If you've been reading this blog for the last two years, hopefully you've learned one things about me and that is that I vehemently oppose the spread offense. Sure it works for many teams, but in terms of having consistent success and building professional prospects at the college level a pro-style offense is the way to go.

That's just the Midwestern-loving Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Duffy Daugherty fan in me. One of my favorite quotes all-time is the "everyone has a game plan, until they get hit in the mouth."

One of the schools I've loved to watch over the past 10-15 years is Auburn. You always knew they were going to try to win the game on the line of scrimmage and pound you on the ground. The Tigers have had a great amount of success with that style of play. You've like heard of some running backs that have come through campus: Bo Jackson, Rudi Johnson, Ronnie Brown, and Cadillac Williams to name a few.

So it boggled my mind that Tommy Tuberville would opt to go with the spread offense this offseason. It's even more stunning that he's surprised it's not working that well.

Here's Auburn's offensive numbers so far this season: Run / Pass

vs La-Lafayette: 321 / 85
vs So Miss: 132 / 248
vs Miss State: 38 / 78
vs LSU: 70 / 250
vs Tenn: 97 / 129
vs 106 / 157

That's been good enough for the 104th ranked offense and a 3-2 record. And this afternoon, that was reason enough for Tommy Tuberville to fire his offensive coordinator Tony Franklin -- presumably to save his own job.

The spread offense works for a lot of people, aside from USC most of the recent champions have either used it primarily or at least consider it a portion of their offense. But when adjusting to that style, one must realize it takes some time. Just ask Rich Rodriguez.

Good luck, Tommy, but you should be the one fired.

Auburn fires Franklin amid offensive struggles [AP]