Paul Finebaum reveals his level of concern in staff turnover under Hugh Freeze at Auburn
Auburn’s season only ended 30 days ago, and its staff is nearly unrecognizable. During an appearance on “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning,” Paul Finebaum weighed in on the program’s substantial turnover.
“You have to be concerned although some of these things are still without explanation,” Finebaum said. “I think the staff has gotten better. I really feel like Hugh Freeze has most of the questions answered. In terms of recruiting, I’m extremely impressed. A little bit shaky on a couple of other things, but I think this is just the cost of doing business right now.
“He made changes from a bad situation that he took over from and I think he’s finding out that more changes had to be made. I think the two coaches I still don’t really have a good explanation for are Zac Etheridge and Carnell Williams, but I think most people are just accepting that whatever the reasons there were, Freeze made the only decision he could.”
Auburn running backs coach Carnell Williams resigned on Jan. 11. He was first hired by Auburn’s former head coach Gus Malzahn prior to the 2019 season. Williams took over as interim head coach in 2022 after Bryan Harsin was fired.
Auburn defensive backs coach Zac Etheridge resigned only one day after Williams. Less than 24 hours later, reports surfaced claiming Houston was expected to hire Etheridge as an assistant coach.
Auburn also fired offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery following the 2023 campaign, lost defensive assistant coach Trovon Reed to UCF and defensive coordinator Ron Roberts to Florida. While Auburn has suffered its fair share of losses during the offseason, its picked up even more wins.
Auburn’s fresh faces this offseason
On Jan. 17, Freeze hired Derrick Nix to be Auburn’s next offensive coordinator. Nix spent 12 seasons as Ole Miss’ running backs coach. However, he was with the wide receivers for his last four seasons with the program.
Auburn also promoted Kent Austin, who served as a special assistant to the head coach/quality control for the past year at Auburn, to quarterbacks coach. On the defensive side, Auburn hired former Colorado defensive coordinator Charles Kelly to be its next co-defensive coordinator.
Prior to his lone season at Colorado, Kelly spent four seasons coaching defense for Alabama. He served as an associate defensive coordinator and worked heavily with defensive backs, particularly the safeties. Finebaum believes change is expected and, in Auburn’s case, it’s evolution.