) and indicated some would have to play -- referenced the fact that in this offense, with the number of plays that he would run per game, he'd need 3 deep at each WR position and the 3rd WR would play 15-20 snaps a game, the first two WRs would likely get 30-35 snaps a game.
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1. I asked him what he found most exciting about the team after watching and coaching them for the bowl game and thru Spring Practice and he instantly said, The offensive line. I've never been around an OL this good and I can't wait to watch it with this system. That excites me."

2. I asked him if we would, indeed, sign two (2) QBs this year (2009 class) and he surprised me a little bit by saying, "Not necessarily. We're going to wait until July and get through the camps. If a GREAT ONE wants to sign with us, we'll take him; otherwise, I'm good with what we have."

I asked, "You're good with what we have and with what's coming?????" He said, "Yep."

I asked about Todd's shoulder again (he referenced it briefly during his talk and I thought I might be able to get more detail off line but I didn't) -- he replied, "I just don't know and won't know until I see him under fire this Fall. I will tell you when his shoulder is good, he's damn good. When it's not good, neither is he."