Craig Aukerman is in his second season on the Jaguars staff and his first as assistant special teams coach. Aukerman spent the 2011 season as the Jaguars’ defensive staff assistant, working mainly with the linebackers. Aukerman has 12 years of coaching experience and entered the NFL in 2010 when he served as defensive assistant on the Denver Broncos coaching staff.
Craig Aukerman is in his second season on the Jaguars staff and his first as assistant special teams coach. Aukerman spent the 2011 season as the Jaguars’ defensive staff assistant, working mainly with the linebackers. Aukerman has 12 years of coaching experience and entered the NFL in 2010 when he served as defensive assistant on the Denver Broncos coaching staff.
The Jaguars defense ranked sixth in the NFL in 2011 and was led by linebackers Paul Posluszny and Daryl Smith. Posluszny led the team with a career-high 192 tackles along with nine tackles for loss, and Smith finished with 166 stops and a set a franchise record with 15 tackles for loss.
Aukerman’s coaching career includes a decade at the collegiate level with seven seasons in the Mid-American Conference. He spent the 2009 season coaching linebackers for Kent State, which led all MAC defenses in red zone scoring that year.
From 2005-08 Aukerman coached linebackers at Miami (Ohio) in his second stint at the school. He previously spent the 2001-02 seasons as a graduate assistant at Miami. He returned for the 2005-08 seasons to coach linebackers in addition to serving as co-special teams coordinator the last two years. While at Miami he coached three linebackers who were on the Butkus Award watch list, marking the first time in the history of the Butkus Award that one school had all three of its linebackers appear on that list in the same season.
From 2003-04 Aukerman coached linebackers at Western Kentucky. He served as outside linebackers coach in 2003 and was special teams coordinator as well as inside linebackers coach in his second season there. That year the NCAA Division I-AA team was recognized in the top 11 national rankings by ESPN and USA Today.
Aukerman began his coaching career in 2000 at his alma mater, the University of Findlay, as wide receivers coach. That followed his successful playing career as a defensive back, wide receiver and special teams player there from 1995-98. He was twice named to the NAIA All-America team, and was graduated in 1999 with a degree in Elementary Education.
Aukerman and his wife, Summer, live in Jacksonville with their two sons, Cayden and Bryce.
COACHING BACKGROUND: Findlay 2000, Miami (Ohio) 2001-02, 2005-08, Western Kentucky 2003-04, Kent State 2009, Denver Broncos 2010, Jacksonville Jaguars 2011-12.
