Alex Golesh’s Victory Day celebration at Auburn has already traveled far beyond Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Golesh brought the event with him from USF, but this past Sunday’s version on the Plains seemed to hit a different level. Fifty participants with varying disabilities from the Auburn EAGLES program and Lee County Special Olympics took Pat Dye Field for a scrimmage with Golesh’s team, turning the day into something that clearly connected with people around college football.
One of the places it resonated was Columbus, Ohio, where Golesh’s alma mater, Ohio State, is. The Columbus Dispatch’s Dan Aulbach noted the connection after Golesh gave a shoutout to his high school alma mater, Dublin Scioto, where he played three years at linebacker. Golesh was asked about his high school by EAGLES student and rising star sports journalist Kaili Blauwkamp, and he mentioned the Irish’s recent 42-36 win over Briggs.
Aulbach also pointed out that Golesh is an OSU alum, and that detail has only added to the buzz around his name in the Buckeye State heading into Week 1.
That naturally raises the question: is there something to the idea of Golesh landing on Ohio State’s radar down the line?
Maybe. But that kind of talk depends on what happens at Auburn first.
Golesh has a real chance to change the conversation around the Tigers. After five years of losing under Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze, plenty of people see Auburn as a program stuck in the mud.
The timing of that slide couldn’t have been worse, either, with NIL arriving at the same time. The losses didn’t just wear people down emotionally; they were draining financially, too.
Still, college football can flip fast now. Curt Cignetti showed that at Indiana, turning the Hoosiers around in short order.
His first season ended with a CFP appearance, and his second finished with a national championship. That was at a school that had never won before, which says plenty about how quickly a program can change in this new era, where every offseason feels like free agency.
That’s why Golesh has a path to becoming one of the hottest coaching names in the sport. If he gets Auburn rolling, Ohio State would look like a natural next move up the ladder.
Or maybe not even a move up.
If Golesh succeeds in Auburn, the Tigers will do everything they can to keep him. Auburn could have even more money available than the $13.2 million annually Indiana has for Cignetti. And while the pull of coaching at his alma mater will always be there, Golesh could end up building something at Auburn that’s too strong to walk away from, much like Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame.
That leaves one more big question hanging in the air: is coaching for a school that Les Wexner is heavily invested in really a step up from winning in the SEC and the state of Alabama, anyway?
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For Auburn, that matters because the opener is less about early-season polishing and more about showing composure in a big stage setting, and Brown said he is comfortable with the playbook and used to playing in large stadiums. The matchup will still ask real questions of Auburns offense, but Browns demeanor suggested he expects the Tigers to handle the moment rather than be rushed by it. [Read more 🡒]