Josh Pate shared an interesting benchmark for Alex Golesh's Auburn Tigers to reach in his first season on the Plains: the 2023 Florida State Seminoles, who went 13-0 with an ACC title, was snubbed from the final four-team CFP, and got destroyed 63-3 by the Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl after most of the team opted out of the game.
Per Pate on his show, "What Alex Golesh at Auburn needs is one of those Florida State 2023 moments, but they need to achieve it in a way different fashion. They don't need to go portal banaza, throw a winner together, and have it all implode in on them. They don't need to do that. But what they need to do is announce their re-emergence like Florida State did."
Mike Norvell's 2023 Noles were a portal-heavy team that thrived with UAlbany Great Danes transfer EDGE Jared Verse and quarterback Jordan Travis, who was originally a Louisville Cardinals transfer in 2019 when the rules were much different.
Norvell was in his fifth campaign in Tallahassee, and FSU had won nine games in the regular season the year prior. Truthfully, it's tough to see any correlation between the two teams, unless "just missing the CFP" is the goal in 2026 for Auburn.
I mean hey, most Tiger fans would actually take that in a heartbeat after the past five years of sub-.500 seasons.
Auburn should have 2022 TCU or 2024 Indiana expectations
Auburn should be aiming for the 2022 TCU Horned Frogs model, which saw a first-year head coach, Sonny Dykes, bring an emerging QB who wasn't even supposed to start, Max Duggan, to the CFP title game. Like 2023 Florida State, 2022 TCU ran into the UGA buzzsaw. Still, this should be the ultimate goal for Golesh and Co.
The 2024 Indiana Hoosiers are another great example, just more recent and in a 12-team CFP field. That team didn't win a CFP game, but we all saw what happened this past season with Curt Cignetti's undefeated champion Hoosiers. Cignetti was a culture-changer Golesh needs to emulate.
The last thing the Tigers need to do at any point moving forward is be compared to even Norvell's best year, since Noles fans will never be satisfied by that.