Auburn hires Alex Golesh: Tigers bring in USF coach to replace Hugh Freeze, breathe life into offense

Auburn will hire USF coach Alex Golesh as it looks to reclaim a position as an SEC contender after five consecutive losing seasons, the school announced Sunday.

“Auburn Football is one of the proudest, most tradition-rich programs in all of college football and my family and I could not be more excited to join the Auburn Family,” Golesh said in a release. “This will be a player-driven program, and no one will outwork our staff. Auburn has won, can win and will win championships. Let’s get to work.”

Auburn has not had a winning season since Gus Malzahn’s final year in 2020 when they went 6-5. Since then, the Tigers have gone 28-35 and have made it to two bowl games, losing both. This year the Tigers went 1-7 in conference play and finished tied for 13th with Mississippi State and South Carolina, with only Arkansas below them. 

After back-to-back 7-6 seasons, Golesh led USF to a 9-3 record in 2025 that included wins over Boise State and Florida to start the year. The Bulls eventually slipped out of the American Athletic Conference title race with losses to Memphis and Navy, but still posted their best season in nearly a decade. That performance made Golesh a hot name on the coaching market, and after reportedly turning down Arkansas, Golesh opted to take the opportunity on the Plains. 

What hiring Golesh means for Auburn

Golesh will give the Tigers a fresh approach after the failure of Hugh Freeze’s tenure. Golesh’s USF squad is fourth in the country in scoring at 43.0 points per game, and given Auburn’s offensive struggles this season, they will be hoping he and his staff can bring the Tigers’ offense back to life. 

Auburn hasn’t finished a season in the top half of the country in scoring since 2019 and will expect Golesh to finally put them back among the SEC’s best offenses. 

While Golesh played at Ohio State and spent the early portion of his coaching career in the midwest, he’s spent the last five years in the southeast and seems very comfortable recruiting and coaching in the region. Prior to taking the job at USF, Golesh served as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022 after one season as the offensive coordinator for UCF in 2020. 

Auburn will hope he can hit the ground running in building a roster that fits his system and can inject some life into a program that’s fallen off the pace in the SEC over the last five years. Golesh’s challenge will be meeting expectations in Auburn soon enough for the program and their fan base’s liking. 

As we’ve seen across college football, patience is in short supply at programs that believe they should be contending, and given Auburn’s history, it believes it should be in the mix for SEC titles and playoff berths. However, as noted above, this is not a team that’s been particularly close to that level in recent years, and Golesh will need to quickly establish a new identity and find some portal success if the Tigers are going to take strides in 2026. 

What Auburn’s move means for the rest of the coaching carousel

Sunday was an extremely active morning for SEC programs poaching coaches from the American. Along with Auburn hiring Golesh, we saw Florida hire Jon Sumrall from Tulane and Arkansas hire Ryan Silverfield from Memphis. On top of those hires, LSU inched closer to its expected hiring of Lane Kiffin, which will put the Ole Miss job on the market. 

With Auburn, Florida and Arkansas settled, Ole Miss, Penn State and UCLA are now the biggest openings remaining. The challenge for those programs is the list of clear candidates with head coaching experience is dwindling due to a run of extensions and the most coveted candidates from the American have now all found new job.

James Madison’s Bob Chesney is the hottest name left among Group of Five coaches, with interest from both UCLA and Penn State. The Rebels, meanwhile, become the wildcard, as they have money to burn and a desire to make a splash in retaliation for LSU poaching Kiffin. That could create some further chaos in the carousel if they can pluck a big name — as could Penn State if they opt not to go with interim Terry Smith and don’t view Chesney as their leading candidate.