Auburn's Hugh Freeze made Home Run Hire in DJ Durkin

DJ Durkin is rapidly turning his young Auburn Tigers defense onto the finer points of execution

DJ Durkin celebrates with his Auburn Tigers defense, a unit that has played exceptionally despite the Tigers' poor record. / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Through all the cussing and fussing under the increasingly troubled regime of Auburn Tigers head Hugh Freeze, the defense is plenty young, but stoically still ranks in the top-25 nationally. 

First-year defensive coordinator DJ Durkin has undoubtedly made a quick impression in charge of his ascending unit. The key to making progress has been adopting a motivational strategy which is dropping the alpha-high school attitudes, and instead blending in strictly team first ethos.

Making his guys be collectively responsible for holding up their end of the bargain is hardly revolutionary practice, but it fundamentally depends on particularly strong man-management skills.

"Yeah, I mean, there's a learning curve with all of it. Not so much just the buy-in, it's just the learning of how important it is to execute and do your job, and not kind of freelance" Durkin said at media availability.

"These guys are all elite athletes. They come from high school programs where you could probably go out there and run around and just play and be in the right spot and play really well. And so, for us, it's learning the responsibility of, hey, I'm part of something bigger than myself. I'm not playing one-on-one football. There's 11 of us out here. Our guys, I've seen consistently each week get better and better at that. And I think right now we're playing at our best."

Molding the young Auburn defensive talent into consistently productive players has accelerated under Durkin. That being said, Durkin is also well aware how the changing landscape of college football is forcing his hand in different ways. However, going into the second bye week, it's about going back to basics.

"We're a young defense, and so it's still about technique and fundamentals," Durkin doubled down. "I think that's what you use these open dates for, where we'll sprinkle in game plan and things that we need to get done and get ready for. But really, we can focus on tackling, block defeat, and where are our eyes, what kind of stance are we in. And all those little things that just add up to helping you be successful."

Just take a quick look at the Tigers record and you get the vibe that things have certainly not been good enough, but it's common knowledge that the problems with the offense have shot holes in this fractured campaign.

Durkin is emerging with a unit that is building up very nicely under some pretty challenging circumstances, including the offense being ranked 124th in turnovers lost. Core to that process is how Durkin's group have been making strides forward, and focused on their jobs after the offense has let them down time and time again.

To keep the defense humming along, and also keep on getting better, Durkin is well aware that stressing the finer points of execution really does matter.

"I think it's just our guys are really executing for us at a high level," Durkin enthused. "I think as the season's gone on, we've progressively gotten better. The last three teams we've played, those teams are all teams that rush the ball really well. And so that was a part of what we needed to do in order to put ourselves in a position to win those games.

"I think our guys really just bought into that. I mean, we made it very clear that this is what they like to do, this is what we need to do to stop it. And they've done a good job executing."

While it might be much further down the line that results ultimately reflect defensive performance more accurately, Durkin is thankfully hell-bent on the baby steps turning into giant strides eventually.

"I think our group has a substance to them of, 'you know what, this matters,' and their teammates matter to them. I think it shows how they play," Durkin insisted.