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An Auburn product, James Willis returned to coaching following a seven-year NFL career and a stint in the XFL. After a stint as a student and graduate assistant at Auburn, he became linebackers coach at Rhode Island and Temple before returning to the Tigers under Tommy Tuberville and defensive coordinator Will Muschamp in 2006.
Though Gene Chizik hired Willis back after Tuberville resigned, Nick Saban hired him away as the associate head coach and outside linebackers coach for Alabama in 2009. The Crimson Tide beat Texas in the 2010 BCS Championship in Willis’ lone season in Tuscaloosa.
Willis since re-joined Tuberville as the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech, then left coaching for two seasons before becoming the Louisiana-Lafayette defensive coordinator in 2013.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.