3.25.24 Football Articles

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247sports.com

Thompson finds brotherhood at Auburn

Jason Caldwell

3–4 minutes

AUBURN, Alabama—When Jerrin Thompson was looking for a new home to finish out his college career, the former Texas defensive back was looking at it in terms of the place and coaches that he felt like could develop him the most and prepare him for the next level. He found that fit at Auburn and that coach in Charles Kelly.

“I like Coach Kelly,” Thompson said. “I feel like he’s a coach that’s going to develop me and put me forward and places I’m trying to go. He’s coached a lot of great DB’s. Just coming on my visit and talking to him, I felt really comfortable making that decision. Mainly, that’s what it was. It wasn’t nothing outside of that. I was here for football pretty much.”

That history of coaching elite players in the secondary was something that Kelly talked about when Thompson visited Auburn. From Jalen Ramsey to Derwin James, Tarvarus McFadden and others, Kelly has had a long history of getting guys to the next level. Thompson said that was a big deal for him.

“Oh yeah, most definitely,” he said. “That’s one thing we did when I was here on my visit. We watched tape of Derwin and guys he’s coached and just building that relationship with him and telling me things and philosophies that he goes by and everything that I wanted in a coach was what he was telling me.”

Another thing that Kelly preaches is versatility and that’s a strength of Thompson’s game. Capable of playing both safety positions as well as the nickel spot, Thompson said this is a defense that allows him to use that to his strength.

“I feel like this is a very DB-friendly defense, especially the safeties,” Thompson said. “This defense, the safeties are going to have a lot of opportunities to make plays and that’s what you want as a DB. You want to be able to use your instincts and ball out.”

Already a leader for the Tigers even though he has only been on the Auburn campus for a few months, Thompson said that’s one of the things that he’ll bring to the table for the Tigers this season. He said it’s all about the team for him and that’s what he wants to bring with his experience.

“First off, I would say I’m an instinctual and communicative and hard work ethic type of guy,” Thompson said. “I take pride in the little things — lining my guys up, just getting to the ball and playing team defense. That’s one thing I take pride in is just team. It’s never about just what I can do. Team success goes with player success. So that’s one thing I stand by, for sure.”

Continuing to learn the defense as well as his teammates, Thompson said he’s excited about what they are building with his year’s team.

“I feel like it’s a brotherhood already,” Thompson said. “It’s love for everybody. There’s no set roles on this team so everybody is just trying to still feel out what’s going on and who’s going to be the guys. So that’s one thing I’m still trying to figure out is what’s my role going to be on this team and where I put myself at. I’m still trying to figure it out. With that being said, we’re just focusing on football and building a brotherhood right now.”

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

Four-star WR Travis Smith schedules summer official visit to Auburn

Taylor Jones

~2 minutes

Four-star wide receiver Travis Smith recently put Auburn in his top eight schools and Auburn is looking to climb up the ladder.

Smith tells Tom Loy of 247Sports that he has scheduled two visits to Auburn, including his official visit. Smith will be in town next weekend and will return for his official visit on June 7.

After revealing his top eight schools, Smith told Chad Simmons of On3 that he is interested in Auburn due to Hugh Freeze’s ability to develop wide receivers, citing DK Metcalf and AJ Brown during Freeze’s time at Ole Miss. Now that he has visited Auburn several times, he has grown to love several aspects of the program, campus, and the city.

“It’s a great town, I love the town feeling. Great people there as well,” Smith said in a recent interview with 247Sports. “I went to a restaurant and guys caught up with relationships — we were talking — and those Auburn people really have a special place in my heart right now.”

Smith is the No. 11 wide receiver for the 2025 cycle according to 247Sports, and is the No. 25 prospect from the talent-rich state of Georgia. Georgia is currently the team to beat for Smith currently, as they have received two crystal ball predictions in their favor.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on  X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__

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al.com

Why the timing was right for Derrick Nix to become Auburn’s offensive coordinator

Published: Mar. 25, 2024, 6:00 a.m.

7–9 minutes

Auburn’s new offensive coordinator Derrick Nix was informally introduced to the Auburn fanbase during Auburn men’s basketball game against Ole Miss on Jan. 20, making the timing of the introduction undoubtedly calculated since Nix had spent the last 16 seasons in Oxford, Mississippi.

