Chas Nimrod will be back in Knoxville this Saturday, and he won’t be the only familiar face on Auburn’s sideline.
The former Tennessee wide receiver is set to return to the place where his college career began, this time as part of an Auburn team led by former USF coach Alex Golesh. Nimrod followed Golesh to USF after leaving Tennessee, and when Golesh took the Auburn job, Nimrod made the move again.
His path has been a steady climb since arriving in Knoxville in 2022. Nimrod played in two games that first season without recording a stat, then broke through in 2023 with 19 catches for 194 yards and a touchdown. He stayed in the mix for Tennessee’s 2024 College Football Playoff team as a useful option off the bench, finishing with 10 receptions for 121 yards.
After that season, he entered the transfer portal and landed at USF, where he put together a productive year in 2025 with 23 catches for 466 yards and three touchdowns. Through four games at Auburn, he’s already up to 22 receptions for 240 yards and two scores, including touchdown grabs in both SEC games - a loss to Florida and a win over Vanderbilt.
Auburn wide receivers coach Kodi Burns also has Tennessee ties. Burns coached the Vols’ receivers in 2021 before moving on to the NFL, and he said he doesn’t expect Nimrod’s return to be treated like anything bigger than the next game.
“I think it’s the next game, right? I don’t know that this is any bigger for Chas than any other game,” Burns said.
“And you look at, as we all know now, in college football, there’s guys that go to about eight different schools. And so that was just one school that he had a stop at that was able to grow as a young man, as a player as well.
And now he’s here at Auburn.
“And again, it’s just next-game mentality. You don’t want to get too high or too low about a certain opponent, and don’t make it personal.
It’s really about us. It’s not about the opponent.
It’s always about Auburn. And Auburn is facing Auburn.
And so we got to go out there, we have to execute at a high level. Chas has to continue to play at a high level for us to be good.
And he’s done that so far.”
Tennessee enters the game at 3-1 overall and 0-1 in SEC play after last week’s loss to Texas. Auburn is 3-1 and 1-1 in the conference.
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
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