Auburn Promotes Vontrell King- Williams to D-Line Coach

[toddc 13,194]

Auburn promotes King-Williams to defensive line coach

Vontrell King-Williams is Auburn's new defensive line coach.

Jason Caldwell11 mins

 

AUBURN, Alabama—Coming to Auburn for the 2023 season as a defensive line assistant to Jeremy Garrett after coaching the previous year at Eastern Michigan, Vontrell King-Williams has worked his way up the ranks of the profession over the last seven years and now he’s got his first big shot as he will make to move into the full-time role of defensive line coach for the Tigers this season, Auburnundercover.com has confirmed.

Coming to Auburn before last season to work alongside Garrett, King-Williams is a guy that Hugh Freeze is very familiar with after he was part of the staff at Liberty in 2020-21. Before those two seasons, he was part of the staff at Eastern Michigan in 2018-19 as a defensive grad assistant. 

King-Williams got his start as a defensive line intern in 2017 at UTSA following a two-year career at the school. Signing with Illinois out of high school and playing at the Big 10 school in 2013, he transferred to Butler County Community College before making the move to UTSA.

Now he has his first big break in the coaching profession with the full-time gig at Auburn. It's a role that Garrett believes King-Williams is ready for.

“Vontrell is awesome," Garrett said when asked about King-Williams last fall. "When I came from the Browns to go to Liberty, he was actually my GA for two weeks before he got the job at Eastern Michigan. He’s a really good coach. He’s a smart coach. He’s a really good teacher. He knows the players and gets to know those guys well. I just think what he’s going to bring to the table, it’s going to be a dynamic duo in recruiting and teaching these guys.”

Edited February 7 by toddc

[DAG 33,983]

Makes sense. Glad it’s not another retread .

[autigeremt 6,633]

Rising star!!! Look out, folks. He has a high ceiling, and he will relate to recruits. War Damn Eagle!

[AuburnNTexas 7,149]

Sounds like great choice and being younger should relate well with players. Hopefully he will be both a dynamic recruiter and strong teacher of the game. What is good is if he works out we can expect him to be at Auburn for a while.

[Swamp Eagle 5,140]

I’m good with young, rising talent for this spot.  From the accounts I’ve read, very well respected.

[Hank2020 3,202]

2 hours ago, Swamp Eagle said:

I’m good with young, rising talent for this spot.  From the accounts I’ve read, very well respected.

I especially like the way they are dividing up the responsibilities. Durkin taking over LB’s  is good move I believe.

[cbo 7,853]

I like having some young, hungry on-field coaches that can relate to players and recruit. Sounds like Vontrell could end up as a great coach. 

My concern is this is probably the second most important position in football and we are thin at the position. Vontrell is green as it gets and will have his hands full right away. 

[autigeremt 6,633]

1 hour ago, cbo said:

I like having some young, hungry on-field coaches that can relate to players and recruit. Sounds like Vontrell could end up as a great coach. 

My concern is this is probably the second most important position in football and we are thin at the position. Vontrell is green as it gets and will have his hands full right away. 

He has a lot of experience around him. 

[aubiefifty 16,793]

16 hours ago, Swamp Eagle said:

I’m good with young, rising talent for this spot.  From the accounts I’ve read, very well respected.

kind of like me with the aufam board........grins

[mustache eagle 2,406]

I didnt know anything about Garrett a year ago … let’s hope VKW is equally as impressive for Auburn.

[TeamZero77 1,784]

I like this. Like others here have said, he's a young coach and players will be able to relate to him well. What he lacks in experience, he can lean on our veteran staff of defensive coaches and they'll help him and guide him I'm sure. 

Coach Freeze has done a good job with these new coaching hires and hiring Will Redmond away from LSU was a plus as well. I think our staff got stronger overall in recruiting and on-field coaching. WDE

[Mims44 1,871]

On 2/7/2024 at 5:08 PM, toddc said:

Auburn promotes King-Williams to defensive line coach

Vontrell King-Williams is Auburn's new defensive line coach.

Jason Caldwell11 mins

 

AUBURN, Alabama—Coming to Auburn for the 2023 season as a defensive line assistant to Jeremy Garrett after coaching the previous year at Eastern Michigan, Vontrell King-Williams has worked his way up the ranks of the profession over the last seven years and now he’s got his first big shot as he will make to move into the full-time role of defensive line coach for the Tigers this season, Auburnundercover.com has confirmed.

Coming to Auburn before last season to work alongside Garrett, King-Williams is a guy that Hugh Freeze is very familiar with after he was part of the staff at Liberty in 2020-21. Before those two seasons, he was part of the staff at Eastern Michigan in 2018-19 as a defensive grad assistant. 

King-Williams got his start as a defensive line intern in 2017 at UTSA following a two-year career at the school. Signing with Illinois out of high school and playing at the Big 10 school in 2013, he transferred to Butler County Community College before making the move to UTSA.

Now he has his first big break in the coaching profession with the full-time gig at Auburn. It's a role that Garrett believes King-Williams is ready for.

