Published: August 03, 2008 11:27 pm            

This one's in the bag

Franklin’s offense, The System, spreads from small beginning

When it started, back in the spring of 2002, a brown paper bag was good enough to package Tony Franklin’s way of teaching football offense.

That bag has burst.

Franklin, Kentucky’s running backs coach and offensive coordinator from 1997 to 2000, now shares his patented The System to thousands of coaches all across the country. It teaches a flexible version of the spread offense that has caught on like a wildfire around the coaching ranks.

Greenup County, which made a deep run in last year’s playoffs, Lewis County and Raceland were among the area teams running the offense in 2007.

In fact, the Rams were among the first teams to pick up on Franklin’s offense, which was copyrighted after he left UK.

In the spring of 2001 “things weren’t going too well,” Raceland coach Randy Vanderhoof said — and that’s when Franklin contacted the Rams’ coach through a letter about his system.

With some persuading from a Franklin supporter, coach Rush Propst of ESPN’s hit TV series Two-A-Days, Vanderhoof decided to give it a shot.

Soon after, Vanderhoof met with Franklin in Raceland’s coaches room to learn what he could about The System. An 18 hour film session later and Vanderhoof was convinced.

And then the Rams’ coach took his staff to Nashville for the first The System clinic in 2002. Only about 12 schools were involved at that time and everything was shipped in and out in a brown grocery bag, according to Vanderhoof.

Now, there’s DVDs, weekly conference calls, clinics, on-site consulting, online support and more in what is touted as a lifetime’s worth of offensive football knowledge that comes with The System. It’s certainly more than any bag will hold.

“No way I would have ever envisioned what it has become,” Vanderhoof said before leading his Rams onto the field for practice last week. “Every year, it just kept growing.”

Now Franklin teaches all across the country and at his three-day clinic this February in Nashville — the one Vanderhoof and Greenup County coach Mike Sammons attended — there were thousands of coaches sponging the information.

“You get everything, his entire offense,” Sammons said. “It runs daylight to dark and you are getting lectures, watching film or doing walkthroughs the whole time ... The clinic itself is on DVD now.”

One of the features of The System that Sammons likes is the conference call. With it coaches are able to call in and discuss plays and how best to run them, an especially helpful tool with an offense as complicated as Franklin’s, according to Sammons.

“With 350 combinations of formations and plays, you can get overwhelmed,” he said.

Franklin, a Princeton, Ky., native, began his coaching career in the high school ranks in 1979 before being hired by former UK coach Hall Mumme in 1997. In 2000, Franklin was named the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator and immediately turned the offense into a national power.

Kentucky had the second ranked passing offense in 2000 and ranked 11th in total offense at 445 yards per game.

Franklin wrote a book titled “Fourth Down and Life To Go” in 2001 in which he detailed the inner workings of Kentucky’s program. The book led to him being blacklisted from coaching before landing another college job at Troy in 2006.

Franklin was hired as Auburn’s offensive coordinator just before the Tigers’ bowl game last year. With only eight days to implement his system, Auburn racked up 423 yards in a 23-20 over Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

“It’s been great watching Tony’s success,” Vanderhoof, who still stay in regular contact with Franklin, said.

Raceland used The System to lead a 6-4 season and a playoff win in 2007. The Rams were 11-2 in 2006. In 2003, Vanderhoof took the team to Hoover, Ala., for Franklin’s clinic. There, the Rams got to see the Hoover football program up close.

“That show is right on (with what football means to them),” Vanderhoof said.

Greenup County also had some late-season success in 2007. The Musketeers, running The System offense, won four of their last six games, including a district championship victory over Boyd County.

Last season, Lewis County’s J.T. Britt set a state record with 99 receptions in The System. He had 1,360 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns.

Also playing in The System last season, Lone Oak senior quarterback Corey Robinson threw for a national record 91 touchdown passes. He set a single-season state record with 5,872 yards passing, being named Kentucky’s Mr. Football.

“(The System) has a lot to do with that,” Vanderhoof said.

ADAM VANKIRK can be reached at avankirk@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2664.

Auburn resumes QB race under direction of Franklin

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) Now, Auburn’s real quarterback competition can begin.

Contenders Chris Todd and Kodi Burns settled little over the spring, partly because Todd was having shoulder troubles. They resumed the race for the starting job when fall camp opened Saturday.

It’s the biggest question facing the Tigers: Who will operate Tony Franklin’s new spread offense? None of the principles seem particularly concerned, and Auburn was nonetheless the popular pick to win the Southeastern Conference Western Division.

Franklin, a former Kentucky assistant and offensive coordinator, said he doesn’t have a timetable for picking a winner.

“I hope that one of them separates himself and says, I’m by far the best, and you need to play me most of the time if not all the time,” Auburn’s new offensive coordinator said. “If that happens, it’s good. It makes it easier for me. If it doesn’t happen, they both have their strengths, and I see them both playing. I see it as being a good problem, not a bad problem.”

Coach Tommy Tuberville said Burns is the tentative No. 1, but that he wouldn’t be surprised if Todd overtakes him. Tuberville doesn’t want an either-or situation heading into the season.

“I’m a true believer that your quarterback is the leader of your football team in terms of your locker room, your sideline — not just for your offense but for your defense and your kicking game,” he said. “We will have a true starter.”

Tuberville estimated Todd’s right, throwing shoulder was only “80 percent” healthy during the spring, which didn’t give coaches a fully accurate look at the junior college transfer.

Todd said his arm has held up well as he increased his throwing regimen into the summer.

“From where it was in the spring, it’s a drastic difference,” he said. “I think a lot of it was working out again and being able to get some strength back in it and being able to throw and just build it back up. I can make all the throws now, especially the deep stuff and the stuff on the sidelines that I couldn’t quite make during the spring.”

Burns was mostly used as a runner last season in alternating with starter Brandon Cox. He attempted only 26 passes while logging 54 carries in nine games.

Both contenders said having the competition helped serve as motivation during the summer. Burns said he’s not stressing about the situation.

“Everybody wants to be the starter, but he’s a good quarterback and having him here to push me just makes you better,” Burns said. “There’s always going to be pressure at the quarterback position. The good ones are able to handle pressure and I believe I’m able to handle pressure.

“All I’m worried about is making the team better and trying to be a better quarterback for my team.”

He said Franklin has stressed that he needs to improve his footwork and develop a quicker release. “I feel like I’ve gotten my release a lot quicker, but I’ve got to keep working on my footwork,” Burns said.

His role didn’t change much in his debut under Franklin. Burns completed only one pass against Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl but rushed for a team-high 69 yards while alternating with Brandon Cox.

Burns is more of a scrambler than Todd, who started his college career with pass-happy Texas Tech before transferring to Hutchinson Community College.

Franklin thinks this is not a starter-by-default scenario.

“It’s one of those things people sometimes say if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one,” he said. “I think in this situation we really have two. They’re uniquely different.

“That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

        

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