Being a newly-hired head coach during this day and time has become challenging.
Not only do you have to construct a new staff, but you must do that while maintaining and improving your recruiting class before the beginning of the early signing period.
Auburn’s [autotag]Hugh Freeze[/autotag] has done a great job juggling both tasks. He recently signed the nation’s No. 19 recruiting class, which is a vast improvement from before his hire. He has also put together a respectable staff that is sure to go a long way in rebuilding the program to become one of the best in the SEC.
Freeze’s staff is headlined by [autotag]Philip Montgomery[/autotag], who will serve as offensive coordinator. Montgomery is best known for being the mastermind behind Baylor’s high-powered offenses during the early 2010s and for being the college offensive coordinator for quarterbacks Case Keenum and Robert Griffin III.
Other key hires are [autotag]Cadillac Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Zac Etheridge[/autotag], who are retained from the previous staff. Williams served as interim head coach following the dismissal of [autotag]Bryan Harsin[/autotag], and led the Tigers to a 2-2 record to close out the season. Freeze says that one of his first priorities when landing the Auburn job was to keep Williams on staff.
“I had already done my homework on people that we had in common, friends, I knew that my first priority was “I have to have Cadillac on my side to help me drive the culture of Auburn Football,” Freeze said during his introductory press conference in November.
Williams will serve as the running backs coach and associate head coach. As for Etheridge, he will coach the secondary alongside [autotag]Wesley McGriff[/autotag], who comes to Auburn for his third stint. Those three have been vital in recruiting and will go a long way in building sustained success for the program.
Joining Etheridge and McGriff defensively will be [autotag]Ron Roberts[/autotag] as defensive coordinator, [autotag]Jeremy Garrett[/autotag] as the defensive line coach, and [autotag]Josh Aldridge[/autotag] will coach linebackers.
Freeze has also hired two offensive assistants in addition to Williams and Montgomery. Jake Thronton comes to Auburn from Ole Miss, where he will coach the offensive line. Freeze also brings tight ends coach Ben Aigamaua from Liberty to Auburn.
Two other names that have been linked to Auburn are [autotag]Dominic Studzinski[/autotag] and [autotag]Kent Austin[/autotag]. Freeze shares an update on their roles within the staff:
“Strength and conditioning Dominic Studzinski and Kent Austin is our chief quality control of the program that overseas if we say we’re gonna do something a certain way let’s do it that way,” Freeze said. “So I’m excited about our staff and we’ll be bringing in the rest of the off-the-field support staff along with the wide receiver coach at the beginning of the new year.”
The only position group that does not have a coach to this point is wide receivers, which Freeze says will be taken care of soon. Freeze blames recruiting for the lack of a receiver coach hire, but I think that we will let that slide.
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