Sam Jackson V lit up when he was asked about Auburn’s offense in fall camp.

“Just being in there, you get chills before the play because a big play is coming up,” he said Tuesday.

That statement sounds a lot different from how many would describe watching Auburn’s offense last season. The unit ranked in the bottom half of the SEC in total offense and dead last in passing yards.

Auburn’s run game was still solid, averaging over 200 yards per game, but the offense lacked explosiveness. The Tigers ranked 94th in the country in plays gaining 20 yards or more in 2023.

When an offense performs like that, change is a given.

For Auburn, that came in the decision to fire offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery and hire Derrick Nix away from Ole Miss.

Nix spent 16 years at Ole Miss, spending 12 years as running backs coach before becoming wide receivers coach in 2020. That also included five years working with Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze

If you look at his offenses at Ole Miss, explosiveness stands out more than anything else.

Ole Miss ranked in the top-10 in plays of 20 yards or more in three of the last four seasons. As wide receivers coach, he helped produce players such as Elijah Moore, Tre Harris and Dontario Drummond.

Now at Auburn, the combination of an experienced offensive line and talented running backs and receivers creates a platform for the Tigers to have similar success.

“It becomes a standard, and expectation,” Nix said Thursday when asked about creating explosive plays.

Being able to stretch the field keeps defenses uncomfortable and is a trait many of the best offenses in college football possess. For example, last season’s top offense in terms of yards and scoring had 17 more plays of 20 yards or more than the next best team.

“Being a fundamentally efficient scoring machine, it requires us to make explosive plays,” Nix said. “That is something that we talk about and something that’s expected and needed for this offense to thrive.”

Creating big plays is more than just scheme and coaching though. It helps to have receivers who can do things that the average player can’t.

Luckily for Auburn, it added a few of those during the offseason.

Transfers KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Robert Lewis and Sam Jackson V signed with Auburn during the offseason, but the most talked about additions were blue-chip freshmen Cam Coleman and Perry Thompson.

Coleman has garnered the most attention of the new additions, most recently going viral with an almost unexplainable one-handed catch during practice.

“He’s a guy that can basically still be open even when he’s covered,” Nix said. “But doing that consistently is the challenge and he’s been showing up and doing that so far.”

Consistency is equally important for the offense to be effective. For the offense to improve, that will have to continue.

“I think the other key word is being consistent,” Nix said. “I think we’ve been more consistent than we were this past spring.”