D. J. Durkin

And with Alex Golish and his first season at Auburn, the way that he overhauled this roster, it essentially was him importing his USF offense.

And then, you know, relying on the transfer portal, a few returning guys here and there that were leftovers from the previous regime and keeping DJ Durkin on for his defensive coordinator.

because the defense was already good and there was no reason to mess it up.

But it's not like Alex Golish was inheriting the same situation that John Summerall right now has at Florida.

Some of those guys were without this goal, which others are not.

And you also had a few significant losses on defense.

So you somewhat retain some of the talent that DJ Durkin was able to somewhat be able to influence and come to Auburn under Hugh Freeze.

But you still have a lot of new faces on the defensive side of the ball.

Give me the percentage based on whether they're going to be back or not.

DJ Durkin, Ryan Grubb.

DJ

Durkin, I would say 60.

Damien.

99% that Ryan Grubb will not be back.

And 50% that DJ Durkin will not be back.

Actually, I might lean a little bit higher.

From John Accenture.

So Auburn was trying to parlay that big win at Georgia, coming home, taking on a very good LSU team, and it just did not work out well, especially for DJ Durkin's defense.

LSU racked up 29 first downs, 552 yards of offense.

That's the most yards allowed by DJ Durkin defense at Auburn, the most since giving up 563 as a team.

as they did that against LSU back in 2023.

And it's the most yards given up at home since Ole Miss had 556 yards back in 2015.

Talk a little Auburn football for you guys.

On today's show, it's time to have the uncomfortable conversation, Cesar, about DJ Durkin and his defensive schemes.

Are they the answer? And Auburn has to start this weekend with figuring out how they are going to defend one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Trinidad, Chambliss.

We'll talk about all that and more right here on the Auburn Express TV.

Obviously, Trinidad Chambliss presents some of those challenges with his ability, his escape ability.

his ability to get to the second and third level with his legs.

Auburn can do so, but I think with DJ Durkin's defense, the two times he's been carved up, it's been due to similar offenses that he's faced off against, right? Obviously, last week against LSU, you had a QB who has some mobility but likes to throw the ball, right? I think Trinidad is going to be the most mobile of the quarterbacks that Auburn has faced.

But he presents a challenge because you're going to have to defend 11 on 11.

You know this offense needs you to go get them the ball.

Is it time to start having a conversation about DJ Durkin? There was a narrative that he was forced on Alex Golish.

I did some interviews, and it appears that that's not true.

He was chosen by Alex Golish.

We know a lot of people wanted to hire DJ Durkin.

However, his defense is... have really kind of failed the sniff test at weird times.

I knew they were going to move the ball.

So if you have to rebuild an entire offensive line, then it doesn't work out.

It has, and that's a real bad problem.

I think the thought that because you retained DJ Durkin, there was going to be a lot of stability and carryover performance-wise from last year to this year.

That appears to be something of a false promise.

Does that mean that Alex Golish is going to decide in the offseason that...

Auburn is better off with a new defensive coordinator instead of DJ Durkin.

Like, I don't know.

Like, I think, I think maybe like, even, even if you take the question of, you know, how much, how much carryover should there be from last year's defense to this year? Like you can still think, well, DJ Durkin's the best man to, to fix it, to lead the defense back to what you hope it could be.

It is – you know, I do think for Alex Golish, like, that's going – that gets back to the difficult questions and the difficult decisions that you need to make about this program and what's best in year two because – Alex Golish, you know, could go with, you know, he could decide to go in a new direction.

Defensive line coach, been here.

DJ Durkin, defensive coordinator, been here.

So at the line of scrimmage with the schedule that Auburn plays, they don't have the horses to run the race consistently.

That has to be addressed, number one.

However, You go right back to this the week after? That's really, really hard.

I want to talk about the defensive side of the ball here.

It is, for a long time, the story about the DJ Durkin defense has been...

Another loser of the weekend.

I'm going with DJ Durkin, the Auburn defensive coordinator.

And I talked about it last week.

It felt like Auburn... who's going to be due a letdown game after their big upset at number one, Georgia a week prior, but Auburn, they just got routed by LSU on Saturday afternoon at home 38 to 17.

They stopped the run game.

And so, you know, call DJ Durkin.

I don't know if

that's a fact or not.