Auburn cornerbacks coach Zac Etheridge is grateful to be back at Auburn. Etheridge served as a team captain on Auburn’s 2010 national championship team and is now back on the Plains. “That opportunity to come back home has been really fulfilling,” Etheridge said. “You come here to sacrifice. You sacrifice everything about what you do. For me, coming back was just like, I get an opportunity to serve guys that have only watched me play in the past.”
Now Etheridge is taking what he learned as a player and in his coaching career at the University of Houston and applying it to the current Tigers. “I have the opportunity to give them knowledge and awareness of what this place is about and what it means to be an Auburn man,” Etheridge said. “[That] was the most important thing. I was fighting for that opportunity because I know this place can win championships. I know this place can have great players.”
Etheridge has been using that knowledge throughout spring practice. The practices have been full of learning discipline and fundamentals. Etheridge said one of the biggest things he is trying to do is establish a culture. With that, he is taking up time with all of the cornerbacks.
He’s focusing on corner, nickel and special team positions as a form of defense. The process of having multiple players playing multiple parts is to build competition on the secondary. Etheridge is a fan of the competition and feels that it is what brings success. “I want those guys to compete every single day to make each other better,” Etheridge said. “I’m going to continue to add guys to that room; they know that. That’s what we want to do, make sure they’re pushing each other every single day to continue to get better.” Some of those key players mentioned were safety Ladarius Tennison and cornerback Roger McCreary. Tennison has been moved around in the secondary and currently is on the line with safety Smoke Monday. Tennison is a true sophomore, and Etheridge commended Tennison’s maturity in being moved around and finally finding a good fit for him in the secondary. Etheridge feels that McCreary has the potential to “play on Sundays.” He said that McCreary is not only improving his physical abilities on the field, but he’s taking the time to improve his football IQ. Alongside current players, Auburn is always recruiting, and Etheridge has his own strategy. When he was up-and-coming out of high school, he was not a highly ranked player. Now he focuses less on those rankings and more on the recruits as a whole. “You’ve got to thoroughly evaluate guys in all aspects of life and football,” Etheridge said. “We’re not just looking at it from a talent standpoint. We want guys that truly love the game of football. You can be the most talented guy out there, but if you don’t love the game, then it doesn’t mean anything. I want a guy that’s going to go out there every single day and, pretty much know that he’s going out there to play for something bigger than himself.” Etheridge has been a part of a championship team at Auburn. He’s seen the work that they had to put in to get the Tigers there. And he is determined to show that work to the players he’s coaching now because he knows what makes Auburn special. “It means the world,” Etheridge said. “I tell the coaches all the time, and I might be biased about this, but I’ve been all over the country, there’s no place like Auburn.”
*Article was first published with The Auburn Plainsman
*Photos belong to Auburn Athletics
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