AUBURN — Auburn football has landed on an internal candidate to replace Jeremy Garrett.

The Tigers are have promoted defensive analyst Vontrell King-Williams, who has been in an off-the-field role at Auburn for one season, hired by coach Hugh Freeze in January 2023. Garrett reportedly left to be the DL coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier this month.

King-Williams will coach defensive tackles, the program announced Feb. 9. Linebackers coach Josh Aldridge will shift his attention to edge rushers, and defensive coordinator DJ Durkin will also coach the LBs.

“I’m super grateful for the opportunity given to me by coach Freeze and coach Durkin,” King-Williams said in a statement. “I believe in what we are building here at Auburn and can’t wait to continue to positively impact the lives of our student-athletes. War Eagle!”

King-Williams coached DTs at Eastern Michigan in 2022, but he worked as a graduate assistant under Freeze at Liberty before that from 2020-21. He was also a graduate assistant at Eastern Michigan from 2018-19 and a defensive line intern at UTSA, his alma mater, in 2017.

The Chicago native is a former football player, playing at Illinois from 2012-13 before going to junior college in 2014. He transferred to UTSA for his final two years of eligibility after that.

“Vontrell is an incredibly hard worker, passionate about his craft, and earned the respect of his players during his time with me at Auburn and Liberty,” Freeze said. “He has a tremendous upside and reminds me of the likes of Jeremy Garrett, Tray Scott and Freddie Roach, who have all worked for me early in their careers.”

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Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football tabs Vontrell King-Williams to replace Jeremy Garrett