Zac Etheridge

Zac Etheridge (born July 6, 1988) is an American football coach and former player who currently serves as the defensive backs coach at Houston. As a player, he was a four year starter at safety for Auburn, as well as a team captain on their 2010 National Championship team.

High school career
Etheridge attended Charles Henderson High School in Troy, Alabama. He initially played basketball and baseball before ultimately deciding to focus on football. Etheridge grew up watching Auburn and Alabama football and began to dream of playing for Auburn after watching the programs 2004 team and becoming enamored with the programs sense of "family and tradition". Described as scrawny, Etheridge originally struggled in gaining attention from major programs but received an offer from Auburn after attending a camp ran by the team. On August 14, 2005, he would commit to play college football at Auburn University.

College career
Etheridge would make an immediate impact at Auburn, starting 12 out of 13 games as a freshman in 2007 and earning Freshman All-American honors with 65 tackles. Etheridge remained a strong contributor for the Tigers as a sophomore, recording 75 tackles and one interception. In his junior season he suffered a neck injury while attempting a tackle in a game against Ole Miss. Following the injury he lacked control over his body and was ultimately diagnosed with torn neck ligaments and a broken vertebrae. The injury threatened to end Etheridge's playing career but he would return to the field for his senior season in 2010 after completing 9 months of physical therapy. In 2010, he was named a team captain, started all 14 games and would have three interceptions on the season including one in the first quarter of the Tigers national championship victory over Oregon. In 2012, Etheridge was awarded the James Owens Courage Award, which is awarded to an Auburn player who demonstrates "courage in the face of adversity".

Coaching career
Etheridge began his coaching career in 2012 when Bill O'Brien hired him as a graduate assistant at Penn State. He would then serve in the same role for two seasons at Georgia Tech before being hired by Western Carolina as a defensive backs and outside linebackers coach. In 2018, Etheridge worked as the defensive back coach at Louisiana. Following two seasons as the defensive backs coach at Houston, Etheridge returned to his alma mater in 2021. In 2022, following the firing of Bryan Harsin for Hugh Freeze it was announced that Etheridge would remain on the new staff, making him and running backs coach Cadillac Williams the only coaches retained by Freeze.