Hugh Freeze is an enigma and was hired by the Auburn Tigers after a successful four-year stint at Liberty. Known as a quarterback guru, Freeze was brought in to jumpstart and anemic offense after Bryan Harsin was fired before the 2023 season.
Freeze utilized his past connections when building his Auburn coaching staff, a group that has plenty of experience.
Auburn Tigers Coaching Staff
Head Coach, Hugh Freeze
Hugh Freeze has been a winner everywhere he’s been, even if off-field controversies have sometimes followed. His college head coaching career began at Division II Lambuth, where he led the Eagles to a 20-5 record in two seasons.
Even before that, though, he was a successful head coach at Briarcrest Christian in Memphis, leading the high school to a 94-30 record under his watch.
He quickly rose through the college ranks after becoming recruiting coordinator and tight-ends coach at Ole Miss in 2006, taking the Arkansas State offensive coordinator position in 2010, after just two years at Lambuth.
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He went 10-2 in his debut season at Arkansas State’s head coach before Ole Miss came calling.
On the field, Freeze was highly successful at Ole Miss from 2012-2016, as he won 39 games in five years. However, many of these wins were later overturned due to recruiting violations that forced him to resign in early 2017.
After a break from coaching, Liberty hired him in 2019. He went 34-15 and 3-0 in bowl games with Liberty, helping him earn a second chance in the SEC as he landed the Auburn job prior to the 2023 season.
Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs, Derrick Nix
Freeze has the tendency to churn through coordinators, and that’s been the case so far as the Tigers have new coaches leading the offense and defense in Freeze’s second year. Derrick Nix is a long-timer Ole Miss assistant who was on staff for the entirety of Freeze’s tenure there. Most recently, he was the wide receivers coach under Lane Kiffin.
Nix was the running backs coach under Freeze when Freeze was at Ole Miss in the mid-2010s, coaching numerous All-Conference running backs. Since, he’s shifted to receivers but is back to his most natural position under Freeze.
Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers, D.J. Durkin
Former head coach and long-time defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin is not without his own controversies as a coach. During his time at Maryland, offensive lineman Jordan McNair collapsed and died during a practice. The ensuing investigation and controversy forced Durkin to resign his post as head coach, despite some on-field success.
He has been the defensive coordinator at schools like Florida and Michigan and served under Jimbo Fisher the last two seasons at Texas A&M and the defensive coordinator for the Aggies.
Quarterbacks, Kent Austin
Freeze’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Liberty, Kent Austin, followed Freeze to the Plains, but was in an off-field role in 2023. In January, Freeze shook up his staff, moving Austin back into the quarterbacks coach role at that time. Austin has coached all over, including time in the Canadian Football League and three seasons as the head coach at Cornell.
Tight Ends Coach, Ben Aigamaua
Ben Aigamaua joined the Auburn program Dec. 2022 to coach the tight ends. Aigamaua first worked with Freeze at Lambuth and has been with him at numerous stops since. That includes all five years at Ole Miss and all four seasons at Liberty. He started in an off-field role but has been the tight-ends coach under Freeze for nearly 10 years.
Wide Receivers Coach, Marcus Davis
Marcus Davis lives and breathes to be an Auburn Tiger. In 2018 and 2019, he was an offensive analyst and off-field player personnel staffer at his alma mater. He went to Florida State as a graduate assistant before brief stints as the wide receivers coach at Hawai’i and Georgia Southern. He returned to the Plains when Freeze was hired late in 2022.
Offensive Line Coach, Jake Thornton
Jake Thornton is one of the few coaches on Auburn’s staff without an obvious connection to either Freeze or the school. When Freeze was hired, he poached Thornton from the same role at Ole Miss, which he held for two seasons. He coached offensive line at the various schools at the FCS level from 2016 to 2021, when he moved to Kiffin’s staff in Oxford.
Defensive Tackles, Vontrell King-Williams
Like Austin, Vontrell King-Williams was a staffer at Liberty who followed Freeze to Auburn, but he spent the 2023 season in an off-field role. He was primarily an analyst for Freeze at Liberty and spent one season as the defensive tackles coach at Eastern Michigan.
As a player, King-Williams started at Butler Community College in Kansas before moving to UTSA for his final two seasons.
Defensive Edge, Josh Aldridge
Freeze’s co-defensive coordinator in the final year of his Liberty tenure, Josh Aldridge moved from Lynchburg to Auburn in 2023. He’s coached in various roles for both the Flames and Tigers and was originally the linebackers coach on Freeze’s first Auburn staff. As part of a reshuffling, he moved to edge in 2024 where he’s working with a young and talented bunch.
Cornerbacks Coach, Wesley McGriff
A long-time secondary coach, Wesley McGriff has history with both Freeze and Auburn. This is his third stint at Auburn after coaching the secondary in 2016 and 2019-2020. McGriff has plenty of coaching experience at both the NFL and college levels and was the defensive coordinator of Ole Miss in 2017 and 2018.
Safeties/Co-Defensive Coordinator, Charles Kelly
An Auburn graduate and long-time defensive coach, Charles Kelly returned to his alma mater this offseason after a year as Deion Sanders’ defensive coordinator at Colorado. He’s held numerous high-level coaching positions and has won a National Championship with Alabama. A former National Recruiter of the Year, Kelly is an asset both on and off the field.
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