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Todd's 'stick-to-it quality' pays for him, unbeaten Auburn
Another guy would have told parts of the Auburn fan base to stick it where the sun don't shine.
Another guy would have decided he wouldn't get a fair shake from a brand new coaching staff and left town.
Another guy would have decided the white-hot spotlight that is the SEC
was burning a little too brightly and found refuge at a smaller school.
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| Chris Todd showed what he's capable of in Gus Malzahn's offense with four TD passes vs. West Virginia.
(US Presswire) |
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But Chris Todd, we now know, is not just another guy.
This is a real case where the headlines don't tell the whole story.
Sunday morning's headlines said Todd, a senior from Elizabethtown, Ky.,
threw four touchdown passes to lead Auburn to a wild 41-30 victory over
West Virginia on Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium. And all that is
true.
But if you don't know the full story of how Todd came to enjoy that
moment, the best in his college football career, then you really don't
know Chris Todd.
"You get to college and things happen," Todd told me Sunday night. "You
always hope that you're going to get the opportunity and when it comes,
you hope to make the most of it. After what had happened to me I didn't
know if I was going to get a chance. But I did. That's what made it so
good."
Working out of the spread offense, Todd threw for 10,776 yards and 120
touchdowns in his career at Elizabethtown High School. As a senior, he
threw for 3,180 yards and 38 touchdowns and led his team to a Kentucky
Class 2A state championship.
With numbers like that, it will come as no surprise that he was
recruited to play in Mike Leach's spread-on-steroids attack at Texas
Tech. He signed with the Red Raiders and played in five games in 2006.
Then he decided he would rather not wait his turn behind Graham Harrell
and transferred to Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College for the 2007
season.
Todd had known Tony Franklin since his high school days when Franklin
taught his coaches how to maximize the spread offense. After one year
at Hutchinson, Todd decided he was going to transfer to Troy, where
Franklin's offenses were putting up huge numbers and driving big boy
opponents like Florida State and LSU absolutely crazy.
"I thought Chris was just the perfect quarterback for what we like to
do," said Franklin, now the offensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee.
"It was a perfect fit."
The fit was so perfect that when Franklin took the OC job at Auburn
before the 2008 season, Todd switched his commitment and followed. Todd
was Franklin's guy when he went to Auburn.
But Franklin's wide-open approach was more of a culture shock than
Auburn could absorb. Tommy Tuberville hired Franklin, but brought in
none of Franklin's assistants to implement the offense. Franklin and
the other members of the Auburn offensive staff began to clash because
throwing the ball on just about every down, which Franklin likes to do,
was destined to get sideways with a program that historically relies on
a strong running game.
Auburn won four of its first five games but the offense was not
working. One of those wins was 3-2 against Mississippi State. After a
14-13 loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville, the staff was in full-fledged
internal revolt and Tuberville was left with no choice. He fired
Franklin and benched Todd. Auburn finished the season with Kodi Burns
at quarterback. After a 36-0 loss to Alabama that left Auburn at 5-7,
Tuberville was out after 10 seasons as head coach.
Here is what people didn't know. Todd was basically trying to play with
a dead arm in 2008. Some days the arm worked. Some days it didn't.
"It was incredibly frustrating," Todd said. "After all those years of
throwing, I was used to being able to put the ball where I wanted it
with some pop. There were times when I could get it in there. But other
times I would really doubt myself. You start second-guessing yourself,
which is something I've never done."
"The thing about Todd is that he's a competitor. He wants to compete.
He thought and I thought he could work his way through it," Franklin
said. "He gave me everything he had."
When Gene Chizik was hired as head coach and Gus Malzahn was brought in
as offensive coordinator, Todd had a decision to make. Malzahn's
version of the spread is totally different than Franklin's. Malzahn's
is a run-first approach and only starts throwing the ball after the
defense adjusts to slow down the run. Would Todd have to move one more
time to get a chance?
"I decided that I wanted to stay at Auburn. I love this place and I
love being in the SEC," Todd said. "I just wondered if I would get a
chance and if I did get a chance I knew the window to take advantage of
it would be small."
"We told Chris that we don't live in the past even though we have
knowledge of the past," Chizik said. "When the time came, he would get
the opportunity."
Todd decided in December that he would have arm surgery because without
it, there was no way he could move forward. When spring practice rolled
around, he still could not throw but he stood behind the huddle on
every single play as Malzahn installed the offense. He spent hours in
the film room learning the nuances of what Malzahn wanted to do. He
finally started throwing in the summer, first with a Nerf ball and
gradually with a real football. It was July before he had enough
confidence to test the shoulder and throw hard and throw deep.
"It was back just like new," said Todd. "It was a great feeling."
Todd had been competing with quarterbacks Burns and Neil Caudle for
nine days in the preseason when Malzahn sat him down and delivered the
news: He would be the starting quarterback for Auburn's opening game
with Louisiana Tech on Sept. 5.
"It was incredibly exciting," Todd said. "All those guys were throwing
the ball well and you don't know if the coaches are noticing you. Then
you realize the responsibilities that come with being a starting
quarterback in our league."
Auburn beat Louisiana Tech and Mississippi State with a powerful
running game. Auburn had two backs over 100 yards in beating Louisiana
Tech 37-13. But Todd showed some flashes, completing a 93-yard
touchdown pass, the longest in school history, to Terrell Zachery. The
following week against Mississippi State, Auburn again had two backs
over 100 yards in a 49-24 victory.
But last Saturday West Virginia decided that it was not going to let
Auburn dominate with the running game. Auburn's staff realized that the
outcome of the game was going to fall on Todd's surgically repaired
right arm.
"There were times when we weren't moving the football," Chizik would
say later. "But you looked in his eyes and all your saw was
confidence."
Todd threw four touchdown passes, including a 17-yarder to Darvin Adams
to finally give Auburn the lead with 12:07 left. The Tigers went on to
win 41-30 and start the season 3-0.
"I don't think I've ever been more proud of a football player than I am
of Chris Todd," Franklin said. "He could have quit or just moved on.
That was the easy thing to do. But Chris didn't want to do the easy
thing."
"Chris has a stick-to-it quality that you have to admire," Chizik said.
"There simply aren't that many people who would have persevered the way
he has."
With a win Saturday against Ball State, Auburn will start 4-0. Almost
nobody expected that when Chizik was hired from Iowa State with a 5-19
record.
But a major reason Auburn is in this position is that Chizik and his
staff took a chance on a much traveled quarterback who was convinced he
had one more good season left.
"I knew if I ever got healthy again I could still play and that I could
play at this level," Todd said. "All I wanted was a chance to prove
what I could do. There were a lot of people who still believed in me
when a lot of others didn't. That means a lot to me."
Watch The Tony Barnhart Show every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on CBS College Sports Network.
