With fall camp underway, coaches already seeing returns on Auburn's new-look receiver room (2025)

Marcus Davis is having a fun fall camp, and much of that’s to do with the new faces he’s coaching.

And that’s more than the darlings of Auburn football’s receiver room. Sure, Davis is finally getting his hands on all of the blue-chip recruits the Tigers signed in the 2024 recruiting period. Perry Thompson and Malcolm Simmons and have finally joined early enrollees Cam Coleman and Bryce Cain.

In tow with the “Freeze Four” are some fresh but familiar faces. Georgia State transfer Robert Lewis and Cal transfer Sam Jackson V are also joined by Penn State transfer KeAndre Lambert Smith, who didn’t commit to the Tigers until after the spring.

“There's a lot of knowledge and experience in that room, to know what to expect,” Davis, Auburn’s receivers coach, said Thursday. “It helps prepare those younger guys for what a practice looks like, what a day-to-day fall camp looks like, just outside of football. I'm super excited about that.”

Still, in order to get all the pieces to perform, Davis knows it’s on him and the rest of Auburn’s offensive staff to build up the talent of the program’s new-look receiver room.

“With those young guys, you've got to develop them and coach them up,” Davis said. “It's a different game, relying just on your talent. You've got to be able to work your fundamentals consistently. I'm pleased with where they are. We're going to keep on coaching them up.”

But that task helps with so many people in the building who have coached FBS pass-catchers. Beyond Davis, Auburn also has offensive coordinator Derrick Nix, who handled Ole Miss’ receiver room the past four seasons before coming to the Plains from Oxford this offseason.

There’s also Maurice Harris, who was on head coach Hugh Freeze’s Liberty staff and handled receivers. He was hired to an off-field role for this year, but is now able to coach Auburn’s receivers thanks to an NCAA ruling that was passed this offseason.

“Even Coach Freeze, he coached receivers at Ole Miss when he first got in the SEC,” Davis said. “So you’ve got Coach Freeze, you’ve got Coach Nix, you’ve got (graduate assistant) Heath (Dedaux), you’ve got Coach (Harris) and you’ve got myself. And so, the knowledge that these guys have within the building, man, it’s set up for those guys to succeed.”

Nix was also on staff for some of Freeze’s most prolific Ole Miss squads between 2012 and 2016. Those teams were built by the starpower of their pass-catchers with future NFL standouts like Laquon Treadwell and AJ Brown among them.

“Those guys, first of all, have to have a unique mindset outside,” Nix said. “That, ‘When that ball is in the air, it is mine.’ I think, obviously, the common traits of having good hands, great route-running ability, being able to win one-on-ones. Having a sense of toughness about them, and just really, frankly, (having a), ‘Hey, I want the ball,’ type-mentality. I think that’s what it takes. The way we had success there at Ole Miss is what I think the formula is at wide receiver.”

To say that Auburn’s newest receivers, the Colemans and Thompsons among them, don’t share similar traits is a hard-pressed argument. Through not even two weeks of fall camp, they’ve flashed hands and big-play ability.

They’ll need to prioritize the logistics of the position to make the field this fall, something that Freeze and Davis both have harped since their signings. But from what the coaches have seen, it’s a task their youth is taking to with little complaint.

“It’s water off a duck’s back,” Nix said. “It’s like they don’t worry about anything, they just do what they need to do and they’re having a lot of fun. It’s kind of refreshing to see that.”

The 17-year-old Coleman has not only dazzled, but his coaches have seen someone adhering to the responsibility of his notoriety. He’s not only handling the details, but he’s helping his teammates along the way.

“Perry hits the ground rolling now because he wasn't here in the spring, and I hear Cam tap him, 'I know how you feel, man.' It's just cool to see that,” Davis said. “You know that's somebody Perry can lean on just in terms of adjusting and adapting to the playbook, the speed of practice and the speed of college and everything.

“It's been awesome to see those two together — and they feed off each other's energy. Not just them two but the entire room. Everybody is feeding off each other's energy right now.”