Jacksonville State is hiring Auburn co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly, a former Gamecocks assistant, as its new football coach, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on Friday.

Kelly told Tigers coach Hugh Freeze that he was offered the job at Jacksonville State and is taking it, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Chris Low.

Kelly, 57, replaces Rich Rodriguez, who left Dec. 12 to return to West Virginia for a second term as head coach after previously leading the Mountaineers from 2001 to 2007.

Rodriguez led the Gamecocks to an 18-8 record in their first two seasons as an FBS team. They lost to Ohio 30-27 in the StaffDNA Cure Bowl in Orlando, Florida on Friday. Offensive coordinator Rod Smith served as interim coach.

Kelly returns to Jacksonville State more than a quarter century after serving in various roles on the coaching staff under Bill Burgess and Mike Williams. Kelly served as running backs coach in 1994, defensive backs coach in 1995, offensive coordinator in 1996 and defensive coordinator in 1997-98 when the Gamecocks competed at the FCS level.

It will be Kelly’s first head coaching job at the college level. He previously worked as an assistant coach or coordinator at Georgia Tech, Florida State, Tennessee, Alabama and Colorado before serving as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Auburn last season.

The Auburn defense, led by Kelly and co-defensive coordinator DJ Durkin, ranked seventh in the SEC in total defense (330.8 yards) and ninth in scoring defense (21.3 points) this year.

Kelly spent the 2023 season working as Deion Sanders’ defensive coordinator at Colorado, but left after one year to return to his alma mater, Auburn. For the past four seasons, Kelly worked as an assistant defensive coordinator and safeties coach for Alabama under Nick Saban.

Kelly was on the coaching staff that won national titles at Florida State in 2013 and Alabama in 2020.