“Vontrell is awesome," Garrett said when asked about King-Williams last fall. "When I came from the Browns to go to Liberty, he was actually my GA for two weeks before he got the job at Eastern Michigan. He’s a really good coach. He’s a smart coach. He’s a really good teacher. He knows the players and gets to know those guys well. I just think what he’s going to bring to the table, it’s going to be a dynamic duo in recruiting and teaching these guys.”

Feel like this is being seen as a neutral hire by most.

Either that or a lotta posters here just have hiring fatigue  

Not many posts for a 2 day old hire thread 🤷‍♂️

[aucanucktiger 1,794]

23 minutes ago, Mims44 said:

Feel like this is being seen as a neutral hire by most.

Either that or a lotta posters here just have hiring fatigue  

Not many posts for a 2 day old hire thread 🤷‍♂️

Not much to comment on. Young up & coming professional with short but impressive resume & great references from former employers. Go get em, dog!

[aucom96 1,618]

We needed to make a hire before spring and keep current talent out of the portal. The ra-ra will love it, gloomers hate it, but it's basically a circumstances hire that has about as much a chance of being great as terrible. 

This is where the experience of Durkin and Kelly pays off, I hope.

[aubiefifty 16,793]

I looked at this cats picture one time and immediately liked him. this man is hungry and i would bet my azz he has his d line bringing the thunder.

[JerryAU 1,660]

6 hours ago, Mims44 said:

Feel like this is being seen as a neutral hire by most.

Either that or a lotta posters here just have hiring fatigue  

Not many posts for a 2 day old hire thread 🤷‍♂️

Considering the continuous coaching carousel this program has been riding for the last 10 yrs, the fatigue set long, long ago.  

It's honestly been exhausting and it's a huge reason why the program is so frustratingly inconsistent.  

 

 

 

[Hank2020 3,202]

1 hour ago, JerryAU said:

Considering the continuous coaching carousel this program has been riding for the last 10 yrs, the fatigue set long, long ago.  

It's honestly been exhausting and it's a huge reason why the program is so frustratingly inconsistent.  

 

 

 

Our own fault on the choices of headcoaches moving on ( we asked them to move on). On Assistant coaches some got better/ more preferred roles, and some were asked to move on. In the assistant case, I don’t think we do much different than anyone else. We get the right HC and he should hang for awhile.

Edited February 9 by Hank2020

[Mikey 16,604]

17 hours ago, Hank2020 said:

Our own fault on the choices of headcoaches moving on ( we asked them to move on). On Assistant coaches some got better/ more preferred roles, and some were asked to move on. In the assistant case, I don’t think we do much different than anyone else. We get the right HC and he should hang for awhile.

The jury is still out on whether we are the next Tennessee/Florida/ Texas A&M. It's easier to join that group than it is to find "the right head coach".

[JerryAU 1,660]

On 2/9/2024 at 3:30 PM, Hank2020 said:

Our own fault on the choices of headcoaches moving on ( we asked them to move on). On Assistant coaches some got better/ more preferred roles, and some were asked to move on. In the assistant case, I don’t think we do much different than anyone else. We get the right HC and he should hang for awhile.

I know the background of it all, I lived it just like every AU football fan.  

The bottom line is the coordinator position has been a roller coaster for what feels like a decade.  Even before Gus was cut loose, he still changed OC's nearly every season.  When a QB literally has a different OC every flipping year, I don't see how anyone expects to see a productive and efficient offense.  Add in the deficient oline talent and it's one disappointing season after another. 

We'll see if CHF is different.  

[NCTiger1982 171]

When Freeze was hired I considered him producing 1 win more than Gus per year and another JABA hire our BOT could control. I just think about Cole Cublic saying our BOT would rather go 8&5 and get to roam the sidelines than stay in their box seats and compete for NCs. My HOPE is Freeze has evolved and will continue to evolve as a HC. I hate using Saban as an example but he went outside his comfort zone several times and especially on O to develop his craft. 
Freeze’s recruiting has been stellar and offers hope. I just hope our blind squirrel leadership found a nut by mistake. I have NOTHING against Freeze and he has done his penance. I hope he ends up with multiple NCs and shocks the CFB world. 
 

WDE !

[AUwent 3,752]

17 minutes ago, NCTiger1982 said:

When Freeze was hired I considered him producing 1 win more than Gus per year and another JABA hire our BOT could control. I just think about Cole Cublic saying our BOT would rather go 8&5 and get to roam the sidelines than stay in their box seats and compete for NCs. My HOPE is Freeze has evolved and will continue to evolve as a HC. I hate using Saban as an example but he went outside his comfort zone several times and especially on O to develop his craft. 
Freeze’s recruiting has been stellar and offers hope. I just hope our blind squirrel leadership found a nut by mistake. I have NOTHING against Freeze and he has done his penance. I hope he ends up with multiple NCs and shocks the CFB world. 
 

WDE !

By no means do I like big money donors having such a say over a program. I'm just sick of people (in our own fanbase and outside of it) acting like we're the only program where that happens.

Edited February 17 by AUwent