Auburn’s new offensive era is already getting a little buzz from the recruiting trail, and one 2027 commit made sure the message landed with a wink.
After a viral post resurfaced one of the ugliest play calls from Hugh Freeze’s final season on the Plains, 4-star running back Myson Johnson-Cook jumped in with a joke that also doubled as a shot of confidence in what Alex Golesh is building. “It’s okay Alex Golesh and Joel Gordon will save you some whisky glasses,” wrote the Illinois native on his personal X account.
That’s the kind of line that gets Auburn fans smiling, because it points straight at the frustration that piled up during Freeze’s last year. The source of that frustration was on full display in the tweet Johnson-Cook responded to, which described a disastrous 2nd & 19 situation backed up near the goal line and called it the breaking point for one fan.
Now the Tigers are trying to turn the page under Golesh, the former South Florida coach who arrived with his “be who you say you are” motto and a group of players who followed him from his previous stop. Auburn hasn’t taken the field yet under the new staff, but the early recruiting results are already loud. Golesh has a top-10 overall 2027 class and a top-5 class in the Southeastern Conference as summer winds down.
The staff’s offensive vision is starting to take shape, too. Joel Gordon, Auburn’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, came with Golesh from South Florida, and the two also brought in highly touted quarterback Byrum Brown. Gordon has already said Auburn’s offensive identity will be built around running the football, a nod back to the Tigers’ roots.
With talented running backs, a capable quarterback and a high-tempo approach, Auburn is trying to reshape the offense from the ground up. And if Johnson-Cook’s response is any indication, the commits buying into it think Tiger fans are in for a very different kind of season.
In Other News...
Auburn Just Got The Kind Of Schedule That Can Define A New Era
Auburns 2026 football slate already looks like the kind of grind that can shape the direction of a program, and ESPNs latest schedule rankings only sharpened that view. The Tigers landed 13th on the networks list of the toughest schedules in the country, a reminder that there will be very little room for a soft landing as the next era gets underway.
For Alex Golesh, it is a first-season test with plenty of built-in pressure, because Auburns schedule is loaded with teams ESPN has among its top 25, including Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss. That kind of weekly climb can either accelerate a rebuild or expose how far the roster still has to go, which is why every stretch of the season will matter in a different way for Auburn than it might for most programs. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Just Got The Preseason SEC Respect Fans Wanted
Auburn got an early dose of preseason respect from Athlon Sports, and it starts with a pair of defenders who should be central to whatever the Tigers build next. Linebacker Xavier Atkins and safety/kick returner Rayshawn Pleasant landed on Athlons Preseason All-SEC First Team, a nod that reflects how much production and impact they brought last season as Auburn looks ahead under head coach Alex Golesh.
The recognition did not stop there. Jeremiah Cobb earned third-team honors and offensive lineman Cody Sigler was placed on the fourth team, giving Auburn a small but meaningful cluster of players across the leagues preseason list. For a program trying to establish momentum before the first snap, that kind of attention matters, even if the bigger question is how quickly those names can turn offseason praise into results once the games start. [Read more 🡒]