Franklin

WVU preview still to come, but dadgummit I suppose I can't really get away with ignoring the Franklin thing until tomorrow, since by then we'll have a game to talk about.

Anyways: as you undoubtedly are already aware of, the long-awaited "Franklin Comes Alive" media blitz kicked off yesterday, as detailed in a dozen places including here, here, here, here, etc.

And from this Auburn's fan's perspective, the only real developments out of all the interviewin' and newsprintin' and Internet-typin' are these:

1. Franklin's not bitter. Given his whistle-blowing history and tendency to shoot straight from the hip, it was fair to think Franklin might feel he'd been grievously wronged by Tubby or stabbed in the back by "his" assistants, and would subsequently unload both barrels as soon as he started talking. This was not the case in the least:

"He probably did the best thing. Because if it was either me or three or four guys, it's a lot easier to fire one guy than three or four. Especially when you've got guys you've been with a long, long time" ...

"I think in the beginning they [the offensive assistants] all tried to do what was asked of them. I think it was human nature that they all reverted back when it wasn't working" ...

"Shoot, it was a unique experience," Franklin said. "I'm glad I had the opportunity. Sorry it didn't work."

This sentiment is likely airbrushed a little for public consumption, but regardless this just doesn't paint a picture of a guy who's sworn he'll get back at those bastards one day, they'll pay for what they've done to him, how could those fools throw away what they had, etc. Franklin might not quite be wearing tie-dye and love beads, but he's cool with what happened, man. Peace.

2. The portrayal of his last day as Franklin goin' medieval on everyone's ass was mostly accurate. Back once again to Forde:

"I had a George Patton speech of more modern times, with all the players and coaches there," Franklin added. "There were some things the players and coaches needed to hear about being responsible. I had owned up to my responsibility and publicly tried to take the blame every time I was asked. It was time for them to do the same.

"Some of them hated me for it, I'm sure, but it worked. I made an attempt that I either won the football team and got them back in my hands, or I lost them. I wasn't going to sit and watch it all sink with my thumb in my mouth. I was going to take every approach I knew to make it work. And I really think it worked."

Yeah, safe to say on a staff where friction had already piled up a ton of straw on the proverbial camel's back, this probably broke it.

And that's it. Everything else--the disconnect between Franklin and his staff, the suddenness of the firing, Franklin's regret at having accepted the job without bringing on at least one of his own assistants, even Tubby's hands-off and spread-resistant game day approach--we knew with some degree of certainty already.

Franklin also confirmed one other detail that is, unfortunately, worth pointing out. I don't buy at all Ray Melick's attempt to twist Franklin's words into a "something's rotten in the state of Denmark" screed--

"The biggest thing is, I don't think it's all Tommy's fault," Franklin said. "The pressure at Auburn is incredible. The standards are such that you don't just win, you have to win every game. What they've done in winning 50 games in five years is remarkable, beating Alabama six times in a row.

"It's an amazing job those guys have done."

--but Franklin's insistence that the problems go beyond him or beyond his predecessor tells us another thing we already knew: the offensive changes this offseason have to go beyond hiring another random OC as a facelift. "This wasn't working. You fired a really good football coach. And you had a good coach before me and you fired him. It's not like it was perfect before me and everything went bad," Franklin said.

And though I'm still far from convinced he's the "really good football coach" he claims to be, the rest of this is accurate. It wasn't working. Borges was a good coach. Everything didn't go bad just because Franklin arrived. The bottom line really is, as Franklin points out, that substantial change is needed to make Auburn into a successful offensive team again.