Texas State Hires Coach of the Auburn Tigers

Tanner Burns, the special teams coordinator for the Auburn Tigers, is allegedly moving west to join the Texas State staff. He will take on a number of responsibilities in this new position, according to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports. Burns will be a defensive assistant, special teams coordinator, and associate head coach.

Days after he was promoted at Auburn, this announcement was made. He was going to work with the secondary in the defensive room in addition to his responsibilities as special teams coordinator.

It appears that the Tigers will now need to fill these positions. Since they rehired Roc Bellantoni earlier on Tuesday, they at least don’t have to worry about who will be the edge coach.

Burns has been with head coach Hugh Freeze for a while and has worked at Auburn for the past two seasons. He was also a member of his Liberty staff.

Burns has helped Auburn rank favorably in a number of special teams categories over the past two years, including seventh nationally in punt return defense this season, according to Zenitz.

Burns joins a Texas State Bobcats squad that seems to be struggling to establish themselves in the FBS. The Bobcats have now had back-to-back 8-5 seasons after eight straight losing ones. They were 7-5 at the end of the regular season and 8-5 after winning the First Responder Bowl. Since they advanced to the FBS in 2012, those two seasons are part of a total of three winning seasons.

Three of those losses occurred in games where they scored at least 28 points, and four of those losses were by a single possession. A 31-28 defeat to Arizona State, who went on to win the Big 12 and qualify for the College Football Playoffs, was one of those close defeats.

In order to overcome the hump, Burns will come in hoping to tighten up a few things.