Arkansas Native Kodi Burns Hired as Auburn WR Coach and Co-Offensive Coordinator

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

Gus Malzahn has continued to mine his Arkansas roots announcing the hiring of former Auburn quarterback turned wide receiver Kodi Burns as the Tigers new co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach.

Burns signed with Auburn as part of the 2007 recruiting class out of Fort Smith Northside. The 4-star dual-threat quarterback opted to take his talents to the Tigers coinciding with Malzahn’s split from the Arkansas program for Tulsa after one year on Houston Nutt’s staff. Malzahn would spend the 2007 and 2008 seasons with the Golden Hurricane before being named the offensive coordinator at Auburn for the 2009 season under then head coach Gene Chizik.

In 2010, Burns was moved to wide receiver to make room for junior college transfer signal caller Cam Newton. Newton in Malzahn’s offense paired with another Arkansas native, true freshman running back Michael Dyer, proved to be the winning formula for a national championship beating the Oregon Ducks 22-19 in Glendale, Arizona, for the program’s second claimed title.

During the 2007 season, Burns made headlines at Auburn being the first true freshman since Gabe Gross in 1998 to start under center for the Tigers. In 2013, Burns was a graduate assistant for the Tigers and had coaching stops at Middle Tennessee State and Samford. After the season he was hired to be the running backs coach at Arizona State but that appointment was short lived opting to join Malzahn at Auburn.

Malzahn got his start has a high school coach at Hughes High School in Arkansas in 1991. By 1996, Malzahn was forever changing the high school game running a spread offense dominating the opposition along the way. Malzahn moved from Shiloh Christian to Springdale High School in 2001 joining the Arkansas staff as offensive coordinator in 2006.

Arkansas Recruiting Note History

The quarterbacks signed with Arkansas in 2007 ended up being Nathan Dick and Joe Chaisson. Arguably the biggest recruits in that class for the Razorbacks were a 3-star defensive back out of Marion (AR) turned linebacker named Jerry Franklin and another 3-star, this one out of Little Rock, defensive end Jake Bequette.

Photo credit: thearmchairallamericans.com; No. 18 Kodi Burns at Auburn.