The Auburn Tigers may finally break through with a winning season during Alex Golesh's debut campaign in 2026. At the very least, Golesh's Tigers will have six "winnable" games on their schedule, which will feature the first nine-game SEC conference slate in school history.
LSU Wire's Will Rosenblatt tabs the Arkansas Razorbacks, the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Vanderbilt Commodores, and Florida Gators as winnable games. Auburn will face the Sun Belt's Southern Miss Golden Eagles and FCS Samford Bulldogs, plus the Baylor Bears, in non-conference play. Two of those are definitely winnable.
The Tennessee Volunteers are the lone team that may be a dead even match. That matchup will take place on Rocky Top.
"Auburn plays Baylor in the non-conference schedule, which gives new head coach Alex Golesh a chance to go 3-0 outside of the SEC. Conference play won't be easy, but the Tigers have winnable games vs. Arkansas, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, and Florida. The bad news? Auburn makes trips to Georgia and Alabama," Rosenblatt wrote.
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Alex Golesh could earn immediate credibility by beating Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, or Alabama
While the Tigers will be on par with Florida and Vanderbilt, and should be ahead of Arkansas and Mississippi State, they will be at a clear talent disadvantage against the Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels, and Alabama Crimson Tide.
LSU and Ole Miss landed the No. 1 and No. 2 transfer portal classes during the January transfer portal window. While there's still time for movement, if anything, it seems like it'd be the Tigers and Rebs scooping up many of the top remaining names available.
As the SEC continues evolving from the dying days of the pre-NIL/rev-share era, teams like UGA and Alabama could be at risk to losing to the up-and-comers. In year one, it's hard to envision Golesh getting Auburn at the level of upsetting them Between the Hedges and at BDS, but bringing so many winning pieces from a successful season with the USF Bulls should give more hope for an immediate turnaround than either Bryan Harsin's or Hugh Freeze's first season.
Beat just one of these teams, and Golesh will immediately have more credibility than either of his predecessors.
What a low damn bar, but that's where we are.