Hugh Freeze appears to have made up his mind quickly on Auburn’s future defensive line coach following the February 2 reports that Jeremy Garrett will be hired away by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
It seems that five days later, Freeze will be promoting Vontrell King-Williams from within the program to defensive line coach, up from defensive analyst. The elevation of King-Williams was originally reported by Auburn Rivals’ Brian Stultz on Wednesday afternoon.
The promotion of King-Williams comes after he spent the 2023 season under Garrett at Auburn.
Prior to last fall, King-Williams coached at Eastern Michigan, primarily focusing on defensive tackles. Before that, King-Williams worked as a graduate assistant under Freeze at Liberty during the 2020 and 2021 seasons — again primarily focusing on the defensive line.
With King-Williams now in the fold as Auburn’s defensive line coach, barring any changes, Auburn’s new-look defensive staff appears set for the 2024 season and will feature new faces in defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin, co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly. Returning to Auburn’s defensive staff is linebackers coach Josh Aldridge, secondary coach Wesley McGriff and the now-elevated King-Williams.
Marcus Harris, a former defensive lineman at Auburn, responded positively to the news on Wednesday by supporting King-Williams’ promotion in a post on X, a social media site that was once known as Twitter.