Coffee and Magnolia: 5 January 2015

AUBURN FOOTBALL

In coaching news, we have had our first changes on the defensive staff made official since Will Muschamp's hiring as the defensive coordinator. We reported that Melvin Smith would not be retained on Friday, and on Saturday afternoon the word came out immediately following Florida's bowl game that Travaris Robinson would be joining the Tigers. Robinson did great things with the Gators, and was considered one of the better recruiters in the nation, as well. 247Sports has a great list of the best recruits he pulled in to Gainesville.

Now we know that Safeties coach Charlie Harbison will not be returning, either. I honestly can't remember what Muschamp coached when he was at Auburn the first time around. Ellis Johnson coached the linebackers. As much as it would be a feel-good story for Travis Williams to be retained at the linebacker spot after coaching them for the bowl game as a grad assistant, I doubt that happens. I'm sure Muschamp will either coach the linebackers or the safeties, and we will soon see another coach added. It remains to be seen whether current DL coach Rodney Garner will be reassigned. He will remain with the Tigers, though.

It's time for the college all-star season, and three Tigers will be playing in the Medal of Honor Bowl, one of the newer games on the scene. Angelo Blackson, Jermaine Whitehead, and CJ Uzomah will travel to Charleston for the second Medal of Honor Bowl.

AL.com's Joel Erickson wrote an article about Nick Marshall's journey and how the Outback Bowl showed just how far he's come.

And, in case you missed it, former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik will be returning to the sidelines as the defensive coordinator for North Carolina. Good luck, Gene.

AUBURN BASKETBALL

The ladies haven't had the best of starts to their conference schedule, losing to #1 South Carolina on Friday, and then losing the home opener to Florida on Sunday.

The men closed out their non-conference schedule with a victory over North Alabama on Saturday. It wasn't pretty, and Coach Pearl was not happy with the effort.

If you like crazy hypotheticals, Tuco has a good one for you: what if Nick Marshall joined the basketball team?