Auburn football: 3 OC candidates to consider after moving past Zak Hill

Auburn football is still without an offensive coordinator after parting ways with Mike Bobo after just one season on the Plains. Name after name has been tossed out in speculation, but as the early signing period for recruits quickly approaches there has been no new hire.

Tuesday afternoon, Auburn Live reported that first-year head coach Bryan Harsin has officially moved on from Zak Hill, the Arizona State OC that was originally tabbed as the favorite for the hire due to his previous experience in playcalling for Harsin at Boise State:

"We reported that Hill had an offer in hand, but compliance between Arizona State and Auburn were working together to complete due diligence. Sources confirmed on Tuesday that it’s “time to move on” from Hill."

Zach Kittley was another potential option for Auburn football’s next offensive coordinator, but the Western Kentucky OC took a new job at Texas Tech earlier this week, eliminating him from the search. Things could be heating up with current Georgia run game coordinator and former Auburn player Dell McGee after the Dawgs’ lost out on the SEC title over the weekend, but nothing has been officially confirmed.

With the early signing period just over one week away, Harsin and the coaching staff need to make a good hire and they need to make it quickly. Three names have emerged this week in the search as Auburn football moves away from ASU’s Zak Hill and continues to look for Mike Bobo’s replacement: Jeff Grimes, Austin Davis, and Kenny Dillingham.

Auburn football OC Candidate #1: Jeff Grimes

Jeff Grimes is currently finishing up his first season as the offensive coordinator for the Baylor Bears after spending the previous four years as OC at BYU. Though he’s no Zak Hill, Grimes also has ties to Boise State where he coached the offensive line in 2000 right before Harsin joined as a graduate assistant in 2001.

Grimes checks several more boxes for the Tigers, including plenty of experience in both the Southeastern Conference and on the Plains. He coached Auburn football’s offensive line under former head coach Gene Chizik from 2009-2012, a tenure that involved one conference title and a national championship.

Following his years on the Plains, Grimes coached for a year at Virginia Tech before spending 2014-2017 as LSU’s offensive line coach and run game coordinator.

The Baylor Bears finished this season as the #2 team in the Big 12 after going 11-2 overall and 7-2 in conference play as well as upsetting Oklahoma State with a sound victory in the conference championship. Their offense averaged 430.3 total yards per game with an average of 215.6 passing yards and 214.7 rushing yards per game.

While the Tigers’ passing offense scored better than the Bears’ with an average of 241.2 yards per game, the Bears scored better in total offense and rushing offense. With SEC experience and familiarity with both Boise State and Auburn football, Jeff Grimes could be the Tigers’ next OC.

Auburn football OC Candidate #2: Austin Davis

Where Jeff Grimes would bring a sense of familiarity to the Plains, the next candidate worth mentioning is quite the opposite. Austin Davis began his college football career as a walk-on at Southern Miss and worked his way up to QB1 in his second season. Davis went undrafted in the 2012 NFL Draft but signed as a free agent with the Rams, for whom he would later make his starting debut in 2013.

Davis played for the Seattle Seahawks from 2017-2018 and then re-joined the team as an offensive assistant in 2019 before being promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2020. Now, the former NFL quarterback is being linked to a collegiate-level job on the Plains.

Though Davis would be coming from a region that Harsin is more familiar with, it seems slightly risky to hire someone with little-to-no playcalling experience and who has spent far more time in the NFL than in the world of the NCAA. However, Auburn Live confirms that Bryan Harsin spoke with Austin Davis on Tuesday, so it’s possible that Davis could soon be joining the staff as Auburn football’s next offensive coordinator.

Auburn football OC Candidate #3: Kenny Dillingham

The third potential candidate for offensive coordinator lands right in the middle of Auburn football’s comfort zone. Currently finishing up his second season as OC and quarterbacks coach at Florida State, Kenny Dillingham has previously coached at Arizona State, Memphis, and on the Plains.

A familiar face for most Tiger fans, Kenny Dillingham replaced Chip Lindsey as Gus Malzahn’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2019.  He had an extremely impressive season on the Plains, leading Bo Nix to win SEC Freshman of the Year and coaching the offense to score a whopping 48 points in that year’s Iron Bowl, the most points allowed by Alabama under Coach Nick Saban.

Dillingham’s Auburn offense ranked third in the SEC with an average of 34 points per game and was able to convert 90% of red-zone possessions. That same year the Tigers’ offense averaged 406.5 yards per game, with 207.5 passing yards and 199.1 rushing yards per game on average.

According to Auburn Live, Bryan Harsin has not reached out to Dillingham as of Tuesday morning, but that could change at any time and he remains a name of interest in the search. Outside of Jeff Grimes, Austin Davis, and Kenny Dillingham, another name to watch could be Frank Ponce of Appalachian State.

Again, time is of the essence for Auburn football, because recruits will definitely be looking for a stable, well-put-together staff in the midst of all the coaching drama going on in college football.