Wesley McGriff has seen plenty in three-plus decades of coaching. It has taken him from small-time college ball to the NFL and multiple stints as an assistant in the SEC, with other stops along the way.

He only needed a fraction of that time — less than three months and just four full practices this spring — to see that fellow Auburn assistant Zac Etheridge has a bright future ahead of him in the business.

“Keep an eye on him, now,” McGriff said Tuesday. “He’s going to be rock star; he’s going to be a household name.”

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Etheridge has quickly made his mark in coaching circles in just a short time. The 34-year-old assistant is entering his third year coaching defensive backs at his alma mater after getting into coaching in 2012 as a graduate assistant at Penn State. In the years between, he served as a GA at Georgia Tech (2013-14), then as assistant at Western Carolina (2016-17), Louisiana (2018) and Houston (2019-20) before returning to the Plains as part of Bryan Harsin’s inaugural staff.

In 2021, he was selected to the AFCA’s 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute, a program aimed at identifying and developing premier, future leaders in the profession. Then last July he enjoyed a weeklong experience with the L.A. Chargers staff as part of the NFL’s Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, which serves as a potential pipeline to coaching opportunities in the NFL.

For now, at least, Etheridge is happy at Auburn, where he is adding another chapter to already-beloved story. A former four-year starter for the Tigers, Etheridge broke his neck during his junior season in 2009. Nine months later, he returned to the field and was a captain for Auburn during the 2010 national championship season. A little more than a decade later, he returned as an assistant coach and has garnered a reputation as Auburn’s best recruiter.

He was rated as a top-10 recruiter nationally for the 2023 cycle, according to 247Sports, and Rivals identified him as one of the top-10 up-and-coming recruiters in college football. Etheridge played a major hand in Auburn’s surge up the recruiting rankings late in the cycle, as helped the Tigers land 11 of their 2023 commits while finishing with the No. 17 ranked class nationally despite a late-season coaching change at the end of October.

“People always refer to him as a recruiter — and he does a great job recruiting — but that young man is also a great football coach,” McGriff said. “I’m closer to the end than I am the beginning, so I’m excited to go on this ride with him. But I’m also excited about watching his career down the road and watching where he’s going to go.”

So, what is it about Etheridge that stands out so much to McGriff, besides his ability to relate to younger players and his prowess as a recruiter? According to McGriff, it’s Etheridge’s knowledge of the game — particularly for someone who is still relatively young in the ranks — and ability to translate that to players on the field and in meeting rooms. He has a way about him with how he uses his football IQ to communicate techniques and schemes to players.

More than anything else, though, Etheridge is a people person who seems to genuinely care about his players, and that carries a lot of weight.

“He’s been blessed with a lot of qualities that are going to not only make him a good football coach but a great person,” McGriff said. “I’m telling you: His career is definitely going to take off, and Auburn is blessed to have him in the building, and I’m blessed to be around him. I’ve been doing this a long time, but when you have an opportunity to do it with a young man like that, chalk it up because it’s fun.”

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