Auburn stole from LSU this winter when it plucked defensive coordinator Kevin Steele away from Baton Rouge to serve as Will Muschamp‘s replacement. Now LSU has struck back.
LSU announced Sunday it had hired Auburn co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Dameyune Craig as its new wide receivers coach.
“Dameyune is a quarterback by nature so he’s going to be a tremendous asset to us in all phases of the passing game,” LSU head coach Les Miles said in a statement. “He coached a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback at Florida State and developed some outstanding receivers at Auburn.
“He comes to us with great coaching credentials as well as being a proven recruiter. We look forward to the contributions that he’s going to bring to our football program.”
Craig, a Mobile, Ala., native and former Auburn quarterback, is not long on experience as a major-college assistant, only joining a Power 5 school in 2010 at Florida State, but has garnered a reputation as a strong recruiter. He was named the ACC’s Recruiter of the Year in 2012.
Recruiting laymen may recall Craig’s name from the 2014 BCS National Championship, when Florida State receivers accused him of stealing the Seminoles’ signals. Craig was Florida State’s quarterbacks coach from 2010-12.
“They had a couple of our signals a couple times and were getting to them. That happens, people do it, and that’s our fault,” Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher said following FSU’s title-game win. “You’ve got to change them, constantly rotate them, being able to get them in different ways. That’s part of the game. I don’t have a problem with that.”
“I want to thank the Auburn family for all of their love and support over the years,” Craig said. “My decision to make this career move is in no way a reflection of Auburn or the Auburn family. It is strictly a professional decision. It’s about growing as a coach and, hopefully, one day becoming a head coach.
Craig spent the 2004 season at LSU as a graduate assistant, then followed Nick Saban and his staff to the Miami Dolphins in 2005. From there he spent two seasons as the quarterbacks coach at Tuskegee and another two years coaching wide receivers at South Alabama before joining Fisher’s staff in Tallahassee.
For Auburn, the loss of Craig continues an offseason in which the Tigers have been victims of the SEC’s insular nature. Muschamp left for the head coaching job at South Carolina and took defensive assistants Travaris Robinson and Lance Thompson with him. Craig is the eighth Auburn assistant to leave the program (by his choice or the program’s) since the end of the 2014 season, including five voluntarily after the ’15 campaign.
Many believe Auburn will likely hire former Auburn wideout and current Arizona State running backs coach Kodi Burns back to the Plains to replace him.
“I want to thank Dameyune for his contributions during the last three years and wish him and his family nothing but the best,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said in a statement of his own. “We will work quickly to search for his replacement.”
