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.

More background on Will Friend

Courtesy of the Auburn Athletics website, here is the bio blast for Friend’s coaching career:

“Will Friend was in his second year as Auburn’s offensive line coach when he left. Friend spent the previous three seasons as the offensive line coach at Tennessee and, prior to that, was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Colorado State. 

“While at Tennessee, the Philadelphia, Miss. native mentored two-time All-SEC first team lineman Trey Smith. In 2019, UT offensive linemen Wanya Morris and Darnell Wright were both selected to the Freshman All-SEC squad, while Morris was tabbed a Freshman All-American. 

“Friend came to Tennessee after a three-year stint (2015-17) as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Colorado State. In 2017, he led an offense that ranked 11th in the nation in total offense at 492.5 yards per game. Colorado State’s 33.4 points per game in 2017 led the conference and ranked 31st in the nation.

“Prior to Colorado State, Friend served as the offensive line coach at Georgia in 2011 before adding the title of running game coordinator in 2013. During his final season in Athens in 2014, Friend helped guide a Bulldogs’ offense that averaged 41.3 points per game, which ranked eighth nationally, and racked up 457.8 yards of total offense per game.”