Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze is putting together his staff for the 2024 season, and he just added an experienced SEC defensive coordinator in DJ Durkin.
“Hugh Freeze is hiring DJ Durkin to be @AuburnFootball’s DC, sources tell ESPN,” Pete Thamel reported on Tuesday. “It will be Durkin’s fourth different stint as a DC in the SEC. He was at Texas A&M the past two seasons, Ole Miss the two seasons prior to that and Florida in 2013-14.”
Durkin played defensive end and linebacker for Urban Meyer at Bowling Green before jumping right into coaching at his alma mater. In addition to being a defensive coordinator at three SEC schools, Durkin also coached at Notre Dame, Stanford, Michigan, and Maryland.
He was interim head coach at Florida after Will Muschamp stepped down and head coach at Maryland from 2016-18. Durkin was fired as the headman for the Terps after offensive lineman Jordan McNair tragically died during a practice.
Durkin coached under Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M the last two seasons and moved on after a season in which Fisher was fired after 10 games. Despite the overall lack of team success that got the head coach canned, Durkin’s defenses were solid. His units finished 25th out of 131 schools in opponent’s points per game in 2022 and 36th out of 133 in 2023.
DJ Durkin takes over as the Auburn football defensive coordinator for a unit that was 43rd in opponents’ points per game in 2023 and 98th in 2022.
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