Whose Offenses Scored the Most?

The Tigers must replace coordinator Rhett Lashlee

(Photo by Acid Reign)

War Eagle, everybody! The talk around the Auburn football complex this week has focused on the departure of offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee. Speculation runs rampant on whether Lashlee was forced out or left to get out from under the shadow of head coach Gus Malzahn. I’ll leave that speculation for others, as there’s no real way to know unless one is inside the football program, and odds are that neither coach will discuss what went on behind closed doors.

What I can do is look at what was said publicly during the past season. After a dismal offensive start to the season, head coach Gus Malzahn announced that he was turning play-calling duties over to offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee. What ensued on the field was a spike in points produced. Suddenly, Auburn was far less predictable, and a sophisticated short-to-medium-range passing attack was unveiled.

No one was terribly surprised when Auburn put 58 points on a poor Louisiana Monroe team, but a 35–0 halftime lead at Mississippi State was a bit of a shock. After a bye week, the Auburn offense revealed more subtle variations and curb-stomped the Arkansas Razorbacks, 56–3. A slow start followed the next week at Ole Miss, but the offense adapted and rolled over the Rebels, 40–29. Auburn was crushing defenses, and playoff talk was the order of the day.

Unbeknownst to us at the time, quarterback Sean White had been injured against the Rebels, and John Franklin III was named as a surprise starter the morning of the Vanderbilt game. A painfully conservative offensive game was called, and Auburn trailed Vandy at the half. A wobbly White was inserted back into the game in the second half, and Auburn did just enough to escape, 23–16 over the Commodores.

At Georgia, Auburn stuck with the obviously wounded Sean White at quarterback, and the poor play-calling continued. The Tigers lost to Georgia 13–7, despite holding the Georgia offense to just a pair of field goals. In Auburn’s final 3 FBS games against Georgia, Alabama, and Oklahoma, the Auburn offense managed just 2 offensive touchdowns until the garbage minutes of the Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma’s reserves.

I can’t say for certain what happened, but it sure looked like a back-and-forth control issue on the field. The only thing that is certain is that it looks like the innovative play calling is now headed up to Connecticut to work for Randy Edsall. Who will replace Lashlee? I would not be surprised to see Herb Hand named offensive coordinator, and for coach Malzahn to hire a new coach just to tend to quarterbacks.

In the meantime, I’ll try to entertain everyone with a little statistical game. What I am going to do is compile some simple numbers from each Auburn offensive coordinator since Shug Jordan retired. What I am going to look at is points scored against SEC opponents. Yes, I know that this will include some defensive and special teams scores, but I think that those even out over time. Those are usually so infrequent that the data won’t be too skewed.

One other complication is that there were a couple of periods during that time where Auburn did not have a named offensive coordinator. During the Barfield administration, there was none. Some mention Gene Lorendo as an offensive coach, but I think Barfield had his hands in the offense and more or less remained the coordinator. Likewise, from 1986–1990, the Auburn offense was led by a triumvirate of head coach Pat Dye, quarterbacks coach Pat Sullivan, and receivers coach Larry Blakeney.

Coordinator Wins-Losses-Ties Points per game scored Doug Barfield (1976-80) 13 – 16 – 1 * 19.77 Jack Crowe (1981-85) 19 – 11 21.47 Dye/Sullivan/Blakeney (1986-90) 25 – 6 – 2 23.21 Tommy Bowden (1991-1996)** 27 – 18 – 2 26.6 Rodney Allison (1997-1998)*** 7 – 7 – 0 19.29 Jimbo Fisher (1998)*** 0 – 3 – 0 18.33 Noel Mazzone (1999-2001) 13 – 12 – 0 19.56 Bobby Petrino (2002) 5 – 3 – 0 26.63 Hugh Nall (2003) 5 – 3 – 0 23.75 Al Borges (2004-2007) 27 – 6 – 0 26.21 Tony Franklin (2008)**** 2 – 2 – 0 12.75 Steven Ensminger (2008)**** 0 – 4 – 0 13 Gus Malzahn (2009-2011) 16 – 9 – 0 28.92 Scot Loeffler (2012) 0 – 8 – 0 10.13 Rhett Lashlee (2013-2016) 19 – 14 – 0 30.55

* Mississippi State was later forced to forfeit 2 wins against Auburn.

** Tommy Bowden survived a head-coaching change, from Pat Dye to Terry Bowden.

*** Allison left a week after Terry Bowden resigned, and play-calling duties went to Fisher.

**** Franklin was fired at midseason, and play-calling duties went to Ensminger.

Obviously, this table spans a number of eras of offensive innovation and rule changes. Still, it is striking that Lashlee leaves with the highest scoring average. Easily the worst regime was under Chizik and Loeffler, again another way to describe how futile that year was on offense. Will Auburn’s next coodinator maintain the high level of scoring Auburn fans are used to seeing? I believe the talent is on hand to do just that!