As a senior at Northside High School in Fort Smith, Arkansas, quarterback Kodi Burns accounted for 36 touchdowns en route to placement as the No. 8 Dual-Threat QB in the 2007 class. Burns chose to join Tommy Tuberville’s offense at Auburn, despite being heavily recruited by his future coach Gus Malzahn, who served as Arkansas’ offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at the time.
Burns was the hero of Auburn’s 2007 Chick-fil-a Bowl win over Clemson, scoring the game-winning touchdown run in overtime. He couldn’t quite find the success at the quarterback position in the 2008 season that many expected of him, and transitioned to wide receiver during the season.
As a sophomore at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, Mississippi, quarterback John Franklin III accounted for 1,184 total yards and 16 touchdowns. His performance at “Last Chance U” pinned the Fort Lauderdale, Florida native as one of the top JUCO prospects heading into last season. Franklin chose to join Gus Malzahn’s offense at Auburn.
Franklin couldn’t quite find the success at the quarterback position in the 2016 season that many expected of him, therefore Malzahn saw a transition to wide receiver as the most viable option for the mega-athlete.
On March 21st, Malzahn announced in a press conference that “John Franklin will work primarily at wide receiver for the rest of the team. He has a great attitude and wants to help the team," Malzahn said.
Prior to this announcement, Franklin had been rotating between snaps at wide receiver, quarterback and even roles on special teams. The move pushed the rising senior out of the log-jam under center, where Jarrett Stidham, Malik Willis, Woody Barrett and Sean White still linger.
Burns, who was named Auburn’s wide receivers coach back in February of 2016, now fittingly serves as a teacher to Franklin.
“I think it’s just a really good situation for myself and John to just see eye-to-eye and come into this thing like ‘dude I get it’” Burns said. I can really mentor him and coach him up and understand that he’s a big-time athlete.”
Franklin turned in his most impressive effort of the season in game five against Louisiana-Monroe. The quarterback tossed a 39-yard touchdown to Nate Craig-Myers and galloped 80 yards for a score. The touchdown run was the longest run by an SEC QB last year, in addition to being the second-longest run of all-time by an Auburn signal caller.
Despite his rushing success in RPO packages, Franklin struggled mightily in the passing game, throwing for only 204 yards and a single touchdown. At times, Franklin looked completely inept in the pocket and extremely inaccurate passing the ball downfield.
However, Franklin is handling the transition to wide-out efficiently, as the speedster snared a touchdown grab in the Tigers’ first scrimmage of the spring. Over spring break, Franklin seemed to be enthusiastically embracing his new role in the offense, creating a series of workout videos showcasing his athleticism.
“He’s always asking questions, he’s trying to come to my office constantly and meet with me,” Burns said. “He gets it. He’s hungry. He wants to learn. He wants us to be great. He’s going to help us in a multitude of different things in terms of special teams and receiver. I think he’s going to be one of those guys that is going to do multiple things.”
With rising sophomore Kyle Davis’ future on the Plains up in the air, the depth that Franklin provides will serve as a valuable asset to Burns’ receiving corps. If he is to remain a pass-catcher, Franklin will round out the already talented squad of Nate Craig Myers, Darius Slayton, Eli Stove, Ryan Davis, Jason Smith, redshirt-freshman Marquis McClain and true freshman Noah Igbinoghene.
Burns had the privilege of catching passes from Heisman trophy winner, No. 1 overall pick and NFL MVP Cam Newton during Auburn’s 2010 National Championship run. While the quarterback battle continues to rage on for the Tigers, one thing will be certain for the 2017 starting QB: John Franklin can “flat-out run.”
“We’re just trying to get the ball in his hands,” Malzahn said. “He can flat-out run. The fact that he played quarterback, he understands the splits and the depth and the timing and everything that goes with that. I thought he did some good things. Each practice, you see him getting more and more comfortable.”
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