Auburn’s bye week arrives with a little bit of everything on the table: some promise, some frustration, and a few warning signs that are getting harder to ignore.
After five games, Alex Golesh’s first Auburn team sits at 3-2 overall and 1-2 in SEC play. That’s not a disaster, but it’s also not the kind of start that has anyone feeling settled, especially with Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss still waiting in October.
Saturday’s loss at Neyland Stadium only sharpened that feeling. Golesh’s expression as he walked off the field said plenty, even if the Tigers were facing a No.
17 Tennessee team and not exactly walking into a friendly situation.
The broad picture through five games is pretty clear: Auburn has been uneven on offense, sturdier on defense than the raw numbers might suggest, mostly solid on special teams and still very much a work in progress under its new head coach.
Offensively, this hasn’t looked like the unit Auburn hoped for when it hired Golesh. The Tigers rank 64th nationally in total yards per game and still haven’t topped 400 yards of offense in a Power Four game.
They’ve also coughed it up nine times in five games, which is the second-most in the SEC. The issues have shown up in familiar ways - pre-snap penalties, turnovers, inconsistency up front - and the attack has only flashed in stretches.
Outside of the Southern Miss game, it hasn’t been sustained.
The slow starts are especially costly. Auburn has scored only 13 combined first-quarter points in four Power Four games, and that kind of early drag makes life miserable against better competition. There have been worse Auburn offenses in recent years, but this one hasn’t been steady enough to be graded much higher than a C-.
The defense, meanwhile, has been the more reliable side overall, even if it’s taken some hits. Auburn came into the season expecting the defense to be a strength, and through five games that still feels mostly true. But the run defense has been cracked in ways that weren’t expected.
That matters because stopping the run was a real calling card for DJ Durkin’s defense over the last two seasons. Last year, Auburn finished in the top 10 nationally in fewest rushing yards allowed per game.
During the 2024 and 2025 seasons combined, the Tigers allowed 200-plus rushing yards just twice. This year, it has already happened twice in three SEC games.
That’s enough to ding the overall grade. Still, the defense has hardly been a liability every week.
It helped close out wins against Baylor and Vanderbilt, and there’s a case that it kept Auburn in the Tennessee game even while surrendering 220 rushing yards to DeSean Bishop. The concerns are real, but the situation is not dire.
Special teams have been one of the more stable parts of the team, even with a few rough edges. Auburn had some field-position trouble at Tennessee by consistently catching balls inside the 10-yard line, but that’s more nuisance than crisis. The bigger issue has been the return game, where the Tigers rank 133rd nationally in yards per punt return at 2.17.
At the same time, Auburn hasn’t been giving up much in that area either. Punter Hudson Kaak has allowed only three returns all season, and those have gone for a combined negative three yards.
The Tigers are also one of only three SEC teams with multiple blocked kicks or punts, and the blocked punt against Vanderbilt turned into a touchdown. That kind of play can swing a game in a hurry.
Kicker Alex McPherson has been steady enough, making four of his six field goal tries. One miss came from 61 yards, so that one sits in a different category than a routine chip shot.
The coaching grade lands in the middle because the evidence points both ways. Golesh has already given Auburn some reasons to believe, but he’s also had a few decisions that left plenty of fans shaking their heads.
The fourth-and-1 toss to Jeremiah Cobb against Tennessee drew plenty of criticism after the game. Golesh defended it as a tendency breaker and said it had been installed as Auburn’s “have to have it” short-yardage play, but it was still a hard sell for people who wanted a run straight ahead when the Tigers needed less than a yardd.
There was also the fake punt against Baylor in the second half, which failed. That one didn’t end up costing Auburn too much, but it still belongs in the discussion.
On the other side of the ledger, Golesh and his staff deserve credit for how Auburn has handled close games. Hugh Freeze went 2-10 in one-possession games during his Auburn tenure.
Golesh is already 2-1.
That’s a meaningful early difference, even if it doesn’t erase the questionable calls.
The biggest takeaway from the first five games is that this rebuild is not going to be quick. Auburn simply does not have the talent to be a true contender right now, and that reality is showing up most clearly on offense. Against teams like Tennessee, Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss, the Tigers are working from a disadvantage that’s hard to hide.
There’s still room to argue about how much the staff is getting out of this roster, and roster building is part of the job too. The offseason emphasis on bringing in familiar players made sense as a culture move. The next step has to be getting better in the areas that matter most.
Five games in, Auburn’s future under Golesh is still too early to label. But the first chapter makes one thing obvious: if this turns into a success story, it won’t be an immediate one.
In Other News...
Jackson Arnold Is Giving Auburn Fans An Uncomfortable New Comparison
Jackson Arnolds start at UNLV has quickly turned into one of the more notable transfer stories in college football, and for Auburn fans, it comes with an uncomfortable layer of familiarity. Through the first five weeks of 2026, On3 ranked the former Tigers quarterback as the No. 3 most impactful transfer in the sport, a sign that his new home has unlocked a version of him Auburn never quite got to see. He has thrown for 1,063 yards and eight touchdowns without an interception while adding 270 rushing yards and five more scores.
UNLV is 3-2, and Arnolds production has been a clear upgrade from what he delivered in 2025 in Auburn. For the Tigers, the comparison is hard to ignore because it raises the same old question that lingers with transfer quarterbacks: was the player the problem, or was it the fit? Arnolds early run in Las Vegas suggests the answer may be a little of both, and Auburn fans are left watching a former quarterback thrive somewhere else while wondering what might have been. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns Offensive Line Search Could Open The Door For Two Young Linemen
Auburns offensive line shuffle has become one of the defining personnel stories of the season, with seven different starters and nine players earning meaningful snaps as the staff keeps searching for the right combination. The latest changes came at guard, where true freshman Wilson Zierer and sophomore transfer Kenneth McManus IV stepped into the lineup in place of Jacob Strand and Cole Skinner, another sign that the Tigers are still sorting out who gives the unit the best chance to settle in.
Head coach Alex Golesh said the lines ongoing rotation has also created opening for sophomores Kail Ellis and Deryc Plazz, a reminder that playing time on this front is being earned rather than handed out. For Auburn, the bigger question now is not just who starts next week, but which young linemen can turn a season of constant movement into a stable answer before the year moves any further along. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Fans Are Split On The Direction John Cohen Is Taking
John Cohens fourth year running Auburn athletics has become a referendum on the direction of the department, and the split among fans is hard to miss. He has overseen multiple coaching hires, including two football coaches, while also pushing facility upgrades and new revenue ideas as the athletic department looks for more ways to stay competitive in a changing college sports landscape.
Some supporters point to progress in non-football sports and stronger fundraising as signs the department is moving forward, but others remain uneasy about the football side of the ledger. The decision to move a football game to Atlanta to create NIL opportunities drew particular skepticism, and for plenty of Auburn fans, the bigger question is whether those kinds of moves are building long-term stability or creating more frustration along the way. [Read more 🡒]