Auburn announced late on Thursday night that Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, the team’s running backs coach and associate head coach, would be leaving his position.
A devoted student is gone from his alma mater due to his abrupt resignation. During his five seasons as an Auburn coach, he served as interim head coach for four games in 2022 following the dismissal of former coach Bryan Harsin.
But with Williams out, who’s next?
On the offensive side of the ball, Auburn is actively hiring for three positions: offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and running backs coach. It’s beginning to become apparent how Auburn plans to reassemble their roster.
It was rumored this week that Freeze will resume calling plays after handing the reins to former offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery in the 2023 campaign. Montgomery was fired on Jan. 5.
Montgomery not only oversaw the offense but also served as Auburn’s quarterback coach.
Reports indicate that in addition to Freeze taking playcalling duties again, Kent Austin, who served as Freeze’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Liberty and is currently Auburn’s special assistant to the head coach, will assume the position of quarterbacks coach.
That leaves the running backs position, Williams’ old job.
Derrick Nix, the current wide receivers coach and assistant head coach at Ole Miss, has been widely linked to Auburn.
Nix attended Ole Miss for the previous sixteen seasons. During that period, he has coached the running backs for more than ten years.
From 2012 to 2016, he served as the running backs coach for the Rebels under Freeze’s leadership. The two are already acquainted.
After graduating from Southern Miss in 2003, Nix worked as a graduate assistant there before taking over as running backs coach in 2004–2006. He joined the Atlanta Falcons in 2007 as a quality control coach, then in 2008 he was appointed running backs coach at Ole Miss. Since then, he has stayed there.
Starting with the 2020 campaign, Nix moved from coaching running backs to coaching wide receivers.
Although Williams had stronger emotional ties to Auburn, Nix is thought to be a superior recruiter and has more SEC coaching experience. With three commits rated five stars or above, Nix is identified as the main recruiter. On the ball’s defensive side are two of those.
There may be some wiggle room in Auburn’s offensive coordinator hierarchy. Freeze has choices. Freeze might as well be the offensive coordinator himself with his anticipated significantly bigger involvement in the offense. If he hires both, he might designate Austin and Nix as co-offensive coordinators.
Should the position of offensive coordinator be held by only one person? If Nix is hired, he seems like the most probable candidate to be offered a reason to quit Oxford.
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