Auburn football fired Hugh Freeze on Sunday. Here’s a breakdown of the scenes outside the Woltosz Football Performance Center as the news broke.
For the first time in nearly three years, Auburn football will not be led out of the tunnel by Hugh Freeze.
The Tigers announced on Sunday, Nov. 2 following their underwhelming Week 10 loss to Kentucky that they fired and relieved Freeze from his duties as the head coach of the football program after a 15-19 overall record in three seasons.
Now, the Tigers will look to one of Freeze’s assistants who has head coaching experience to get them through the final few weeks of the season: defensive coordinator DJ Durkin.
First up for Auburn and Durkin will be a trip up to Nashville and FirstBank Stadium to face No. 16 Vanderbilt and Diego Pavia, who is 2-0 against the Tigers in his career at Vanderbilt and New Mexico State.
The situation won’t be an easy one for Durkin to take over, as Auburn has struggled mightily on offense this season — as highlighted by its 10-3 loss to Kentucky this past week that featured just 241 total yards of offense against one of the SEC’s lesser defenses — and faces uncertainty in its quarterback room with Jackson Arnold and Ashton Daniels.
That said, if Auburn can piece together a win (or two) over the home stretch and show a pulse in those games, it could serve to be an encouraging job interview for Durkin for the full-time job as the Tigers conduct their national search for Freeze’s successor and Auburn’s third full-time head coach since Gus Malzahn was fired in 2020.
Heading into Auburn’s game against Vanderbilt, here’s a closer look at the Tigers’ interim head coach DJ Durkin:
Who is coaching Auburn?
With Freeze out at Auburn, the Tigers will be led by Durkin, in an interim role, for the final three games of their 2025 regular season.
He was elevated to interim head coach shortly after Auburn announced that it had fired Freeze after three seasons, giving Durkin the third “head coaching” opportunity in his career and his second stint as an interim head coach, as he served in the role in 2014 at Florida following the firing of Will Muschamp.
Freeze brought Durkin over to Auburn ahead of the 2024 season to be the Tigers’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. He previously served in the same roles at Texas A&M under Jimbo Fisher but was not retained by Mike Elko in College Station.
Durkin takes over at Auburn with some negative baggage as a head coach dating back to his two seasons at Maryland from 2016-2017. Just before entering his third season with the Terrapins, Durkin was placed on administrative leave the day after the university announced it was opening an investigation into the program for “unacceptable behavior by members of our football staff.”
The investigation was opened after the sudden death of former Maryland offensive lineman Jordan McNair, who collapsed during a team practice on May 29 of 2028. As noted by the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network, McNair was hospitalized that evening with an internal body temperature of 106 degrees and airlifted to a shock and trauma center in Baltimore for a liver transplant. He died 15 days later.
On top of additional findings from the university’s investigation, it was determined that trainers didn’t follow proper procedures after McNair’s collapse, as there was a gap of one hour and 39 minutes between his collapse and when he was transported to the hospital. Durkin was fired by Maryland on Oct. 31 of 2018, one day after Maryland’s Board of Regents recommended Durkin’s reinstatement and players subsequently walked out of a meeting held by Durkin.
DJ Durkin coaching career
A former standout defensive end and outside linebacker at Bowling Green from 1997 through 2000, Durkin started his coaching career at his alma mater as a graduate student right after graduation. He held that position for two seasons before taking a similar position at Notre Dame in 2003.
With four seasons of experience under his belt, he returned to his alma mater in 2005. In his second stint at Bowling Green, Durkin held numerous roles on Gregg Brandon’s staff, including his first coordinator position at special teams.
He then landed his Power 4 coaching experience in 2007 when then-Stanford football coach Jim Harbaugh hired Durkin away from Bowling Green to be the Cardinal’s special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach. A member of Urban Meyer’s staff at Florida in 2010, Durkin spent four seasons in Gainesville from 2010-14 with the Gators, where he served as defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator in addition to overseeing two positional units. He got his first “head coaching” experience at Florida in 2014 when he was named interim coach.
He does have some NFL coaching experience on his resume, as he served as a consultant for the Atlanta Falcons in 2020. After that one year in the NFL, Durkin made the jump back into the college ranks in 2020 to be on Lane Kiffin’s staff in Oxford at Ole Miss, the first of three consecutive jobs in the SEC.
Here’s a stop-by-stop breakdown of Durkin’s coaching career:
- 2001-2002: Bowling Green graduate assistant
- 2003-2004: Notre Dame graduate assistant
- 2005-2006: Bowling Green special teams coordinator, linebackers coach and defensive ends coach
- 2007-2009: Stanford special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach
- 2010-2014: Florida defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, defensive backs coach and linebackers coach
- 2014: Florida interim head coach
- 2015: Michigan defensive coordinator and linebackers coach
- 2016-2018: Maryland
- 2019: Atlanta Falcons consultant
- 2020-2022: Ole Miss co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach
- 2022-2023: Texas A&M defensive coordinator and linebackers coach
- 2024-2025: Auburn defensive coordinator and linebackers coach
- 2025: Auburn interim head coach
DJ Durkin coaching record
Here’s a look at Durkin’s head coaching record, including his interim stint at Florida in 2014:
- 2014 (Florida): 1-0
- 2016 (Maryland): 6-7
- 2017 (Maryland): 4-8