There were no staff changes after Gus Malzahn's first year at Auburn as head coach. There has been at least one change every year since. That trend continues today with the news that defensive backs coach Wesley McGriff is heading to Ole Miss as the defensive coordinator. For the second year in a row, Auburn loses a position coach to an in-division rival. .
It's impossible to fault a position coach leaving for a coordinator role. McGriff leaving for Ole Miss is even less surprising, since he was the defensive backs coach there under Hugh Freeze a few years ago. He will be replacing Dave Wommack, who retired at the end of this season for Ole Miss. If there's one factor that is surprising with this, it's that it is currently unknown what NCAA issues may come into play with Ole Miss in the future once the investigation there is all said and done.
McGriff replace Travaris Robinson last year after he left with Will Muschamp to be the defensive coordinator at South Carolina. In his season with the Tigers, McGriff did a pretty good job bringing along the young DBs and I hate to see him go. We'll have to wait and see what his exit does to the defensive back recruiting at Auburn between now and signing day.
Just who will replace McGriff is up in the air, but I would look for someone Kevin Steele is familiar with like Corey Raymond at LSU. That would be a home run hire if we could steal him away from Baton Rouge. LSU always has fantastic DBs. LSU is Raymond's alma mater, though, and with Orgeron and Aranda still there it's hard to imagine Auburn being able to lure him away.
Another candidate to keep an eye on is Troy DB coach Al Pogue. He's done a pretty good job with the Trojans and is very familiar with Auburn and Gus Malzahn, having worked for the Tigers in an off-field capacity under Malzahn when he was a coordinator and as head coach. There's always the possibility of Blake Gideon - who coached the DBs in last year's bowl game and is currently at South Carolina - returning to Auburn, as well.
We'll have more for you as we hear it.