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Auburn Hires Wesley McGriff as Secondary Coach

tigerbrotha12

By tigerbrotha12
in AU Football Forum

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tigerbrotha12 Founding Father

tigerbrotha12 2,362

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Auburn's newest defensive coach is coming from the National Football League and has plenty of coaching experience in the Southeastern Conference as well.

Coach Gus Malzahn announced Thursday that Saints' secondary coach Wesley McGriff is joining his coaching staff.

McGriff coached the Saints' secondary the last three seasons. His coaching stops also include Mississippi, Vanderbilt and Kentucky in the SEC; and Baylor and Miami.

"I'm really excited to be working with Coach Malzahn and his staff at Auburn," McGriff said. "I've always had a high regard for Auburn and the football program and I’m looking forward to helping them win championships."

McGriff was Ole Miss' co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach at Mississippi in 2012. He was a defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Vanderbilt.

"I'm very pleased to add Wesley to our staff at Auburn," Malzahn said. "He has a tremendous amount of experience and success in developing players at the college and NFL levels. Wesley’s a true professional and a man of character that will be a great coach and mentor for our players."

McGriff is Malzahn's second coaching hire since the end of the season. He hired Kevin Steele last week.

He was named the Division II national assistant coach of the year while coaching at Kentucky State early in his career. He began his coaching career at Savannah State, his alma mater, and was there from 1990-94.

McGriff graduated cum laude from Savannah State in 1990 and earned a master's in public administration from Georgia Southern in 1993. McGriff was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1990 and was a member of the Army Reserves until 2001.

http://www.auburntigers.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/010716aab.html





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WarDamnEagleWDE Founding Father

WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737

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idk what my opinion is on this hire right now to be honest. I don't know much about him.

Great hire. McGriff was going to be the DC at Vandy last year but decided to stick to the NFL.

WarEagle231 Community Regular

WarEagle231 55

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Wesley was ranked as a top 20 recruiter in 2013 and he did it at Ole Miss. So it looks like he is a great recruiter with NFL experience. I also like the fact that he was in the Army and has a Master's degree. (I know that two former Auburn coaches are ranked above him...)

http://247sports.com/Season/2013-Football/CompositeCoachRankings

Tiger Founding Father

Tiger 8,930

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The recruiting ranking makes me happy for sure, the lack of NFL success this year could've been a number of things. But if he can recruit, and obviously an NFL team thought enough of him to hire him that sounds pretty good

WDE_OxPx_2010 Founding Father

WDE_OxPx_2010 5,549

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NFL ranks huh? I have watched the saints secondary get torched all year. Yikes.

WDE

Saints were really really bad in the secondary this season. Not too great of a hire at this point, but we'll see.

As Auburn fans we should know that a defensive unit (DB) only works as well as the other 2 allow them (LB, DLine)

FoundationEagle Founding Father

FoundationEagle 637

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I'm on the edge of the proverbial fence on both defense hires so far....Is it a fence or a cliff :dunno:

In all seriousness, his pass D at Ole Miss in 2012 was ranked 93rd.... Oh...and he is Co-DC...

:facepalm:

WarEagle231 Community Regular

WarEagle231 55

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Ole Miss Bio:

http://www.olemisssports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/wesley_mcgriff_791125.html

Saint's Bio:

http://www.neworleanssaints.com/team/coaches/wesley-mcgriff/b831f7e1-87e1-40bf-a101-62818ed9f463

keesler Founding Father

keesler 6,038

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I'm on the edge of the proverbial fence on both defense hires so far....Is it a fence or a cliff :dunno:

In all seriousness, his pass D at Ole Miss in 2012 was ranked 93rd.... Oh...and he is Co-DC...

:facepalm:

In Gus We Trust!
Maverick.AU Founding Father

Maverick.AU 13,364

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His Pass D is almost identical to Mel Tucker's his last two year before he came to Alabama.

Ole Miss: Many felt he was a big reason they were able to sign Nkemdiche, Treadwell and others. Has been said he was the "key" to getting them to sign.

Vanderbilt: where he served as defensive backs coach/ recruiting coordinator and helped the program to its fifth bowl appearance in 2011.

McGriff's secondary produced 12 interceptions, three returns for touchdowns, eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage and more than 20 pass breakups. The group was also responsible for returning interceptions for TDs in three consecutive games for the first time in school history.

McGriff tutored senior Casey Hayward to All-America status from several sources, including the Walter Camp Foundation and Rivals.com. He finished the regular season fourth in the SEC interceptions. In addition, junior Trey Wilson put together his finest year with career highs in interceptions, passes defended and total tackles.

Miami: McGriff's season in Nashville was preceded by four at Miami, where he mentored some of the ACC's top defensive backs. He coached former Hurricane All-American safety and 2009 NFL first-round draft pick Kenny Phillips for two seasons, as well as All-ACC cornerback Brandon Harris and safety Ray-Ray Armstrong. McGriff also helped mold Sam Shields from a wide receiver to a defensive back, who is now starting for the Green Bay Packers.

McGriff's 2010 unit helped Miami rank second nationally in pass defense allowing just 164.3 yards per game. The Hurricanes, who posted their third straight winning season and a Sun Bowl appearance, also ranked No. 16 nationally in total defense (317.2 ypg) and No. 21 in scoring defense (19.7 ppg). Strong play in the secondary helped the Hurricane defense rank sixth nationally in quarterback sacks.

Baylor: Before joining the Miami staff, McGriff served four years at Baylor as recruiting coordinator and defensive backs coach. With McGriff's assistance, the Baylor defense notched 16 interceptions and ranked 13th in pass efficiency in 2005. As a recruiter, McGriff was responsible for signing offensive lineman Jason Smith, who left Baylor as an All-America tackle and the No. 2 pick of the 2009 draft.

FoundationEagle Founding Father

FoundationEagle 637

Posted
Posted

I'm on the edge of the proverbial fence on both defense hires so far....Is it a fence or a cliff :dunno:/>

In all seriousness, his pass D at Ole Miss in 2012 was ranked 93rd.... Oh...and he is Co-DC...

:facepalm:

In Gus We Trust!

To expound on this, Ole Miss ranked 12th in the nation in pass D the year before he got there and 46th the year after he left. How do you make end up at 93rd in between those 2 years? Hard to spin stats that poor.

cooltigger21 Founding Father

cooltigger21 0

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NFL ranks huh? I have watched the saints secondary get torched all year. Yikes.

WDE

Saints have got less talent than just about any other team on defense. No DL. No LB's either.
DAG Founding Father

DAG 36,540

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You can't judge a guy based on his NFL record or King Saban wouldn't have even been given a shot at UAT.

Well, Saban kind of won an NC before going to the NFL, alas Steve Spurrier. Kind of an apples and oranges comparison. We will see what he can do at AU.

I think his recruiting prowess is a big plus.

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