Kodi Burns is back on the Plains, having agreed to join Alex Golesh's first Auburn Tigers coaching staff for the 2026 College Football season. Burns ought to queue up Mase's "Welcome Back," because there's been no truer line than "the game ain't the same since I left out" for the Gus Malzahn-era assistant.
Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze have "handled" the past five years of Auburn football. The game ain't even remotely the same. Hell, it might not even have been the same game since Potato Man was hired in 2021 and Golf Man followed that inglorious tenure up with something even worse.
Burns landed on the Tennessee Volunteers coaching staff in 2021 after five years at AU, not coincidentally under the then-Vols offensive coordinator Golesh. He parlayed that into a three-year stint on Dennis Allen's New Orleans Saints coaching staff before landing back with Golesh on the USF Bulls in 2025. Now, the two join forces in Lee County.
And Auburn fans should be thrilled to have Burns back in the fold, for a few reasons:
Kodi Burns is helping Alex Golesh get familiar with Auburn
Burns' familiarity with Golesh and Auburn is making the new head coach's transition to East Central Alabama a smoother one. Per AL.com's Peter Rauterkus, "Given his history, returning to Auburn with Golesh was an easy decision for Burns, and he’s been a good resource for Golesh and the other coaches who are new to the Plains."
Kodi Burns is a major asset on the recruitign trail
Burns caught passes from Cam Newton on the 2010/2011 national championship team. Who better to sell the Tigers brand than someone who has achieved everything you could want after attending AU? Burns was also a graduate assistant on the 2013 coaching staff, so he's gone to the title game as support staff, too. When he was on Malzahn's coaching staff, Auburn was a perennial winner.
Kodi Burns is a relic of a better time
On an emotional note, Burns represents a coach who was around the last time the Tigers had a winning season. Burns had a strong presence on the Tigers from 2016 to 2020, a great era of modern football for the orange and blue. It's nice to see someone back from the good old days, which happened to be good old days that few realized they were living through back then.