Larry Porter, a 22-year coaching veteran and two-time national recruiter of the year, joined the Auburn program in February, 2017, as tight ends/H-backs coach and added the duties of special teams coordinator prior to the 2018 campaign. He has been part of 12 bowl teams since 2002, including three CFP bowls (2007 Sugar, 2008 BCS Championship, 2018 Chick-fil-A Peach).
 

In 2017, Auburn became just the eighth team in SEC history to rush and pass for 3,000 yards in a season, and set an Auburn record scoring 327 points in SEC play, winning the SEC West and playing in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

Porter came to Auburn from North Carolina, where he spent three seasons as the running backs coach and special teams coordinator and was a 2016 Broyles Award nominee. Under his guidance, Carolina’s running game ranked 18th nationally in 2015, averaging 224.4 yards per game. Running back Elijah Hood, who rushed for 1,463 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2015, was a two-time all-ACC performer and ranked in the school’s top 10 in career rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.

In 2016, the Tar Heels ranked first in the nation in punt return defense (0.22) and second in the nation in kickoff return average (26.97), and Porter tutored all-ACC running backs Elijah Hood and T.J. Logan (who ranked second nationally in kickoff return average (32.9 with 2 TD). During Porter’s tenure, UNC made three consecutive bowl appearances and won the ACC Coastal Division in 2015. Hood (Oakland) and Logan (Arizona) were both selected in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Porter went to UNC after one season as the running backs coach at Texas, one year as running backs coach at Arizona State and two seasons as the head coach at Memphis, his alma mater.

Porter spent five years on the LSU coaching staff from 2005-09, coaching running backs while also holding two key roles on staff as assistant head coach and chief recruiter. He was elevated to the position of assistant head coach during the spring of 2006 and was twice (2007, 2009) named National Recruiter of the Year by Rivals.com. Part of LSU’s 2007 national championship team, Porter developed two 1,000-yard rushers at LSU in Jacob Hester (2007) and Charles Scott (2008) as well as having five players (Hester, Joseph Addai, Quinn Johnson, Charles Scott, Trindon Holliday) selected in the NFL Draft.

Porter coached 1,000-yard rushers for three straight seasons while at Oklahoma State. In 2004, Vernand Morency earned all-Big 12 honors after rushing for 1,474 yards and 12 touchdowns. A year earlier, Tatum Bell earned first team all-Big 12 honors with 1,286 yards and 16 touchdowns. Morency was a third-round pick of the Houston Texans in 2005 and Bell was a second-round draft pick by the Denver Broncos in the 2004 NFL Draft.

Prior to his arrival in Stillwater, Porter spent three years at Arkansas State, where he coached Jonathan Adams to back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

Porter began his coaching career at Wooddale High School in Memphis, Tenn., before moving to the collegiate ranks, coaching the running backs at Tennessee-Martin in 1998.

A native of Jackson, Miss., Porter lettered four years (1990-93) at Memphis, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1996. He is a member of the University of Memphis Athletics M Club Hall of Fame. Porter and his wife, Sharmane, have three children: sons Brandon and Omari,and daughter Olivia.