By Stephen Featherston, Louisiana Tech Director of Strategic Communications
RUSTON – Louisiana Tech head football coach Sonny Cumbie announced Thursday the hiring of Tony Franklin as the team’s new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. Franklin returns to Ruston for his second tenure as offensive coordinator, holding the same position at LA Tech for three seasons from 2010-12.
“We’re excited to welcome back to Louisiana Tech an experienced play caller that has been highly successful every place he’s been-including here,” said Cumbie. “Tony is going to build relationships with our players and staff, lead them well, while implementing an explosive and productive offense. I’m looking forward to welcoming him and Laura back to Ruston and Louisiana Tech.”
A longtime play caller, Franklin brings over 40 years of coaching experience, including 16 years as an FBS offensive coordinator. He most recently served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Army Sprint Football Team in 2022.
Franklin led Army Sprint football to a 6-2 record and to an appearance in the CSFL Championship game in 2022. Franklin’s offense averaged 42.50 points per game and 453.8 yards per contest.
Franklin is no stranger to Conference USA, having served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Middle Tennessee from 2016-20, marking his second stint with the Blue Raiders after serving in the same capacity in 2009. The 2019 season saw wide receiver Ty Lee become the school’s all-time leading receiver, while Asher O’Hara became the second quarterback to rush for over 1,000 yards.
In 2018, quarterback Brent Stockstill earned C-USA MVP honors Under Franklin’s guidance. Stockstill became the school’s all-time leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns and completions, while WR Richie James ended his career as the all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdown receptions.
MTSU’s 2016 offense set single-season records in total offense, total yards per game, yards per play, points scored, passing yards, pass attempts, pass completions, touchdown passes, total touchdowns, first downs and all-purpose yards. Franklin coordinated an offense that ranked second in C-USA and eighth in the FBS in total offense, averaging 517.7 yards per game. The 2016 season saw the Blue Raiders produce a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiver for the first time in program history. He coached two first team All-CUSA selections in receiver Richie James and running back I’Tavius Mathers, while receiver Ty Lee was a freshman All-American.
Prior to returning to MTSU, Franklin followed former LA Tech head coach Sonny Dykes to Cal where he spent three seasons as Golden Bears offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2013-15, while also coaching the running backs in his final season in 2015.
Franklin mentored future NFL No. 1 draft pick Jared Goff for three seasons at Cal. Goff set 26 program records during his three seasons with Cal and started all 37 games at quarterback from 2013-15, while setting career marks for passing yards (12,220), touchdown passes (96), total offense (12,086), and completions (977). He ranks third all-time in Pac-12 history in passing yardage and fourth for passing touchdowns. In 2015, Goff broke the Pac-12 single-season passing record with 4,719 yards and 43 touchdowns, leading Cal to an 8-5 record and its first bowl victory since 2008, while becoming the first Cal quarterback to earn All-Pac 12 honors since Aaron Rodgers in 2004.
Cal’s offense set numerous offensive records for the third straight season during their 8-5 run in 2015, including passing yardage (4,892), passing yards per game (376.3 ypg), passing touchdowns (44), total offense (6,879), total yards per game (529.2 ypg), total touchdowns (63), scoring offense (37.9 ppg, modern-era record), first downs (341) and first downs passing (201), with all the marks previously set in 2014 and 2013 under Franklin. The Golden Bears ranked third nationally in passing offense, eight in total offense, and 17th in scoring offense, while ranking second in the Pac-12 in all three categories. Cal set single game records with 760 yards of total offense and 36 first downs against Oregon State. Cal was the only team in the country to have six receivers with 40+ receptions in 2015.
The Bears offense continued to succeed under Franklin, setting or matching nine single-season or modern-era program records. Cal set new marks for passing yards (4,152), passing touchdowns (37), total yards per game (495.2), and first downs via passing (188). Additionally, the team set modern-era school records for points (459), scoring average (38.2 points per game), and touchdowns (61), all of which were later surpassed in 2015.
Cal finished the 2014 season in the top 25 nationally in seven categories including passing offense (6th, 346.0 ypg), scoring offense (10th, 38.3 ppg), total offense (13th, 495.2 ypg), fourth-down conversion percentage (14th, 67.9%, 19-28), first downs offense (19th, 319), third-down conversions (23rd, 46.1%) and team passing efficiency (24th, 145.77).
Franklin’s first offensive unit at Cal in 2013 set single-season school records for passing yards (3977), pass completions (368) and total plays (1,046), with the passing yards mark being broken in 2014 and 2015 while the pass completions and total plays records still stand. The passing offense finished third in the Pac-12 and 10th in the nation with an average of 331.4 yards per game that was also the best in school history before being surpassed in 2014 and 2015. Cal’s 5,443 yards of total offense in 2013 is the fifth-highest total in school history, while its average of 453.6 yards per game ranks sixth.
