Some controversy hit the college football world on Thursday morning, as Ole Miss announced that Lane Kiffin hired former Maryland head coach DJ Durkin to be an assistant coach with the Rebels. The news comes a little over a year after Durkin was fired at Maryland following the death of Terrapins football player Jordan McNair.

In June 2018, McNair died from complications with heatstroke and the football program was investigated for a reported “toxic culture” under Durkin’s watch. After two independent investigations, Durkin was found not to be at fault for McNair’s death.

Still, Maryland decided to terminate Durkin as head coach in October 2018. Now, he’s received his first opportunity to be a full-time assistant with a college football program since he was fired in College Park.

Ole Miss said it felt comfortable with the hire after an extensive background check on Durkin. Still, the decision was met with quite a bit of backlash. Athletic director Keith Carter released a statement on the decision to hire Durkin, as shared by Emily Giambalvo of the Washington Post:

As part of our standard vetting process for all hires, the university conducted a thorough background check on Coach Durkin, and we connected with several highly respected college football coaches, administrators and school officials about their experiences working with him. We received consistently strong feedback about Coach Durkin’s strong character and work ethic and his positive impact on the communities and institutions where he was previously employed. Once we had the chance to spend time with Coach Durkin, we were even more convinced that he is exactly the type of accomplished coach with strong football credentials who is also a proud and committed family man that will make him a great addition to our new staff.

Durkin’s new role with Ole Miss was not announced at the time of his hire. Before taking the head coaching job at Maryland in 2016, he was a defensive coordinator at Michigan and Florida.