From 2002 to 2005, Durden was an assistant coach under Head Coach
David Marsh at Auburn University, where he aided their swim team in capturing a remarkable six NCAA team championships. The men won the NCAA in 2003–2005, and the women won championships from 2002 to 2004. Auburn had a very strong swimming program when Durden was hired as assistant coach, as by April 2005, near the end of his coaching tenure, the men's team had won nine consecutive SEC titles, and five NCAA Championships. From 2005 through 2007, he directed the men's and women's teams as head coach at the
University of Maryland. The
University of Texas has been Cal's primary rival in NCAA Championships during Durden's time as coach. In 2011, Durden's team defeated Texas for the NCAA Championship in Minneapolis, and in 2012, they defeated Texas again to repeat as NCAA champions in Seattle. In 2014, they defeated rival Texas for a third time, in Texas's home city of Austin. They defeated Texas again in Austin in 2019 to take their fourth NCAA Championship. In 2022, Cal defeated Texas in Atlanta, Georgia for their fifth NCAA championship under Durden, all with Texas as runner-up. In 2023, in Greensboro, North Carolina, Berkeley took their sixth NCAA team championship under Durden, with Arizona State as runner-up. In 2016, Durden sent six of his Berkeley men's team to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where they won a total of eleven medals. These included triple gold medal winner in two backstroke and a medley relay event, Ryan Murphy, double gold medal winner
Anthony Ervin in the 50 freestyle and the 4x100 free relay events, and Nathan Adrian, who won a gold in both the free and medley relays, and a bronze each in the 100 and 50 freestyle. His 2016 Olympians also included 200 breaststroke silver medalist Josh Prenot, 4x100 medley relay gold medal winner
Tom Shields, and backstroke participant Jacob Pebley. Durden had previously served as Assistant U.S. Men's Olympic Coach for the 2016 Olympics. He was named Coach of the Meet at the 2016 US Olympic Swimming Trials. In 2015, Durden served as head coach of the US Men's Swimming team at the
world championships in Kazan, Russia. He previously worked as an assistant coach for
Dave Salo's
Novaquatics. Durden returned as Head U.S. Men's Coach for the
2017 and
2019 World Championships, and was the U.S. Men's Assistant World Championship coach in
2011. In 2023, he was
Swimming World Magazine's American Coach of the Year. ==References==