Auburn’s new co-defensive coordinator, Charles Kelly, joined Nix on the hardwood of Neville Arena as the former Auburn football player heard his name applauded too.

And then there was Ava, Nix’s 7-year-old daughter, who walked across the floor with one hand clutching to her dad and the other never leaving the pocket of her navy-colored hoodie, which had “AUBURN” plastered across the chest in orange letters.

The colors of her hoodie were new to her. The colors of the away team’s uniforms, however, those were familiar.

“She was born in Oxford, Mississippi, so all she’s known is red and blue and Ole Miss,” Nix said in an interview on March 20.

So when Nix learned he’d be getting introduced in front of a sold out Auburn crowd, he knew he had to invite his young daughter, who was still adjusting to her new surroundings.

“I was actually trying to win her over,” Nix admits. “I was trying to get her to feel it, you know, being at Auburn and everything.”

After all, Nix knows Auburn is a special place.

A native of Attalla, a small town just two and a half hours north of Auburn, Nix says he grew up rooting for the Tigers and could’ve been an Auburn Tiger himself should Terry Bowden have come knocking a bit sooner than he did.

Instead, Nix went on to have a record-setting career at Southern Miss, where his 3,584 rushing yards still stands as the fifth-most in program history.

Now, 26 years after his recruitment, Nix is finally at Auburn.

“Getting a chance to come here and actually be a part of it and help add to this great tradition, I had to keep pinching myself now that I’m here doing it,” Nix said.

It’s not a secret that Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has long wanted a reunion with Nix after the two worked together during Freeze’s five-year head coaching stint at Ole Miss from 2012-16, when Nix served as the Rebels’ running backs coach.

Legend has it, Freeze wanted Nix to join his inaugural staff at Auburn, but Nix felt he had unfinished business to tend to at Ole Miss.

“As a coach, you get guys that you recruited, you got some guys whose career you want to see finish up. See some guys sometimes, besides the football plan, you see them maturing off the field,” Nix said. “You want to be able to see that done. And we had a good team coming back too. You just want to see the completion a little bit more.”

Ole Miss went 11-2 last season, including a narrow win over Auburn on Oct. 21 and a win over No. 10 Penn State in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl.

Six days after Ole Miss’ bowl game win in Atlanta, the Auburn football program announced it wouldn’t be retaining Philip Montgomery as a the Tigers’ offensive coordinator.

With that, the vacancy was there and it was Nix’s to fill.

But Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin wasn’t going down without a fight.

The Nix-to-Auburn saga had its moment on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, as Kiffin would consistently hint that Nix wasn’t going anywhere.

When Nix had finally made the decision to make his way back to his home state of Alabama, leaving the Ole Miss program after 16 seasons, Kiffin and the Ole Miss football program were the first to break the news in a statement on social media.

“It’s just Coach Kiffin being Coach Kiffin,” said a smiling Nix when asked about the social media antics. “I was with him for four years, so I totally understand where he’s coming from. He was just doing everything he could to keep his program as strong as possible.”

Meanwhile, Freeze had a joke of his own when asked about the matter.

“I hired him first, so I guess I have a right to him,” Freeze quipped.

But at the end of the day, Nix says it all came down to what was best for he and his family. And this time around, making the eastward jump from Mississippi to Alabama made sense for Nix — even if it meant having to try to fill the shoes of Auburn’s beloved Cadillac Williams.

Williams, who served as Auburn’s running backs coach the last five seasons, suddenly stepped down from his post on Jan. 11 to pursue other opportunities.

Williams has since gone on to be hired by the Las Vegas Raiders in the same role.

As part of his new gig as Auburn’s offensive coordinator, Nix would also take the reins of the Tigers’ running backs room — a room that was left with big shoes to fill after Williams’ departure.

So how does he do it? How does Nix attempt to fill that Williams-sized void within the Auburn program after Williams’ passionate revival of the program in 2022?

“First I try to do a great job of understanding that I can only be me,” Nix said. “Carnell, obviously, was a heck of a football player. He’s done a great job as a coach in a short time already. The thing is, I’ve gotta look at myself and say, ‘Hey, I can’t be Carnell Williams, but I can be the very best version of Derrick Nix.’”