Quarterback Jared Goff started in all 12 games and became the first true freshman to start a season opener during Franklin’s first season with the Bears. Goff set numerous records, which he would later break, in passing yards (3,508), total offense (3,446), completions (320), attempts (531) and total plays (590).
In his final campaign with LA Tech in 2013, the Bulldogs posted a 9-3 record and led the nation in scoring offense (51.50 ppg) and total offense (577.92 ypg). Franklin was a nominee for the Broyles Award given annually to the college football’s top assistant coach and one of four finalists for the FootballScoop.com Offensive Coordinator of the Year.
In addition to leading the nation in scoring and total offense with an offense that posted the fifth-highest per-game scoring average ever by a team in the FBS, LA Tech ranked among the NCAA’s top 20 in 2012 in passing offense (3rd, 350.75 ypg), fewest sacks allowed (7th, 0.83 spg), turnover margin (10th, +1.08 per game) and rushing offense (18th, 227.17 ypg). The Bulldogs scored more than 40 points in 11 of 12 games and over 50 points in eight games.
Quarterback Colby Cameron was named the 2012 Western Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year and earned the Sammy Baugh Award presented to college football’s top passer by The Touchdown Club of Columbus. Cameron completed 359-of-522 passes (68.8%) for 4,147 yards and 31 touchdowns with just five interceptions. He ranked third nationally in total offense (360.33 ypg), while he was 22nd in the nation in passing efficiency (153.19). Cameron also set a new NCAA record for most consecutive passes without an interception over his first 428 attempts in 2012 and totaled 444 going back to the previous season.
Second-team AP All-American Quinton Patton, who went on to the NFL, was Cameron’s top receiver and a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist in 2012 with 104 catches for 1,392 yards receiving and 13 touchdown receptions. Patton led the WAC in both receiving yards per game (116.00 ypg) and receptions (8.67 rpg), with those numbers ranking fourth and fifth nationally. Myles White added 56 catches for 718 yards receiving and six touchdowns, while ranking fourth and sixth in the WAC in per-game yards receiving (59.83 ypg) and receptions (4.67 rpg).
On the ground, running back Kenneth Dixon was tabbed the WAC Freshman of the Year and earned Freshman All-American honors after breaking Marshall Faulk’s NCAA freshman records for rushing touchdowns (27), total touchdowns (28) and points (168). Dixon led the country in scoring with an average of 14.00 points per game while totaling 1,194 yards on 200 carries. He was also second in the WAC and 33rd nationally in rushing with an average of 106.42 yards per game. Capital One Academic All-America first team selection Ray Holley, a graduate student pursing a degree in counseling with a 3.50 GPA, added 740 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground over 142 rushes.
During Franklin’s second season in Ruston in 2011 he orchestrated an offense that was fundamentally sound and continued to improve weekly on a Bulldog team that finished 8-5 overall and won the WAC title with a 6-1 league record before advancing to play TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl. Tech ranked third in the nation with five different scoring drives over 90 yards during the season. That precision guided Tech’s offensive explosion at Fresno State when the team scored 34 points and notched over 400 yards of offense in the first half alone. The offense produced more than 40 points on three occasions and averaged 31.71 points per contest during a seven-game win streak to end the regular season. Patton was among both the top receivers in the WAC and across the nation in per-game yards receiving (92.46 ypg, No. 2 WAC, No. 20 NCAA) and receptions (6.08 rpg, No. 4 WAC, No. T28 NCAA), finishing with totals of 79 receptions for 1,202 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns.
In Franklin’s first year on Tech’s staff, his spread offense exploded into a high-octane mechanism in the middle of the season resulting with the team scoring 34 points or more in four of the final six contests and 41 or more three times. Running back Lennon Creek was the team’s top threat, rushing for 1,181 yards and 10 scores on 212 carries. His average of 98.42 yards rushing per game ranked third in the WAC and 22nd nationally.
Franklin’s first stint at MTSU came in the 2009 season where his offense posted 421.69 total yards of offense and 32.00 points per game, the fourth and seventh highest totals in school history for a team that posted a 10-3 record that was its best since 1992. The Blue Raider offense, which produced three All-Sun Belt Conference players, scored 30 or more points in nine games, including each of the last five games, and topped the 400-yard mark in total offense eight times. Franklin’s unit set school records in total yards (5,482), passing yards (3,064) and total points (416), with per-game averages that were 23rd nationally in scoring, and 27th in total offense and rushing offense (186.00 ypg).
MTSU quarterback Dwight Dasher earned second-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors and was the MVP of the 2009 New Orleans Bowl, where he broke Vince Young’s NCAA record for yards rushing in a bowl game by a quarterback with 201 (since broken by Johnny Manziel in the 2013 Cotton Bowl). Dasher ranked seventh in the nation in total offense (303.31 ypg), threw for a school-record 23 TD passes and was named the SBC Player of the Week three times that season. Dasher finished the season with totals of 2,789 yards passing and 1,154 yards rushing to become only the eighth player in NCAA history to pass for over 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 in the same season, and the first quarterback in Middle Tennessee history to rush for 1,000.
