Eggzillent piece by Kevun Skradinski. Puts it in a little better perspective for me. I'm gonna' back whoever is in there and I hope White continues to get better and better. If he wins the job, so be it.
If we know anything about Gus Malzahn from his tenure at Auburn as both offensive coordinator and head coach, it's this: He's done his best work with a quarterback who followed a long and winding road out of high school before taking his running and throwing talents to the Plains.
See Cam Newton and Nick Marshall.
So why wouldn't Malzahn want John Franklin III?
Why wouldn't the Auburn coach be thrilled to get a commitment from a young man who started his college career at Florida State, then transferred to East Mississippi Community College?
Why wouldn't Malzahn and offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee be eager to work with a 6-foot-2, 185-pound dual threat who also ran track at FSU?
Why not try to dance with the kind of quarterback that brought you to one national title and the brink of another?
Recruiting, offering and getting a commitment from Franklin isn't an insult to Sean White, Jeremy Johnson or Tyler Queen, the scholarship quarterbacks on the current Auburn roster. It's more of an acknowledgement that the popular theory about Malzahn's ability to plug any style of quarterback into his system and light up SEC stat sheets and scoreboards no longer applies.
Malzahn is in his sixth season at Auburn, his third as head coach. None of his teams has led the conference in passing offense. His 2010 and 2013 teams led the league in rushing offense, and his 2010 team finished first in total offense.
What else do those teams have in common? They outscored opponents en route to two SEC championships and two national title games, winning the first and coming up just short in the second.
Newton and Marshall were major threats in the run game, though Newton relied on power while Marshall featured speed. You can't say the same about Malzahn's other starting quarterbacks: Chris Todd, Barrett Trotter, Clint Moseley, Johnson and White.
With Malzahn and a running quarterback, Auburn went 14-0 in 2010 and 12-2 in 2013. With Malzahn but without a running quarterback, the Tigers went 8-5 in 2009, 8-5 in 2011 and they're 4-4 this season heading to Texas A&M.
The outlier is 2014, when Marshall and the offense put up good numbers - minus the Georgia defeat - but couldn't overcome an historically poor defense, and Auburn crumbled from 7-1 to 8-5.
No one can say for sure if Franklin is the answer for next season, and please don't call him Johnny Football. It's one thing to impersonate Marshall for the Florida State scout team in the run-up to the 2014 BCS Championship Game, as Franklin did. It's a different proposition to run through SEC defenses for 1,068 yards, as Marshall did in 2013.
There are multiple issues with this Auburn's offense, which is 10th in the SEC in scoring and 11th in total offense, by far the lowest ranks of Malzahn's two tours on the Plains. A veteran offensive line's production hasn't matched its experience, the tailback position has been dogged by injuries and the best receiver got kicked off the team, leaving behind a hit-or-miss collection of hands.
But the most serious dropoff has come at quarterback. Johnson wasn't up to the task of starting in the SEC. White's been an upgrade, and no one can question his toughness, but how high is the redshirt freshman's ceiling going forward?
If you sign with a school like Auburn, you should expect to compete for a starting job. The quarterback competition should be wide open for next season, and talents such as Franklin and high school commit Woody Barrett should be welcome to join that competition.