Assistant coaches continue to swap jobs as spring football draws closer and closer, and now it seems the fun is starting to wind down. Auburn made a couple of changes to its staff this week with off-the-sideline roles.
First, according to AL.com, Auburn has added Devin Ducote as a defensive analyst. The former Stephen F. Austin linebacker most recently was on LSU’s football staff as a graduate assistant. With his new tiger stripes on, Ducote will fill the role previously held by Blake Gideon, who has since moved to South Carolina with former Auburn defensive coordinator (and now South Carolina head coach) Will Muschamp.
Football Scoop also reported another staff adjustment. Video coordinator Brent Thomas is no longer with the team, the outlet reports. Thomas had been a part of the Auburn staff since 2007 following jobs with the Tennessee Titans of the NFL and the Tennessee Volunteers before that. Thomas is the 10th member of the football staff to leave Auburn this offseason, leaving head coach Gus Malzahn with a good amount of jobs to replace this year. That tends to happen when an assistant or coordinator has an opportunity to take a head coaching job elsewhere, as Muschamp did. That more often than not leads to multiple openings as another assistant or two or more will leave the program as well to follow the new head coach.
There is no information on where Thomas will be heading next.