Auburn hires South Florida’s Alex Golesh as next football coach

On Saturday night, Auburn football saw its dreams of bowl eligibility and a win against archrival Alabama vanish in a gutting 27-20 loss in the Iron Bowl.

By Sunday morning, the Tigers had a new coach.

Auburn is hiring South Florida head coach Alex Golesh for the same role, the school announced on Sunday, Nov. 30.

“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 statement. “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.”

Golesh led the Bulls to a 9-3 mark this season, the program’s most wins in eight years. Over his three-year tenure at the school, Golesh went 23-15. He took over a South Florida program that had gone just 4-29 in the three seasons before he was hired.

Under the 41-year-old Golesh, the Bulls didn’t just rack up wins, but points. South Florida finished among the top 35 FBS teams in scoring offense in each of Golesh’s three seasons. This season, it averaged 43 points per game, the fourth-best mark in the FBS.

Prior to South Florida, Golesh was the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Central Florida (2020) and Tennessee (2021-22). In 2022, he helped lead a Tennessee offense that averaged an FBS-best 46.1 points per game.

At Auburn, he’ll replace Hugh Freeze, who went 15-19 with the Tigers and was fired on Nov. 9, nine games into his third season. 

A proud program with a national championship to its name in the past 15 years, Auburn has struggled since firing Gus Malzahn near the end of the 2020 season. Under Freeze and his predecessor, Bryan Harsin, the Tigers have recorded five-consecutive losing seasons, a stretch in which they have gone a combined 27-35.

“He has produced wins and record-setting results throughout his entire career, including over the last three seasons at USF,” Auburn athletic director John Cohen said in a statement. “Alex is known nationally for his player development prowess, ability to shape creative and explosive offenses, and his relentless approach to building winning programs. I was also struck by his coaching experience on both sides of the ball. In our conversations, he showed the determination and edge that this program demands of its head coach.”

This story was updated to change a video.