AUBURN — Hugh Freeze is out as Auburn football’s head coach, the program announced Sunday, Nov. 2, and defensive coordinator DJ Durkin will serve as the program’s interim for the remainder of 2025.
Durkin joined Freeze’s staff for the 2024 season. His defenses have been largely successful, so much so he received a seven-figure pay bump in February, making him one of the highest-paid assistants in the country.
However, Durkin’s new role will be his first head coaching job in nearly a decade. His first gig came in December 2015 with Maryland. It ended midway through the 2018 season, when the Terrapins fired him in the aftermath of a player’s death and an ensuing investigation.
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DJ Durkin was fired at Maryland in 2018. What happened?
On May 29, 2018, Maryland offensive lineman Jordan McNair collapsed during a team practice. He was hospitalized that evening with an internal body temperature of 106 degrees and airlifted to a shock and trauma center in Baltimore for a liver transplant.
Fifteen days later, McNair, 19, was pronounced dead.
The following week, Maryland announced it was hiring Dr. Rod Walters, a sports medicine consultant, to conduct a review into McNair’s death. The situation escalated when ESPN published an exposé alleging a toxic culture at Maryland on Aug. 10, 2018.
Durkin was placed on administrative leave the following day as the university investigated “unacceptable behavior by members of our football staff.”
On Oct. 30, 2018, Maryland’s Board of Regents recommended Durkin’s reinstatement, but following immense backlash, University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh announced Durkin’s firing a day later.
Details from Maryland’s investigations into DJ Durkin’s program
ESPN’s initial story cited interviews with two Maryland players, multiple people close to the program and former players and staffers. In August 2018, the university created a commission to investigate the program.
Prior to that, findings from the Walters investigation were released Sept. 21, 2018, determining that trainers didn’t follow proper procedures after McNair’s collapse. One hour and 39 minutes passed between McNair’s episode and an ambulance taking him to the hospital, according to the findings.
Two-plus months later, on Oct. 25, the USM Board of Regents commission’s nearly 200-page report of findings was leaked, chronicling a dozen allegations of staff misconduct. One of those included multiple players anonymously complaining that coaches made them watch “disturbing videos” while eating. Former Maryland linebacker Gus Little said that included “videos of serial killers, drills entering eyeballs and bloody scenes with animals eating animals.”
Much of the investigation surrounded strength and conditioning coach Rick Court, including him choking a player with a weight-lifting apparatus and throwing weights in frustration. Court denied choking a player but admitted he threw “small items, potentially including weights, but never at anyone.”
Ultimately, the report stopped short of calling the program’s culture toxic, and it stated that it didn’t contribute to McNair’s death.
What has DJ Durkin said about Maryland firing?
Three months after his Auburn hiring, Durkin was asked why he believed he deserved another chance at coaching.
“I think, all along, the people that know you and have been around you, they know you,” Durkin said. “I think those opportunities are provided by people that have done their homework and know who I am as a person and what I stand for as a coach. That’s it. That would be someone else’s question to answer. Not mine.”
Durkin was also asked how he has changed since his Maryland tenure, saying: “There’s evolution always, I think, in life, in coaching. I’m different this year than I was from last year. You always learn.
“You look back, reflect and say, ‘OK, what are things I could’ve done differently? Done better?’ That’s part of improvement. We always do it with our players, obviously, as coaches. Let’s do it for ourselves, too. Evaluate how we can do things better and differently. I think if you’re not growing and learning as a person, then what are you doing?”
Where else has DJ Durkin coached since Maryland firing?
Durkin returned to coaching less than a year after his Maryland exit, briefly working as a consultant for the Atlanta Falcons. On Jan. 2, 2020, Ole Miss announced it’d hired Durkin as its co-defensive coordinator, and he was hired by Texas A&M for the same role in January 2022.
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter. To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: What to know about Auburn football coach DJ Durkin’s Maryland history
