Auburn football is set to have one of its key assistants leave this offseason. Head coach Huge Freeze will likely be on the hot seat entering 2025 and must show immediate results next season. The Tigers have posted consecutive losing records in his first two years leading the program. In 2024, Auburn failed to qualify for a bowl game and suffered debilitating losses to unranked SEC teams Arkansas and Vanderbilt.
Not all is doom and gloom for Auburn, particularly with some of the program's recent transfer portal moves. However, it's been all but confirmed that the Tigers will be losing co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly. According to National College Football Reporter for CBS Sports and 247Sports, Matt Zentiz, Kelly is expected to be hired as the new head coach of Jacksonville State. The Auburn alumnus was an assistant with the Gamecocks for four years earlier in his career.
Losing Charles Kelly is a blow to Auburn's talented defense

Kelly will be stepping into his first head coaching position at 57 years old. The veteran has had an over 30-year career in college football and will be taking over a Jacksonville State program that just won the Conference USA championship. The Gamecocks' latest accomplishment under new West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez is extraordinary. The program was an FCS school two years ago and has seamlessly transitioned to the FBS.
This departure is a blow to an Auburn defensive unit that has not been a weakness under Hugh Freeze. Despite having an offense that ranks toward the bottom half of the SEC, the Tigers' defense only gave up 21.3 points per game this season. Kelly has been at Auburn for one year as the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach this year. Before joining the program, he worked in various roles with Colorado, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida State.
Overall, the Tigers head into next year needing a little more consistency on defense and a way more explosive offense. Reinforcements are coming in for Hugh Freeze and company with the addition of former 5-star quarterback Jackson Arnold. In addition, the Tigers are already adding weapons around Arnold at the wideout position heading into a consequential 2025.
Despite the scandals around the program while he was there, Hugh Freeze was a very successful coach at Ole Miss. The Rebels became a consistently ranked team under their former head coach and even beat Alabama two years in a row. Those stunning upsets happened at a point where college football's latest dynasty was at its peak under Nick Saban.
Freeze clearly knows how to elevate programs and win big games. But this hasn't happened at Auburn. If the Tigers' head coach doesn't find his mojo soon leading this historic program, the athletic department could be looking for a new football coach sooner rather than later.