Kent Austin

Kent Austin

PositionSpecial Assistant to the HC - Quality Control
Kent Austin
Kent Austin
Kent Austin, who served as a special assistant to the head coach/quality control for the past year at Auburn, was moved to an on-field position as quarterbacks coach on Jan. 17, 2024. 

Austin has over 30 years of playing and coaching success at the collegiate and professional level. Prior to joining the Auburn staff, Austin served as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Liberty for four seasons where he helped develop former Auburn quarterback Malik Willis who as a two-year starter for the Flames passed for over 5,000 yards, rushed for over 1,800 and accounted for 74 touchdowns in 2020 and 2021 combined. 

Prior to joining the Flames' coaching staff for the 2019 season, Austin spent the previous six seasons in the Canadian Football League, working as the head coach (2013-17), general manager (2013-15), and vice president of football operations (2013-18) for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He led the team to back-to-back Grey Cup finals in 2013 and 2014.

Austin has also served as a head coach at Cornell (2010-12) and for the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders (2007), while working as an offensive coordinator at Ole Miss (2008-09) and for the Toronto Argonauts (2004-06). Saskatchewan finished the 2007 season with a 12-6 record, and Austin led the Roughriders to winning the Grey Cup.

As offensive coordinator at Ole Miss, the Rebels averaged 405 yards and 30.8 points per game under Austin's tutelage, scoring the most points in a two-year span in school history. In 2008, he helped Ole Miss engineer its biggest turnaround since 1947, finishing with a 9-4 record one year after a 3-8 campaign.

Following a successful 11-year professional playing career, including 10 seasons in the CFL where he threw for 26,626 career passing yards and 134 career touchdowns, Austin started his coaching career as the quarterbacks coach for the Ottawa Renegades in 2003.

Austin played four years at Ole Miss and remains one of the school's most celebrated quarterbacks. He finished his collegiate career with 6,184 passing yards and 31 passing touchdowns and ranks among the top 10 in nearly every passing category at Ole Miss. During his playing days as a Rebel, he was a three-time SEC Player of the Week and was named to the Academic All-SEC team from 1982-85. He was honored with the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete award in 1985 and was awarded an NCAA Postgraduate scholarship in 1986.

In 2000, he was elected to the Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame. Austin graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1985. Austin is married to the former Lesley Stewart. He has four children: Kendall, Kassidy, Wesley and Jack.