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.

Chris Todd showed what he's capable of in Gus Malzahn's offense with four TD passes vs. West Virginia. (US Presswire)

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."

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