DJ Durkin announces Auburn's offensive play caller moving forward

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DJ Durkin is Auburn's interim head coach, and he announced that offensive coordinator Derrick Nix will be the play caller moving forward.

"He’ll be the play caller every down," he explained. "He’s the sole play caller, and I have extreme confidence in Derrick. Derrick and I have worked together at previous stops, as well. Derrick is a great person, a great coach and I think the players really responded to him and understand where he’s coming from. I think Derrick’s going to do a great job, and we will be aggressive in everything we do.”

Nix is in his second season on the Plains after spending the previous 16 years with the Ole Miss Rebels, leaving ahead of the 2024 season to be Auburn's offensive coordinator and running backs coach.

Durkin, who has been a defensive coach throughout his entire career, made it clear that he will let the experts run the offense, but he will offer some suggestions.

"My communication with the offense has been more schematically from a defensive viewpoint," he explained. "That’s my background and what I know. I’m certainly not going to try to step in to be doing things that aren’t in my wheelhouse, but from those terms of, here’s some things defensively viewing that where we could help and offer suggestions that way."

Auburn's offense struggled mightily when Hugh Freeze was calling plays, averaging just 22.3 points per game, the third fewest in the SEC, and 4.92 yards per play, the second fewest in the conference. Those struggles, especially in the fourth quarter, are why athletic director John Cohen thought it was time to move on from Freeze.

"It was just a general inefficiency of our offense, especially in fourth quarters," he said on Monday. "I think you find out a lot about your team when you watch a fourth-quarter offense. Are they going to attack the game and say we’re down a score, we're going to get this done? For whatever reason, that was not happening offensively during the course of the season and that was something that was noticeable. Everybody in this room knows that's something that's got to change, and it's got to change quickly.”

Nix will have a tough test in his first game as the Tigers will play the No. 16 Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville, Tennessee. The Commodores beat Auburn 17-7 last year in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn Football: Derrick Nix will call offensive plays

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