After years of lacking dynamic wide receivers, the Auburn Tigers football team managed to turn things around and recruit exceptional pass catchers to the Plains under former head coach Hugh Freeze. The man leading the charge for Cam Coleman, Malcolm Simmons, KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Eric Singleton, among others, was wide receivers coach Marcus Davis.
A former Auburn Tiger himself, Davis spent the past three seasons in orange and blue as the wide receivers coach under Freeze. From 2013-2016, Davis played in 50 games and racked up 83 catches.
Before joining Freeze's Auburn staff, Davis spent a year coaching wide receivers at Georgia Southern and, before that, a year in the same position at Hawaii.
New head coach Alex Golesh chose not to retain Davis, instead bringing in another former Auburn Tiger to coach the wide receivers in Kodi Burns. Davis is now expected to join former Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall's staff with the Florida Gators.
Burns also holds the titles of co-offensive coordinator and associate head coach. In a press conference last week, Golesh spoke about the complexities of putting together a new staff, and noted that in some cases, people could not be retained because he already had someone to take their role. It's clear that Davis is one of these cases.
"There have been some positions that we’ve let go simply because we have people that we’re bringing in," Golesh said. "But there’s also a bunch of people in the building that I’m meeting with this week to truly gage where they are, whether they fit what we do or not, that I have to sit down with and have conversations, continue to do background to make sure that at the end of this whole process we end up with the best group of men and women that are going to help us successful at every aspect of our program.”