After five years of mediocre football on the Plains, new head coach Alex Golesh knows that there is a hunger for success and very little patience left when it comes to Auburn football.
The Tigers have not had a winning season since 2019, have struggled to piece together a cohesive offense and have almost fallen out of the conversation when it comes to top teams in the SEC. But, in year one for a new head coach who is expected to rebuild a program, what defines success?
For Alex Golesh, the answer is simple: create an identity.
“The biggest question I've gotten as I've gone through this journey the last seven months is, what's a successful year one look like?” Golesh said, per AuburnTigers.com. “How do you gauge it? What are your goals? I don't really have any goals, other than laying a foundation for what Auburn football is going to be for years to come. That starts with building an identity.”
Certainly the Tigers have lacked identity on the offensive side of the ball for the last five years. Whether it was a coaching issue or a quarterback issue or any other issues, the Auburn football team lost sight of what made it the Auburn football team.
In his first year on the Plains, Golesh and his offensive coordinator Joel Gordon are planning to build the Tigers' identity and create a foundation for the years to come. For Golesh, this means returning to the roots of a true Auburn offense that has a tough, run-the-ball-through-your-face mentality, is detail-oriented and is lead by the players.
“That's what Auburn football was built on, physical and mental toughness,” said Golesh "Are you detailed in the margins that win football games? That's what I want our identity to be. If we can leave year one and we have a foundation that's built on our identity I would tell you it's a successful year one. I don’t set goals. I set standards.”
Golesh went on to say that the team is definitely talented enough to go out there and win football games, but the on-field success will come down to those details in the margins and those teams who have a strong identity and score points.
The Tigers will get their first opportunity to show off their new identity on September 5 when they kick off the 2026 season in Atlanta against the Baylor Bears.
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