Meet the Coaches: Auburn safeties coach T.J. Rushing

AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn safeties coach TJ Rushing has been where every player he coaches wants to go: the winning Super Bowl locker room.

“Winning it is hard to put into words,” said Rushing, who earned a Super Bowl ring as a rookie with the Indianapolis Colts at the end of the 2006 season. “It’s what you dream about as a little kid. For that to happen, it’s like wow. You can’t believe it. It’s thrilling.”

A five-year NFL veteran, Rushing carried those lessons into his coaching career.

“You got to see what being on a great team is about,” he said. “The leaders working the hardest, being in the building the latest and expecting everybody to meet them. The standard is here, let’s all meet it. And if we all meet it, we can accomplish great things. That’s what we were able to do.”

Drafted in the seventh round in 2006 after starring at Stanford as a cornerback and kick returner, Rushing still shares the Cardinal record with three kickoff returns for touchdowns, experience he’s happy to share with Auburn’s return specialists.

“We’ve got a lot of elite athletes out there,” Rushing said. “It’s about fielding the football and letting your God-given ability take over. Everybody has to buy in to say this guy is special enough that if we do our job, he can score. As soon as you get that buy-in from everybody else, the returner is going to do what he naturally is born to do.”

After serving as an assistant to Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze last season, Rushing earned a promotion to safeties coach in January.

“You came last year, got to see what Coach Freeze and Coach Durkin had in place,” Rushing said. “You want to help support, encourage and keep it going in the right direction because I think this program is trending in the right direction. I want to lend a helping hand, get going with some energy, enthusiasm and passion for the game.”

Rushing and Auburn defensive coordinator DJ Durkin worked together previously for two seasons at Texas A&M, reuniting the “DJ & TJ Show” on the Plains.

“Attention to detail,” Rushing said of Durkin’s strengths. “Very passionate, gets the kids going, gets them playing for him and our staff. He builds a staff camaraderie. You go into our D staff room, everybody’s locked arm in arm, speaking the same message, trying to get the same message across.

“I think the kids feel that and they want to play hard for us. We play an elite, solid defense, attacking style. He’s very passionate about what he does.”

Rushing brings his own passion to Auburn’s safeties room, a unit that features talented veterans such as Kaleb Harris, Champ Anthony, Jahquez Robinson, Sylvester Smith and Kensley Louidor-Faustin, transfers Jacoby Mathews and Taye Seymore, and freshmen AnQuon Fegans and Eric Winters.

“Maximize their potential on and off the football field,” Rushing said. “That’s what you hope for, that they grow, and that on the football field we’re a dominant force that shows up in the run game, violently tackles and that when the ball’s in the air, we come down with it. We’re ballhawks also.

“We’re that hybrid position. We get everybody lined up. We get the defense set on the third level, and we make sure everybody’s doing their job and doing it to a very high standard.”

From his hometown of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, population 6,000, Rushing headed west to Palo Alto, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, population 7.5 million.

“Definitely an eye-opening experience,” Rushing said. “Going from small-town Oklahoma to Stanford in the Bay Area. It was a great transition, great college career.”

T.J. and his wife, Taylor, are the parents of a teenage daughter and two preteen sons. In his X bio, “Family Man” comes before “Ball Coach.”

“That’s my joy,” Rushing said. “If you know me, you know that’s what I’m all about.”

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer