Alex Golesh will be tasked this week with leading the Auburn Tigers to a win over Baylor in Atlanta to kick off his era with a victory and provide Auburn football fans with hope for a positive outcome in the upcoming season.
Golesh has said all of the right things since taking over as head coach last November, and, through his actions, which include welcoming the band to a meeting to teach the team the school's fight song and introducing the first-ever "victory day," which gives students with special needs the opportunity to participate in an Auburn football gameday experience, has proven to be a great fit for Auburn University.
Fans have seen all the positive developments around Auburn football since Golesh took over, and that good fortune has
made its way to the national stage. USA TODAY's Blake Toppmeyer says that Auburn football is "the blind squirrel that finally found the nut" after hiring Golesh in his recent piece titled 'Here's what we will say about every new coach.'
Toppmeyer believes that the mix between the USF players he brought over and a strong talent pool inheritance, especially on defense, gives Golesh the tools to do what former head coaches Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze could never do on the Plains.
"Golesh’s star quarterback Byrum Brown followed him to Auburn from South Florida. So did several other USF players. That, plus some pieces Golesh inherited, position him to deliver Auburn’s first winning season since it fired Gus Malzahn. Golesh is everything Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze weren’t. That is, a coach built to succeed in this era," Toppmeyer writes.
Quarterback Byrum Brown passed for over 3,000 yards twice under Golesh's leadership at USF and will aim to make it a third time in 2026 with a new uniform. Not only will Golesh have a talented quarterback he is familiar with, but he also successfully recruited four of Brown's top five receivers from last season, as well as two key offensive linemen, Cole Best and Cole Skinner, to join him in Auburn.
His success in bringing over players he developed in Tampa to Auburn gives him the best chance to set the tone early in his tenure and set himself up for success in the future.
The tools are all there. Now, it is time to see how many wins Golesh collects in season one.
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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Why Alex Golesh is 'built to succeed' in this era of college football
