Auburn Tigers head coach Alex Golesh is well-equipped to battle the biggest boogeyman on the Plains. Unlike the last head coach, who was beholden to the donors because of his troubled past in the SEC, and the last coach before that, who was seemingly so unlikable that he had no one come out in support of him after he left the program in disgrace, Golesh could hold his own with the booster class.
That's LouisianaSportsDotNet's Chris Marler's take on the situation, anyway. Per Marler, "Alex Golesh isn’t Hugh Freeze. He seems to really get it when it comes to Auburn. He also has enough self-confidence and stubbornness to not be pushed around by his boosters."
Freeze was a unique brand of incompetence. He wasn't lazy like Harsin was. Not at first, anyway. Freeze did the work to familiarize himself with the high school scene in the state, something he had already started through his recruiting for the Ole Miss Rebels during the last decade. Of course, the NIL/rev-share aspect makes it a different game, by and large. Freeze still was doing the work on the recruiting trail. The 2023 class was surprisingly strong, the 2024 class was very strong, and the 2025 class was a "AU is so freakin' back" kind of strong. Freeze just didn't put it together with a coherent game plan, picking and choosing when to offload play-calling duties to Derrick Nix and Kent Austin to practically no success in 2025. He also didn't do the work to have his players respect any authority and give it their all in practice.
Golesh is coming to Lee County, Alabama, fully recognizing where Freeze went wrong. He's alluded to Freeze's serial golf habit, which many believe was a sign that Freeze had given up, and he's said all the right things about making progress the hard but right way.
Having experienced life on Rocky Top working under Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel, Golesh knows the drill in the SEC. AU is a different beast, and the results on the field will dictate whether or not he's up to the task. For all we know, the boosters could go right back to making the head coach's life harder if the results aren't there. This is a sport of contingencies.
Golesh has some damn good PR right now, though. It's because he's checking the boxes that need to be checked in an era that might be harder for him to earn grace, simply because of what was going on in the seat before. The pressure is undoubtedly higher for the new hire because the last few burned out so spectacularly.
Alex Golesh has to reimagine the Tigers in his image
It feels like Auburn's brain trust forgot what winning entailed when it brought a Boise native who benefited from being a Boise State Broncos alum in the job he gained notoriety at, and what now seems like a Mississippi-born Ole Miss plant in hindsight, to replace him, considering the trajectories of the Rebels and Tigers since Freeze arrived.
With Golesh's arrival, it feels like a throwback to the Gus Malzahn era. Golesh has even brought back Kodi Burns to really bring back the feeling.
Golesh has been able to reshape the program in his image, which just seems to be a mirror reflection of what had previously worked before this era of malaise and losing started, post-COVID-19.
As Marler said, Golesh gets it.
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