Following the departure of Kenny Dillingham, who left for Florida State earlier in the week, Auburn will be bringing in former Arkansas head coach, Chad Morris, to fill the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach opening.
Morris is known to be one of head coach Gus Malzahn’s closest friends. The two have been close since their high school coaching days , with Morris in Texas and Malzahn in Arkansas, and have shared ideas of similar offensive concepts.
“I’m super excited to have Chad Morris join our staff at Auburn,” Malzahn said in a statement. “He’s a tremendous offensive mind who has had success with several top-ranked offenses during his time in the college ranks. I’ve known Chad for almost 20 years and he is a tireless worker and a perfectionist. He is a great addition to our program and I look forward to him helping Auburn win championships.”
Beginning as a high school coach, Morris broke into the collegiate ranks as an offensive coordinator for Tulsa.
Morris first found national success during his time as the offensive coordinator at Clemson, under Dabo Swinney. In Morris' offensive scheme, from 2011-2014, Clemson was able to go 42-11 with one of the most explosive offenses in college football. Before leaving Clemson, Morris, who was responsible for recruiting in Georgia and Florida, was able to successfully recruit Deshaun Watson who led the Tigers to a national championship.
Morris was hired by SMU in 2014 taking over for a team that went 1-11 in 2013, and turning them into 7-5 team in 2017. He was also able to give SMU its first bowl bid in five years in 2017.
After SMU, Morris was the head coach at Arkansas for less than two years, going 4-18, and was fired on Nov. 10 after a loss to Western Kentucky.
“I’m very excited for the opportunity to join Coach Malzahn’s staff at Auburn,” Morris said in a statement Tuesday. “I’ve known Gus since the early 2000s and consider him a dear friend and someone that helped me get into the profession at the college level. I’ve admired the success he’s had at each of his stops and look forward to adding to the success that he, his staff and the players have built. We are excited about joining the Auburn family.”
Morris will serve as the offensive coordinator, as well as the quarterbacks coach. Auburn is scheduled to begin practice for the Outback Bowl against Minnesota next week and Morris will use that time to get started with the quarterbacks.
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