Florida targeting Auburn's Marcus Davis as wide receivers coach

Marcus Davis had been on staff at his alma mater for three seasons, as he was the wide receivers coach at Auburn which was formerly under Hugh Freeze. Now, though, another school in the conference will be poaching him from the Tigers.

According to Keith Niebuhr at GatorsOnline, Florida is targeting Davis to be the new wide receivers coach for the Gators. That would mean leaving one new head coach for another in the SEC, with him not set to be on staff anymore on The Plains under Alex Golesh but with him now apparently getting the chance to work in The Swamp for Jon Sumrall.

Davis had been back at Auburn since the beginning of Freeze’s tenure in 2023. That’s after he spent four seasons playing for the program under Guz Malzahn from 2013 to 2016, as he appeared in 45 games in his collegiate career there while posting 83 receptions for 650 yards, averaging 14.4 per game and 7.8 a catch, with three touchdowns for the Tigers. He then began his coaching career in 2018 in a role in player personnel and development at Auburn before making stops at Florida State, Hawaii, and Georgia Southern.

Much of the reason that Freeze is no longer head coach there is due to their offensive woes, which included the passing game for the Tigers as just 61% of their throws were completed for an average of only 207.3 yards per game. That is despite having had some quality targets at wideout under Davis, and certainly so the past two seasons with names like Cam Coleman, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Eric Singleton, Malcom Simmons, and Perry Thompson.

Amidst the coaching change to Golesh, Auburn has a new wide receivers coach, as well as associate head coach and co-offensive coordinator, in Kodi Burns. Burns is also an alumni for the Tigers, having spent four seasons there under Tommy Tuberville and Gene Chizik from 2007-2010, including being part of their last national championship in ’10. He’s then in his third stint as part of the staff now for the program, having also worked under Malzahn, along with his latest stops this decade at Tennessee, with the New Orleans Saints in the NFL, and most recently at USF with Golesh.

With that, Davis would have maybe been seen as available in this coaching cycle. That could now be to the benefit of Sumrall, as he continues to build what’ll be his debut staff at Florida. He already has both coordinators for the Gators in OC Buster Faulkner (Georgia Tech) and DC Brad White (Kentucky), with moves made to end this last week as well at offensive line and in the secondary, but with more to still do to fill the rest of their sideline out in Gainesville.