Auburn Tigers Coach Poached by Texas State

Just a few days after being given a promotion with the Tigers, Auburn is going to have to go see who can fill a couple roles

The Auburn Tigers loss a member of the coaching staff to Texas State / John Reed-Imagn Images

Auburn Tigers special teams coordinator Tanner Burns is reportedly heading west to join the staff at Texas State.  According to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz, he will wear a variety of hats in this new role. Burns will serve as associate head coach, special teams coordinator and a defensive assistant. 

This announcement comes days after he had received a promotion at Auburn. Along with his special teams coordinator duties, he was going to take on a role in the defensive room working with the secondary. 

So it looks like the Tigers will have to go and fill these roles now. At least they don’t have to worry about who will be the edge coach since they re-hired Roc Bellantoni earlier on Tuesday. 

Burns has worked at Auburn for the last two seasons and has been with head coach Hugh Freeze for some time. He was part of his staff back at Liberty as well. 

According to Zenitz, Burns has helped Auburn rank highly in several special teams categories the last two years, including ninth nationally this season in punt return defense.

Burns joins a Texas State Bobcats team that appears to be finding its footing at the FBS level. After eight consecutive losing seasons, the Bobcats have now put up back-to-back 8-5 seasons. Both times, they finished the regular season 7-5 and won the First Responder Bowl to finish 8-5. Those represent two of three total winning seasons since they moved up to FBS in 2012. 

Four of their losses were by a single possession and three of those losses came in games in which they scored at least 28 points. One of those tight losses was a 31-28 loss to Arizona State, who went on to win the Big 12 and play in the College Football Playoff. 

Burns will come in looking to tighten up a few things so they can get over the hump.