Nix and Williams are far from strangers.

Ironically, the two briefly played on the same high school football team at Etowah High School in Attala. When Nix was a senior running back for Etowah Blue Devils, Williams was a freshman.

“Oh he did,” Nix said when asked if Williams has reached out. “He wished me luck and I wished him luck on his endeavors.”

Now in Williams’ shoes, Nix joins an offensive staff made up of the offensive-minded Freeze, newly elevated quarterbacks coach Kent Austin, wide receivers coach Marcus Davis, tight ends coach Ben Aigamaua and offensive line coach Jake Thornton.

All together, it’s an experienced room with lots of opinions — something that might turn some incoming offensive coordinators away.

But not Nix.

“I welcomed it because obviously I’m in a position where I’m learning on the run as we go. It’s been really fun to be able to do that,” Nix said. “I’ve got all this help around me to help develop me into the very best I can be — guys I can lean on for opinions and figure out the best way to get things done.”

As far as calling plays?

“Right now, you’re looking at the guy right now,” Nix said.

And with his name on the offense, it’s Nix’s hope that Auburn is a “fundamentally efficient scoring machine.”

“We’re going to be fun to watch. We’re going to play fast, we’re going to be fearless, we’re going to be physical, we’re going to emphasize taking care of the ball,” Nix continued. “I want these guys to continue to strain to finish and just do whatever it takes to get a W on Saturday.”

Nix wants those things for the Tigers’ football program and Auburn Family, of course.

But he also wants those things for Ava, who Nix says hasn’t said much about her dad’s attempt to win her over during Auburn’s basketball game two months ago.

“It’ll be something,” Nix said. “She hasn’t talked about it yet – but I know she will in the future.”

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si.com

Four Reasons Auburn Fans Should Like The 2025 Recruiting Class

Brian Smith

~3 minutes

Auburn is off to a fantastic recruiting start

Why should Auburn football fans be excited about the Tigers' recruiting class?

Here are four reasons to consider when evaluating the Auburn recruiting class, beginning with filling needs.

1) Auburn is bringing in talented defensive tackle recruits.

According to Rivals, Jourdin Crawford and Malik Autry are 4-star recruits. Both hail from inside the state of Alabama and are coveted by numerous SEC programs.

Each of Crawford and Autry can be anchors in the middle of the defense that demand double teams as well as make plays in the backfield. Plus, both of them are already college size. Crawford is 6-foot-1 and 305, while Autry is 6-foot-6 and 320 pounds.

2) Offensive lines woes are beginning to fade away.

The Tigers need at least four quality offensive linemen. This class already possesses three offensive line verbal commitments – Tavaris Dice, Spencer Dowland, and Tai Buster – and it's only March 25.

Further, it's a versatile offensive line group. Dice and Dowland could play tackle or guard. Buster is capable of playing guard or center in college, and he's accustomed to playing left tackle for his high school as well.

3) Auburn needs to get bigger and the Tigers are meeting that need.

To Compete in the SEC, the Tigers must gain more size. That's what Hugh Freeze and his staff are making a concerted effort to add height, length, and weight to the roster while not going away from athleticism.

Each of Auburn's tight end recruits is at least 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds. The offensive and defensive lines are adding mass to go along with their talents, and edge defender Jakaleb Faulk is a lengthy pass rusher and already at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds.

4) Auburn is going after elite recruits.

Adding size is one thing, landing truly elite prospects is another. While it could be a long while before several of the Tigers' top recruiting targets come to a final college decision, several prime targets are strongly considering coming to the Plains.

KJ Lacey (QB), Julian "Ju Ju" Lewis (QB), Alvin Henderson (RB), Akylin Dear (RB), Zion Grady (DE) Eric Winters (S/LB), Micah DeBose (OT), Jared Smith (DE), Anquon Fegans (S), Husan Longstreet (QB), Justus Terry (DL), Josh Petty (OL), Dontrell Glover (OL), and CJ Wiley (WR) are some of the big-time prospects still considering the Tigers.

Overall, Auburn's 2025 recruiting class is one to watch. It should finish inside the nation's top 10 and could finish in the top five.