Auburn Tigers News: What DJ Durkin wants from his defense, AU looking to flip Bama RB commit
In today's edition of Auburn Tigers News, DJ Durkin explains what he wants to get out of his Auburn defense, and the Tigers are pushing to flip an Alabama running back commit
There have been many changes to the Auburn football coaching staff since the end of the 2023 season, including the hiring of DJ Durkin as the Tigers' new defensive coordinator after Ron Roberts left the Plains to take a co-defensive coordinator position with the Florida Gators.
According to Auburn Undercover, Durkin plans to make subtle changes to the Tigers' defense from last season, and a main focus will be aggression.
“I think there are some similarities which are good for our guys that they can draw on,” Durkin said. “I think for us it's really focused on we want to be really aggressive with everything we do. We want to apply pressure on the quarterback and to me defense is so much about effort, how do we tackle and how do you execute more than what you do.
“I guess long story short it's more how you do things than what you do. How are we going to do this? With great energy and effort and level of execution in our attacking.”
The Tigers are pushing to flip an Alabama running back commit
Earlier this week, Auburn football hosted 4-star running back Anthony Rogers, who committed to Alabama in June of 2023. Despite Nick Saban's retirement announcement a few months ago, Rogers has remained strong in his commitment to the Tide, which is largely due to the fact that Alabama running backs coach Robert Gillespie was kept on staff.
Rogers got the chance to sit down and talk with the coaching staff, including head coach Hugh Freeze, who gave the running back a personal pitch according to Auburn Rivals. When asked if Auburn football has a chance to flip him, Rogers answered yes.
With a new running backs coach on the Plains in Derrick Nix, the Tigers will get a fresh start in their recruitment of Rogers, who is ranked as the #91 overall prospect and the #5 running back in the recruiting class of 2025 and is the #9 recruit out of the state of Alabama. Rogers is still considering an official visit to the Plains later this year.