AUBURN | Auburn announced the hire of Kenny Dillingham as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Sunday night. Here are four things to know about the Tigers’ newest assistant.
1. FAST RISER
At 28-years old, Dillingham is the youngest offensive coordinator in the SEC and one of the youngest in the country. His ascension up the coaching ladder has been impressive. He came to Memphis as a graduate assistant in 2016, served as the quarterbacks and tight end coach (an interesting combination) in 2017 before being elevated to offensive coordinator this year.
Before joining Mike Norvell’s staff at Memphis, Dillingham was a graduate assistant at Arizona State for two years. Before that, he worked as a trainer and high school coach in Arizona.
2. PLAYING TO STRENGTHS
Over the past three seasons, Dillingham has helped shape Memphis’ offense around its most talented players. In 2016 and 17, that was quarterback Riley Ferguson who threw for 7,955 yards and 70 touchdowns in two years as the starter.
With Ferguson graduated, Dillingham’s offense featured a more ground-oriented attack in 2018 as running backs Darrell Henderson and Patrick Taylor Jr. both ran for over 1,000 yards and combined for 37 rushing touchdowns.
The 2017 offense ranked fourth nationally in total yards per game and seventh in passing yards. This fall, the Tigers again ranked fourth in total offense, but third in rushing offense as well.
3. CIRCLE OF TRUST
The vast majority of Gus Malzahn’s hires have come from a small pool of coaches that he has a connection with and Dillingham is no different, although it’s not a direct connection.
Dillingham is the second coach Malzahn has poached from Norvell’s staff at Memphis after hiring Marcus Woodson as cornerbacks coach 11 months ago. Norvell worked as a graduate assistant under Malzahn at Tulsa in 2007-08 and the two have remained close since.
4. EYE IN THE SKY
Along with the hire of Dillingham, Malzahn announced that he would return to his play calling duties. It’s the same system he used during his first three seasons at Auburn and the same one Dillingham worked under at Memphis where Norvell called the plays and Dillingham provided a bird’s eye view from the coaches’ box.
It’s also the same system Darrell Dickey worked under as Norvell’s offensive coordinator at Memphis in 2017 and Jimbo Fisher’s offensive coordinator at Texas A&M in 2018.
BONUS: Here’s what Norvell had to say about Dillingham to the Memphis Commercial Appeal earlier this year:
“He’s relentless in everything he does. He puts his heart into it, and he’s got a great football mind,” Norvell said. “We’ve been together so long (that) he’s got a pretty good sense of how I think and what we need to accomplish.”
