Former Auburn DC Jeff Schmedding to be hired for same role at Washington State

Washington State will hire former Auburn DC Jeff Schmedding as its defensive coordinator, sources tell On3’s Matt Zenitz.

Schmedding just completed his second season at Auburn and first as DC. He spent 2021 as the primary linebackers coach for the Tigers. Before that, he spent two seasons at Boise State and Eastern Washington from 2004-2018 in various positions before that.

During his two seasons at Auburn, the Tigers went 11-14 with Schmedding on the staff. With new head coach Hugh Freeze coming in and replacing staff, Schmedding was not retained.

Former Auburn assistant Will Friend expected to join Mississippi State as new OL coach

According to John Brice of Football Scoop, Mississippi State is finalizing a deal with former Auburn offensive line coach Will Friend to fill the position for the Bulldogs. A solid hire with quite an odd story to go along with it.

All is not fair in the great coaching carousel, and that mantra applies to Coach Friend. He was the offensive line coach for Auburn the last season, but departed the program after the season when the Tigers hired a new coaching staff after firing Bryan Harsin in the middle of the year. 

Friend didn’t stick on the unemployment block for long, as a respected OL coach who spent the last five years in the SEC coaching offensive linemen at the highest level the game has to offer. On Thursday January 5, reports leaked that Memphis was expected to hire Friend to coach their offensive line. The decision wasn’t announced publicly, though. 

Fast forward and now Friend will not join Memphis. Instead, he’s returning to the SEC to coach the Bulldogs. Obviously, it’s a better job than Memphis and likely yields a better salary. That’s still a bit of a backstab — to agree to join the Memphis staff (per reports) then double back and take an SEC job. 

SEC coaching searches never fail to disappoint in the drama department, do they.