Auburn fired offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery on Friday after just one season at the helm of Auburn’s offense.

It was a season characterized by significant passing game struggles that led Auburn to finish among the bottom 10 offenses in the country by passing yards per game, and was notably worse when head coach Hugh Freeze was not heavily involved in game planning.

Auburn owes Montgomery a full buyout of his contract which was worth just north of $3 million, so money isn’t just lying around in droves. Freeze is certainly looking for an offensive coordinator who can continue to allow him to recruit at the rate he has been, while not sacrificing the success of the offense at the same time.

Whoever Auburn hires next will be its seventh offensive coordinator in the last seven seasons.

Here are three potential names to watch to fill that spot.

Kent Austin

Current position: Auburn’s special assistant to the head coach

Austin is the clear immediate internal candidate for the job. He has ample experience with Freeze, having been his co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Liberty. He also has previous experience in the SEC, as Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator from 2008-2009. The majority of his experience is in the Canadian Football League.

Austin has already been a factor in Auburn’s offense during his first season here.

It was quite telling during a pre-Music City Bowl interview with quarterback Payton Thorne when he mentioned Austin and Freeze, but not Montgomery, as coaches he was looking to at Auburn as he practiced and developed during the 2023 season.

Matt Luke

Current position: Clemson’s offensive line coach

Luke comes from the Freeze coaching tree, but may be in a slightly odd position because he was just hired to be Clemson’s offensive line coach barely a month ago.

But he makes a lot of sense for the Auburn job.

Freeze hired Luke to be his offensive coordinator at Ole Miss, and generally led a successful offense. Luke, an Ole Miss alum, was thought highly enough internally in Oxford to be given the head coaching job after Freeze resigned in 2017.

He was fired in 2019 after two losing seasons, though Luke was largely the one left to deal with the fallout of sanctions from rules violations during Freeze’s tenure that led to his resignation.

It’s unclear if Luke would be willing to ditch Clemson so quickly, but the connection with Freeze is strong and could be a factor. Because Luke has so much experience, it could allow Freeze to dive into recruiting without having to worry as much about the offense — the idea he initially had with hiring Montgomery.

Dameyune Craig

Current position: None

Craig, who played at Auburn from 1994-1997, was let go as Texas A&M’s wide receiver coach this fall after head coach Jimbo Fisher was fired.

His only experience as an offensive coordinator came as a co-offensive coordinator at Auburn from 2013-2015. He has been a quarterback’s coach previously at Florida State who helped develop eventual national champion Jameis Winston and had been in College Station since 2018.

Craig makes the most sense because he is an elite recruiter.

According to 247Sports, Craig has been the primary recruiter for six five-star recruits who signed with his program at the time. Before five-star wide receiver Cam Coleman flipped his commitment and signed with Auburn, Craig was the primary recruiter for him to College Station. Coleman’s flip came after Fisher and Craig were let go.

Without any solo experience as an offensive coordinator, hiring Craig could make sense to take recruiting pressure off Freeze, and allow him to dive into the offense more than he did this season.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]