Zach Evans spent just one year at Ole Miss, but the former five-star recruit relished his opportunity at running back with the Rebels — and Jake Thornton was a big reason why.

Thornton, who was hired this offseason as Auburn’s offensive line coach under Hugh Freeze, spent two years in the same role at Ole Miss, where he helped Lane Kiffin’s offense produce one of the nation’s best rushing attacks in both 2021 and 2022.

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“It was great; there were holes everywhere,” Evans said Saturday at the NFL Combine Indianapolis. “We just had to pick and choose.”

Evans and fellow Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins did just that. Evans put together the best season of his college career running behind Thornton’s offensive line, rushing for 936 yards and nine touchdowns on 6.5 yards per carry. Judkins was the SEC Freshman of the Year while running for 1,565 yards and 16 touchdowns on 5.7 yards per touch.

With that tandem and Thornton’s offensive line, Ole Miss finished last season with the nation’s No. 3 rushing offense (256.5 yards per game), which was the most outside of the service academies that run option-based offenses. The Rebels also finished 10th nationally in yards per carry (5.43).

“Coach Thornton was awesome,” former Ole Miss offensive line Nick Broeker said. “He was the man. He just helped me develop so much, not only on the field but off the field. I give a lot of credit of my success this last season because of him.”

Broeker was a three-year starter for Ole Miss on the left side of the line, including each of the last two years under Thornton. He started games at both left tackle (all 13 in 2021) and left guard (all 13 in 2022), and he earned second-team All-America honors as a senior last fall.

The 6-foot-4, 305-pounder credited Thornton’s approach to teaching the intricacies of offensive line play for Broeker’s development the last two years and cited him as a big reason why he’s in Indianapolis this week for the NFL Combine.

“I think just the way he’s able to teach it — not just knowing it but being able to send the messages to us and being able to help explain it to us,” Broeker said of Thornton’s biggest strength as a coach.

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According to Broeker, Thornton is the type of coach who will set aside extra time to meet with players individually or put them through extra drills so they can get sufficient reps to boost their understanding of the system, and not just specific to their position. Broeker said that thanks to Thornton’s approach, he had a better understanding of every position along the offensive line, as well as what the quarterback, running backs and tight ends were doing on a given play.

“He’s phenomenal,” Broeker said.

Both Broeker and Evans expect more of the same from Thornton at Auburn, where he is undertaking an offensive line rebuild on Freeze’s staff. The Tigers lost their top-three tackles, their starting center and two veteran guards who started games last season. Meanwhile, they signed three high school offensive linemen in the 2023 class, a top JUCO transfer and a trio of experienced players at center and tackle in the transfer portal.

“He’ll do really well,” Broeker said. “I think no matter where Coach Thornton goes, he’ll be real successful just because of how hard he works and just how he is.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.