Auburn tries to move forward

AUBURN — Tommy Tuberville seemed baffled at the larger-than-average media gathering Thursday in the Rane Room of Auburn’s Athletic Complex.

Those are the breaks, of course, when the new offensive coordinator gets fired in the middle of the week, midway through the season.

The head coach was able to provide the cavalcade with a little clarity on where Auburn’s offense stands for the second half of the season, as he said tight ends coach Steve Ensminger will move to the coaches’ box to call plays for the rest of the season.

It is by no means a permanent gig. Tuberville said he will soon begin “collecting names” for Tony Franklin’s permanent replacement but will not sign a new coach “until the end of the year.” Ensminger and the rest of Auburn’s offensive coaches will not be considered.

Ensminger, or any other assistant coaches, were not made available for comment.

Tuberville said he has no plans on bringing in a consultant to help the No. 20 Tigers (4-2, 2-2 SEC) turn around their season, while still trying to figure out and make Franklin’s trademark spread offense work.

“We’ve got plenty of guys that know what they’re doing,” Tuberville said. “We’ve got enough coaches, to be honest with you. That’s the side of the ball where we have more.”

Tuberville reaffirmed that he will have a larger role in the offense and that offensive line coach Hugh Nall, running backs / special teams coach Eddie Gran and wide receivers coach Greg Knox will also be chiming in from the sidelines.

The head coach also reiterated that Auburn will not ditch the spread this Saturday against Arkansas or even in the next six years.

The Tigers just have to get better at running it.

“The thing that we want to do is make everything positive and do everything to the point where our guys understand what they’ve got to do and how they’ve got to do it,” Tuberville said.

Ensminger has some experience as a play-caller at the BCS level.

The 50-year-old served as a quarterbacks coach / offensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech from 1988-1990, at Texas A&M from 1994-96 and at Clemson from 1997-98. Sandwiched in between his time at Clemson and when he signed with Auburn in 2003, Ensminger was a high school football coach in Louisiana.

He was essentially a co-coordinator with Nall in 2003, when the Tigers went 8-5 and averaged 376.2 yards of total offense per game.

Like that season, Ensminger won’t be on his own this time around. This will be a team effort.

“We’re still a work in progress,” Tuberville said. “But we are working through some injuries and are trying to get everybody on the same page and just trying to get more focused.”

Tuberville said he doesn’t plan on changing a thing with Auburn’s offense, which includes working from the no-huddle and moving at an even faster, uptempo pace. The playbook will, again, be simplified because you have to “try to do as much as your players can handle,” he said.

“Tony did a good job,” Tuberville said. “He knew the offense; he taught these guys well.”