Franklin made his way to Middle Tennessee after a brief stint as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Auburn, where he coached the Tigers to an overtime victory over Clemson in the 2007 Chick-fil-A Bowl. He remained in the role six games into the 2008 season, with Auburn adding to his Chick-fil-A Bowl victory in 2007 by sporting a 4-2 record in 2008 before he was released from his duties. The Tigers were 0-5 against Division I teams the remainder of the 2008 campaign following his departure.
Franklin was in the same capacity the previous two seasons at Troy (2006-07) where the Trojans combined to go 16-9 overall and 12-2 in the Sun Belt Conference while collecting two league titles. During that span his offense scored 30 or more points 11 times and on eight occasions in his second season, including games against Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma State. In 2007, his squad led the Sun Belt in scoring offense (34.00 ppg) and total offense (452.83 ypg), with a No. 16 national ranking in the latter.
In addition to helping the Trojans to their first Sun Belt Conference title and a victory in the New Orleans Bowl in his first season at Troy, Franklin helped engineer the second-ranked offensive unit in the Sun Belt just one year after the team ranked last in the league in total offense. The Trojans ranked first in the league in passing offense, again one year after ranking last, despite facing three of the top 20 ranked passing defense teams in the country during the season, and more than doubled their offensive output in conference action to 25.23 points per game.
Franklin spent four campaigns on the football staff at Kentucky from 1997-2000 following 16 seasons as a high school football coach. During his tenure at Kentucky, the Wildcats enjoyed unprecedented success on the offensive side of the ball, setting several NCAA, SEC and school records. After coaching running backs for the first three seasons, Franklin was named offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach for the 2000 campaign and led the Wildcats to success as the nation’s second-best passing offense as well as the country’s 11th-best team in total offense.
Franklin’s two-back combinations at Kentucky outgained any two-back combinations in the SEC in total yards from scrimmage for three straight seasons. Quarterbacks Tim Couch, Dusty Bonner and Jared Lorenzen each led the SEC in passing during their time as Kentucky quarterbacks, and Couch was the first player selected in the 1999 NFL Draft. Several other UK players reached their goals of making NFL teams after their experience in the high-powered offense.
Franklin was also named one of the top 10 recruiters in the South during his four years at Kentucky as he helped lead the Wildcats to their first back-to-back bowl appearances in 15 seasons in 1998 and 1999, including their first New Year’s Day Bowl game appearance in 47 years against Penn State in the Outback Bowl following the end of the 1998 campaign.
Franklin also spent one season in 2003 as the general manager and head coach of the Lexington Horsemen of the National Indoor Football League, successfully leading the team to a first-round playoff game and a 9-5 regular-season record as an expansion franchise in its inaugural season. The team paced the Atlantic Division in scoring, averaging 53.1 points per game.
In addition to his coaching career, Franklin is the owner of The Tony Franklin Systems that conducts a series of football seminars for coaches emphasizing winning solutions. USA Today took notice of Franklin’s football coaching and teaching abilities in a feature story in 2005 which detailed his consulting successes as a nationally sought-after offensive football coach.
Franklin has also written a pair of books and received rave reviews for his second publication, Victor’s Victory, which chronicled the tragic death and spectacular life of 15-year-old Hoover High School football player Victor Dionte Hill, who died from sudden cardiac arrest on the football practice field during one of Franklin’s consulting sessions. The book has helped to continue the mission of Cheryl Hill, Victor’s mother, to make teachers, coaches, and parents aware of the need for automatic external defibrillators (AED) in every school and youth organization in Alabama.
Franklin received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Murray State in 1979 and 1989, where he was a two-year starter as a running back. He is married to Laura Franklin, and they have three daughters: Chelsea, Caroline and Caitlin.
COLLEGE COACHING EXPERIENCE
1997-99: Kentucky (running backs)
2000: Kentucky (offensive coordinator/wide receivers)
2006-07: Troy (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks)
2008: Auburn (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks)
2009: MTSU (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks)
2010-12: LA Tech (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks)
2013-15: Cal (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks)
2016-20: MTSU (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks)
BOWL HISTORY
1998: Kentucky – Outback Bowl
1999: Kentucky – Music City Bowl
2006: Troy – New Orleans Bowl
2007: Auburn – Chick-fil-A Bowl
2009: MTSU – New Orleans Bowl
2011: LA Tech – Poinsettia Bowl
2015: Cal – Armed Forces Bowl
2016: MTSU – Hawaii Bowl
2017: MTSU – Camellia Bowl
2018: MTSU – New Orleans Bowl
