Auburn and Florida are back in the same place, and it’s not where either program wants to be: starting over.
That’s the uncomfortable truth sitting underneath the SEC’s latest reset. The league spent years piling up national titles, with Auburn and Florida right in the middle of the run.
Auburn won it all in 2010 and played for the championship in 2013. Florida took titles in 2006 and 2008 and, as the source article notes, may have had the nation’s second-best team in 2009.
Now both programs are trying to claw their way back after long stretches of disappointment.
And if the SEC is going to reclaim its place at the top, these two schools have to be part of the fix.
The recent rise of Vanderbilt and Mississippi was a nice story, but the bigger ceiling still sits in Auburn and Gainesville. The problem is that both programs have spent so much time on the floor that ceiling talk feels premature.
Auburn has dropped into five straight losing seasons for the first time since 1946-50. Florida has lost four of its last five seasons, matching its worst stretch since the years right after World War II, when it went 17-29-3 from 1945 to 1949.
The coaching carousel tells the story. Auburn moved on from Bryan Harsin after two seasons in 2022, then watched Hugh Freeze fall short over three more years.
Florida has burned through Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen and Billy Napier since Urban Meyer left in 2010. In both places, the flashes of hope never lasted long enough to become something real.
The results have been especially hard to stomach because these are proud programs sitting in prime recruiting country. Auburn fans have had one consolation in Alabama icon Nick Saban’s retirement.
Florida fans have had another in Florida State’s slide into irrelevance. Outside of that, it’s been a bleak stretch.
Georgia has only made the pain worse. The Bulldogs have beaten Auburn nine straight times, matching the longest streak in a series that dates to 1892. Georgia has also beaten Florida five straight, the Gators’ longest skid in the rivalry since six straight from 1978 to 1983.
Now both schools are trying a similar path back. Auburn hired Alex Golesh from South Florida, while Florida turned to Jon Sumrall after his success at Tulane. The move into the American Conference for both hires says plenty about where these programs are trying to find their next lift.
Golesh went 23-15 in three seasons at USF and finished with his best team, a 9-3 group that upset Florida in The Swamp in Week 2. Before that, the 42-year-old helped build Josh Heupel’s fast, explosive offense at Tennessee.
Sumrall arrives after winning 20 games in two seasons at Tulane and taking the Green Wave to the College Football Playoff last season. The 44-year-old former Kentucky player and defensive assistant was 23-4 at Troy before that.
On paper, both hires make sense. The real question is how long the turnaround will take.
Golesh at least gave himself a head start by bringing quarterback Byrum Brown with him from USF. Brown was one of the nation’s top dual-threat quarterbacks last season, piling up 42 total touchdowns, more than 1,000 rushing yards and more than 3,000 passing yards. He is also 45 yards shy of 10,000 career total offense yards, and he has already spent three seasons fitting cleanly into Golesh’s system.
“Byrum Brown represents everything that’s right about Auburn football and the identity that we’re building,” Golesh said Tuesday at SEC media days. “A guy that went into the portal after last season and you talk about a couple days where you sit there and cringe, like, Man, everybody in the country is going after this kid. Gives me a level of confidence going into the season that we’re led by that guy.”
Florida’s quarterback picture is less settled. Sumrall did not keep former five-star DJ Lagway, who left for Baylor.
His departure may or may not be a major loss, given the inconsistency he showed. The likely options now include Georgia Tech transfer Aaron Philo, who flashed promise as Haynes King’s backup, and redshirt freshman holder Tramell Jones Jr.
Whoever wins the job will have help from Jadan Baugh, one of the SEC’s top running backs.
For both coaches, the message has been the same: toughness first.
That’s the language of the league, and it’s the language of programs trying to rebuild the hard way. Golesh said Auburn’s identity has to be rooted in physical and mental toughness, and he made no attempt to soften the point.
“The first piece of this identity that we’ve hammered home is the ability to be physically and mentally tough,” Golesh said. “That’s what Auburn football was built on, physical and mental toughness.
The ability to be the most violent football team on the field every Saturday. Violent.
I think that’s something you can watch and see.”
Sumrall sounded just as direct when asked in May what his Florida teams would look like.
“I would like to see our toughness carry over,” he said. “At Troy, we were blue-collar tough.
It didn’t matter if it was a back alley or the biggest venue in college football, those guys were going to come out and fight. Tulane, we were a little sexier athletically.
I think we still needed to be tough. Those teams that hit Troy and Tulane, you knew every time you played them, they were going to bring it.”
That’s where Auburn and Florida are now: at the stage where a new coach arrives in late summer, undefeated and carrying the hope of fixing everything. Golesh and Sumrall give both programs a real shot to climb back. Whether that climb is quick or slow, the SEC’s revival probably runs through them.
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