GRIBBLE COLUMN: Burns has support of teammates, coaches
Andrew Gribble
Auburn Insider
Published: November 6, 2008
Auburn players aren’t big on remembering specific stats. Neither is coach Tommy Tuberville.
Sure, they’ll toss them around here and there, and they’ll sound about right to the common ear. They’re just a bit off, usually; a few points, yards, wins or losses here and there that tend to make them and/or Auburn look better.
Give them credit, they’re usually pretty close.
There’s one stat, however, that no Auburn player has gotten wrong this week. Pretty phenomenal considering that most, especially on the offensive side of the ball, have all brought it up, unprompted, when describing the play of Kodi Burns.
After Saturday’s loss at Ole Miss, the sophomore quarterback has two full starts under his belt. Eight full quarters to figure out what makes college football so much tougher than high school. One-hundred twenty minutes to work out the kinks in an offense that was still looking for an identity as of two weeks ago.
It’s been long enough for Burns to almost entirely blame an Auburn loss on himself. Considering the three interceptions he threw, it may have been justified and desired from his teammates.
But those teammates weren’t focused on three then, and definitely were not Sunday and Tuesday.
The buzz number was “two.”
“He made some big throws with people in his face,” tight end Tommy Trott said. “I thought he played especially well. A few mistakes here and there, but really that was his second game as a full starter.
“We got down and he was just trying to make plays, trying to get us back in the game.”
Auburn won’t win many more games if it can’t figure out how to consistently run the ball — something it did so well in the past. “Running Back U,” anyone?
Without a running game to scare opposing defenses away, Burns will be picked on by savvier, more experienced defensive backs and linebackers over and over again, just as he was Saturday at Oxford.
But if Auburn’s third straight loss within a conference it was supposed to conquer showed anything, it showed that the sophomore from Fort Smith, Ark., is somewhat up to that challenge.
“I saw a lot of maturity from Kodi,” said wide receiver Tim Hawthorne, also a sophomore. “I think he showed a lot of character and just pretty much he had faith in all of us to make plays. Right there, alone, is a big plus from his side to us.”
When Burns didn’t feel like he had 100 percent faith from his coaches and teammates, his performance faltered. He readily admits that.
The stat sheet will tell you that Burns really has five career starts, but the first two, if anything, stalled Burns’ progress.
His first served not necessarily as an aide to his development, but as a wakeup call of sorts to embattled senior Brandon Cox last season. After hearing raucous approval from Auburn’s fans that he would be the starter, Burns was watching from the sidelines about an hour later, as those same fans chanted the veteran’s name.
His second start, which came at the start of this season, showed what he could do with his feet, but revealed nothing about his arm. The confusion brought on by Tony Franklin’s spread was apparent in Chris Todd, but moreso in Burns, who lost his job the next week when Todd was named the permanent starter.
Burns’ start against Arkansas, just three days after Franklin was fired, served as another episode of him faltering when held by a short leash. Watching Todd struggle just as much as he did minutes earlier did nothing but hamper any progress that had been made.
“Since they told me that you’re the guy and don’t worry about it, you kind of look at it with a different mindset now,” Burns said recently.
That mindset has translated into actual improvement. As bad as throwing the three interceptions was, throwing for 319 yards, most of which came in the second half, isn’t something to sniff at.
Apples to oranges fully acknowledged, Jason Campbell threw for more than 300 yards in a game once his entire Auburn career.
“For me to just step in when things aren’t looking all good and everybody is kind of down, that’s a lot on me,” Burns said. “I’m willing to take that responsibility. This is what I’ve been waiting on all year.”
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