After a four-week search to find a new head football coach, Auburn formally announced the hiring of USF’s Alex Golesh on Sunday.
Mixed emotions surrounded the hiring. His reception onto campus was positive – as evidenced by thousands of fans decked out in their orange and blue along Donahue Drive to greet him upon arrival – but some were so fixated on Jon Sumrall’s stiff-arm that disappointment arose when the shift occurred late in the process.
Regardless, Auburn got its guy.
I’m not here to sunshine-pump. Auburn fans are certainly tired of hearing how good things are going to be instead of seeing how good they are. They’ve been promised for years now that wins would follow if they simply just trust the process. After all, the previous two head coaches at Auburn – Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze – saw plenty of success at their last stops. Harsin owned a 76-24 overall record as head coach prior to his one-and-a-half-year stint on the Plains, while Freeze was an “offensive guru” who promised quarterback development and offensive success during his tenure.
Instead, the Tigers have endured a disastrous fifth-straight losing campaign with 35 losses over the last five seasons.
But there’s reason to believe that Golesh can take Auburn back to relevancy. He won Day One, saying all the right things at his opening press conference (though winning a press conference has little to do with winning a football game). He’s fiery. He has moxie. He’s gritty and tough. And that seems to be the shift that Auburn’s football program needs right now.
Whether he delivers the results the Auburn faithful so desperately seek is, again, still unknown. But one can be assured that the Tigers’ head coach will work tirelessly to bring championships back to the Loveliest Village on the Plains.
Here are five reasons to believe Golesh will succeed at Auburn:
A process-driven program
“Accountability. We’ll build discipline. We’re going to become a process-driven program,” Golesh told his Auburn team in its first meeting on Sunday.
Golesh believes a process-driven program is built through the players. From every little detail – how you sleep, wake up, eat, and hydrate – it all starts with how you approach the day.
“A process-driven program where we wake up and worry about winning every single aspect of our lives every single day,” Golesh said. “I truly believe that if you buy into a process, a way of doing things day in and day out, from the moment you wake up, to how you come in, to how you attack your relationships in the building, to how you attack the weight room, sports medicine, nutrition, the film room, the teaching and then certainly the work on the field.”
Was the program not driven by a process under the last two regimes? Will a process-driven program help Auburn get over the hump in the fourth quarter? Hard to say.
Reminder: Six of the Tigers’ seven losses this past season came by one score or less.
As difficult as it is to trust words rather than results, Auburn fans will once again have to trust the process, and Golesh believes his own methodology can guide Auburn out of the abyss.
Quarterback-friendly offensive system
Auburn has struggled at quarterback since Bo Nix transferred to Oregon. Ashton Daniels is set to return for his final year of eligibility, and, as of now, Golesh still has a star-studded freshman to work with in Deuce Knight.
Golesh’s offensive resume and quarterback development speaks for itself. While at Tennessee, he helped quarterback Hendon Hooker throw for over 6,000 yards with 55 touchdowns. His USF quarterback, Byrum Brown, became just the 12th 3,000-yard passer/1,000-yard rusher in FBS history in 2025. And Golesh believes that tailoring a system to the quarterback is essential.
“I think quarterback play is so much about putting a system together that fits the quarterback,” Golesh said. “I think so much in college football is about, ‘We run a system, this is what we do, and this is how we do it.’ I think elite coaches can say, ‘Man, this is the best quarterback that we’ve got, and now let’s tailor a system to him.'”
I get it. Freeze promised quarterback development in his opening press conference at Auburn. He had success with it at Ole Miss and Liberty with Bo Wallace, Chad Kelly, and Malik Willis, respectively.
So, can Golesh develop a quarterback into a winner at Auburn? History suggests he can.
Photo by Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers
He’s a proven program builder
Golesh faces a massive task ahead in attempting to rebuild Auburn’s football program, which has sunk to the depths of the SEC. The good news: he’s helped revitalize every program he’s touched.
Before his three seasons as head coach at USF, the Bulls had won just four games over the past three years. Golesh engineered a rapid turnaround with 23 wins during his tenure, including a nine-win season in 2025. He became the first coach in USF history to reach bowl eligibility in each of his first three seasons.
At Tennessee, he helped the Volunteers rise from a 3-7 record in 2020 to back-to-back winning seasons, including an 11-win campaign in 2022.
Even dating back to his days as an assistant at Toledo from 2009-11, he helped turn a three-win team into a 22-win program over the course of three seasons.
Simply put, winning is in his blood. Assuming he cannot do it at Auburn is a bold assumption.
He’s a “Disheupel”
A “Disheupel” you say? What does that mean?
Golesh learned under the wings of current Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, an architect of modern, explosive high-tempo offenses. Spending time as the co-offensive coordinator at UCF under Heupel in 2020, the Knights ranked second nationally in total offense.
He followed Heupel to Knoxville in 2021, where the Volunteers soared from No. 108 nationally in total offense before his arrival to No. 7 in 2021. To top things off, they were No. 1 nationally in 2022, and Golesh was a 2022 finalist for the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant coach in college football.
He then carried that offensive explosion with him to South Florida. This season, the USF offense ranks No. 2 nationally in total offense (501.7 ypg), No. 5 in scoring (43 ppg), and has posted 500-plus yards in eight of its last nine regular-season games.
Heupel has gone on record crediting Golesh as the primary play-caller while at Tennessee. Golesh says it’s been a collaborative effort, even dating back to those days, on the headset.
“It’s going to continue to be what it has been here the last couple of years at the University of South Florida – an offensive staff that’s going to be absolutely elite,” Golesh said. “A large chunk of which is coming with. And those guys will absolutely crush it offensively. They will call the plays, and everybody else in that room will have a ton of input. I’ll be honest with you: Even going back to the Tennessee time, it’s always been a collaborative effort. Offensive line coach is crazy involved, quarterback coach is crazy involved, we’ve got young coaches that are crazy involved.”
The results of a Golesh-led offense are undeniable: they produce.
He wants to be at Auburn
Not that Auburn’s previous coaches did not want to be there – they did – but Golesh jumped quickly at the opportunity to lead the Tigers program. And I think it’s pretty telling.
“I got done playing last night at the same time you guys did,” Golesh said in his first team meeting on Sunday. “John (Cohen) and his staff gave me the opportunity to be the head coach at Auburn University around one in the morning. And the second they sent it, I signed that thing on the dotted line. Because this is a dream.”
Golesh will have resources galore at Auburn: top-notch facilities, deep-pocketed boosters, a strong NIL backing, and much more.
He believes in Auburn – and the Auburn creed. “Work, hard work.” And his goal is to feed a desperate Auburn fanbase.
“I’m so grateful to be here. This is a dream come true. To be the head football coach at Auburn University, to represent this fanbase, I’m beyond grateful for you choosing me, John. I’m going to pay it back tenfold. I will give this fanbase, the alumni base, the former players, and everybody involved in this university every single bit of everything I’ve got. I’m grateful, I’m humbled, and I appreciate you. War Damn Eagle. Let’s rock,” Golesh said.
Will Auburn’s new head coach exceed expectations? Will he fulfill his promises of bringing championships back to a storied program?
We don’t know.
But, Auburn fans, there’s reason to have faith in him.
He clearly has faith in himself. He has faith in Auburn. He has faith in the process.
The question is, “Do you believe?” TG
