The Auburn football program is set to promote TJ Rushing to an on-field role, per Auburn Undercover. Rushing spent last season on the Plains as a special assistant to head coach Hugh Freeze and prior to that worked with Auburn defensive coordinator DJ Durkin while they were at Texas A&M. He is expected to coach linebackers and help with the nickel position.
Rushing played college football at Stanford, where he earned All-Pac 12 honors twice and was a first-team specialist. He was known during his career as a return specialist, and he left Stanford with 1,409 career kickoff return yards and an average of 27.1 yards per kickoff return.
The Indianapolis Colts drafted Rushing in the seventh round of the 2006 NFL Draft, and he played with the team for four seasons. During his rookie year, the Colts won the Super Bowl and then returned to the championship game just three years later.
Rushing began his coaching career at Arizona State as a graduate assistant. After two years, he took a role with Northern Arizona, and then became a defensive assistant at Stanford. In 2016, Rushing returned to Arizona State and became the defensive backs coach for the Sun Devils. His next stop was at Memphis, where he was the passing game coordinator for the defense.
Following a successful stint with the Memphis defense, Rushing went to Texas A&M, where he spent three seasons coaching the Aggies' defensive backs. His final year he worked with Durkin in College Station before the pair made the move to the Plains.
Rushing's on-field promotion comes after former Auburn football linebackers coach Josh Aldridge announced he would be taking the defensive coordinator position with East Carolina University. Aldridge spent two seasons on the Plains, before which he worked for Freeze at Liberty as the Flames' co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.