AUBURN — Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze has promoted Kent Austin to quarterbacks coach, the program announced Wednesday afternoon. Former offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery, who was fired Jan. 5, coached the QBs last season.

Austin, who was previously a special assistant to the head coach, followed Freeze from Liberty when he was hired at Auburn in November 2022. Austin was the co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach under Freeze with the Flames from 2019-22, helping them to the nation's No. 15 offense in terms of total yardage in 2020.

Liberty was No. 32 in 2019, No. 36 in 2021 and No. 66 in 2022. The Flames averaged 32.8 points from 2019-22.

"I've known Kent for a long time and worked with him at multiple schools," Freeze said in a statement. "He is a great teacher and developer of quarterbacks and has been a valuable resource to our program this past year."

Austin, 60, played QB at Ole Miss from 1981-1985, completing 57.7% of his 981 career passes for 6,184 yards and 31 touchdowns. He was drafted by the then-St. Louis Cardinals with the No. 312 overall pick in the 1986 NFL Draft, though he only spent one year with the organization before moving on and spending the rest of his 11-year professional career in the Canadian Football League.

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Austin got his start in the coaching industry as quarterbacks coach for the Ottawa Renegades of the CFL in 2003. He later became offensive coordinator for the Toronto Argonauts (2004-06) and then coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders (2007) before he made his way back into the collegiate ranks as the offensive coordinator at his alma mater from 2008-09.

The Rebels averaged 407.6 yards of offense in 2008 and 402.4 in 2009. Those numbers were good enough for No. 29 and No. 44 in the country, respectively.

Austin left Ole Miss to coach Cornell, where he spent three seasons and compiled an 11-19 record from 2010-12. He then went back into the CFL and became coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from 2013-17. The Tiger-Cats went 36-44 under him.

"I feel very honored and blessed to be given this new position and am thankful for the trust coach Freeze has placed with me to develop our quarterbacks at Auburn," Austin said.

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

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football, Hugh Freeze promote Kent Austin to QBs coach