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Alex Golesh isn’t wasting any time making the Iron Bowl a priority. Before coaching a single game at Auburn, he’s already making clear to his players and the fanbase that restoring the rivalry with Alabama is central to what he’s building on The Plains.
The numbers tell the story of how far things have slipped. Auburn has lost six straight to Alabama and 12 of 15 overall since the Tigers won the national championship in 2010. The Crimson Tide has largely owned college football since, and that’s exactly the standard Golesh is chasing.
“I don’t super care about what the success has or hasn’t been to be totally honest with ya — this team hasn’t played Bama,” Golesh said Wednesday, via AL.com. “We’ll be prepared to go play Week 12 when it’s time to go play. We’ve put an emphasis on what that game is, we’re going to continue to put an emphasis on it. It’s the greatest rivalry in college football, and it’s important to our fanbase. It’s important to our alums and it’s important to me.”
He kept going.
“It’s not any more important today than the other 11, but it’s going to be a constant reminder at Auburn as long as I’m here that the last week of the year is a critical week for the people of our fanbase and the people of our state. I haven’t played Bama as the Auburn coach.”
Alabama is just one of several tests awaiting Auburn in Year 1 under the new staff, one of four new coaching overhauls across the conference this season. More than the final record, this year is about establishing an identity. The Tigers have cycled through multiple coaches, inconsistent results, and a program that’s been searching for traction for years. Golesh’s first job isn’t winning the SEC. It’s making Auburn look organized, competitive, and dangerous again.
Byrum Brown Leads Auburn’s Roster Transition
Despite coming in late in the cycle, Golesh landed a top-25 recruiting class, a group that includes 39 transfers and 16 early enrollees who went through spring practice. A baker’s dozen of those portal additions come directly from South Florida, his former program. Leading that group is starting quarterback Byrum Brown, a former all-conference performer who already knows Golesh’s system inside and out.
Brown threw two interceptions during Auburn’s spring game but said he couldn’t find a rhythm because he wasn’t playing “live,” getting ruled down on contact rather than having to fight through pressure. For a quarterback who threw for 3,158 yards last season and added another 1,008 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, the spring game setting isn’t exactly where he thrives.
Golesh wasn’t worried about it.
“That was a practice and a scrimmage,” he said on Next Round, grading his quarterback’s performance. “Critically important, but a practice and a scrimmage against a defense that has seen everything you’ve done for 15 days. Not just seen everything you’ve done, knowing it was going to be as elementary as (possible).”
Before landing at USF, Golesh built his reputation as an elite play-caller at Tennessee under Josh Heupel. He knows what a capable quarterback looks like under real pressure, and he’s confident Brown qualifies.
“People say, ‘In the American Conference… that dude has been at Bryant-Denny, that dude’s been in The Swamp, he’s been at Miami.’ He’s had highs of highs and lows of lows,” Golesh said. “That’s part of having a guy who’s a fifth-year guy. … the mental side and the environment is not going to get him.”
Brown is expected to be one of 10 new starters on offense for the Tigers. The only returning offensive starter heading into fall camp is running back Jeremiah Cobb. On the defensive side, coordinator D.J. Durkin returns and is more familiar with his personnel; the new faces expected to start include Ole Miss transfer Da’Shawn Womack at edge rusher, former Arkansas State defensive tackle Cody Sigler, and ex-UCLA corner Andre Jordan Jr.
Tigers’ 2026 Outlook
Auburn’s path back to relevance under Golesh looks less like a slow rebuild and more like a stress test right out of the gate. The SEC doesn’t hand out patience, especially to programs still trying to find themselves.
The roster turnover is both an opportunity and a risk. Quick turnarounds are absolutely possible in the transfer portal era, but chemistry isn’t something you can download. Cohesion takes time, and there are several other first-year staffs across the conference running the same experiment this fall.
Then there’s the schedule.
Auburn opens against Baylor on Sept. 5 in Atlanta before hosting Florida two weeks later. Road trips to Tennessee and Georgia follow, with LSU, Ole Miss, and Alabama all waiting in the final six weeks. Even in a slightly more manageable setup compared to last season, this slate doesn’t let up.
The Tigers’ recent struggles weren’t entirely self-inflicted either. They ran into a gauntlet that included multiple playoff-caliber opponents, which exposed just how thin the margin for error had become inside the program. That context matters when evaluating where things actually stand.
Golesh brings real credibility as an offensive mind, and his track record at USF shows he can manufacture production quickly, particularly when he’s bringing most of his key personnel with him. Brown already understanding the system only speeds up that timeline. But scheme alone doesn’t win football games in this league. Depth, line play, and physicality still decide Saturdays in November, and those things take longer to build.
That’s where the endurance factor comes in. Auburn isn’t just trying to win games; it’s trying to survive stretches, something neither of the previous two coaching staffs managed to do consistently. The SEC doesn’t give rebuilding programs a quiet space to figure things out. One bad quarter becomes a loss, one loss becomes pressure, and that pressure compounds quickly once expectations meet reality.
Getting to bowl eligibility is a realistic goal for this team. Anything beyond that would exceed outside expectations considerably.
