The Auburn football team may be losing a key member of its coaching staff next fall. Co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly, who vastly helped improve an inexperienced until a year ago, is expected to take the head coaching job at Jacksonville State next season.
2024 was Kelly’s first season coaching on the Plains since he was in a Graduate Assistant role following his playing days in 1993. Somewhat poetically, this would be the second time in his career he left the Plains to coach at Jacksonville State, the first time being when the Gamecocks gave him his first defensive coordinator opportunity in 1994.
Now 57 years old, Kelly is rumored to become a head coach for the first time in his long-running coaching career. Before Auburn, he spent time as a defensive coordinator and special teams coach with Jacksonville State (1994-98), Henderson State (1999), Nicholls State (2005), Georgia Tech (2012), Florida State (2013-17), Tennessee (2018), Alabama (2019-2022) and Colorado (2023).
The Auburn alum has won four conference championships, two national titles, and a 247Sports National Recruiter of the Year award over a storied, three-decade long career. Despite all the accolades, this would be Kelly’s first time leading a program.
With Kelly likely out the door, DJ Durkin will presumably take over full control of an Auburn defensive unit that ranked among the top 30 in the country in opposing points per game. While key players like Eugene Asante and Jalen McLeod will no longer be Tigers in 2024, the abundance of returning stars along with a plethora of high-ranked recruits should allow Auburn to be among the best units in the country again next fall.
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