Hugh Freeze is bringing two field assistants from Liberty to Auburn.
Jeremy Garrett will serve as Auburn’s defensive line coach, while Ben Aigamaua will be the Tigers’ tight ends coach, a source confirmed to AL.com. Garrett spent last season in the same role on the Freeze staff at Liberty, where the Flames led the country in tackles for loss (109), finished third among all FBS teams in sacks (41) and were 34th nationally in run defense, which limited opponents to 3.76 yards per carry. Aigamaua was Liberty’s manager last season.
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Garrett and Aigamaua join Cadillac Williams as first field assistants to Freeze’s founding staff. Freeze, who was hired Monday and unveiled on the Plains Tuesday, is working to quickly assemble its first Auburn staff as key recruiting dates fast approach, including the opening of the transfer portal next week.
Garrett was out with Freeze in Montgomery on Friday to join the head coach, assistant head coach Cadillac Williams and assistant coaches Zac Etheridge and Christian Robinson at Madhouse Training, where many of the area’s best prospects train.
Garrett, a former defenseman at Ole Miss when Freeze was an assistant with the Rebels, has 13 years of coaching experience but only two at the college level. He started out as a high school coach in Mississippi and Tennessee before serving as an assistant defensive quality control at Vanderbilt in 2019 under then-Commodore coach Derek Mason. Garrett worked closely with Vanderbilt’s defensive line this season.
After a year at Vanderbilt, Garrett made the jump to the NFL, where he spent two seasons as an assistant defensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns. During his time with the Browns, Garrett worked with first-team All-Pro defensemen Myles Garrett, Olivier Vernon and Jadeveon Clowney. Cleveland finished the 2020 season, his first with the franchise, with the NFL’s ninth running defense after finishing 30th the year before, while the Browns were one of only four teams to have two players each that season, who posted at least nine sacks.
In his second season with Cleveland, the Brown finished fifth in overall defense for the third time since 1970, when the franchise finished in the top five in that category. Myles Garrett, on the other hand, set the franchise record that year with 19 sacks. After his run with the Browns, Garrett was selected by Freeze to join Liberty’s staff last season.
Aigamaua has been a mainstay on Freeze’s coaching staff over the years. He was a 2010 graduate assistant at Lambuth, held various roles on Freeze’s staff at Ole Miss, and then spent the last four seasons as Liberty’s tight ends coach.
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde. Nubyjas Wilborn is an Auburn Beat reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nwilborn19.