Alex Golesh is heading back to Neyland Stadium with a very different offense than the one he helped build there - and he says that’s exactly the point.
Now Auburn’s head coach, Golesh once served as Josh Heupel’s offensive coordinator at Tennessee in 2020 and 2021. That Volunteers attack reached its peak in 2021, when Tennessee finished first in the nation in points per game and total yards. But Golesh’s message on the way back to Knoxville is that his system has never been about locking into one static identity.
“I think, more than anything, we’ve tried to year in and year out fit what we want to do with what our guys do well,” Golesh said. “As the personnel has evolved - when you go Year 1 at Tennessee, it’s vastly different than what you were in Year 2 Tennessee, in terms of what we looked like. And, primarily, that was because of personnel.”
That same personnel-driven approach carried over when he took over at South Florida. Golesh described that move as a reset, one that forced him to build again from the ground up.
“We got to South Florida, and it was back to square one in the sense of personnel. You had to start from scratch, and you gotta have a foundation somewhere of who you truly are.
I think as we have evolved and grown, we’ve gone back to our roots of what we know, which is players, formations, plays. Who are the players, put them in situations formationally where you get the matchups we want.
The plays are the third piece of it.”
The results at USF backed that up. After the move to South Florida, Golesh’s teams stayed in the top 20 nationally in total yards per game and climbed as high as No. 3 in 2025.
At Auburn, the picture is still developing, but there’s already been noticeable movement through four games. Golesh brought 11 offensive staff members with him from USF, and the Tigers are averaging 235 passing yards, 178.5 rushing yards and 30.0 points per game.
“We look different than we did a year ago at South Florida,” Golesh said. “Honestly, in a lot of ways, we looked different last week than we did Week 1. As we put guys in situations that we think, ‘man, he can handle this’ or ‘he’s really good at this,’ you can get into a game and you’re like, ‘he’s not really good at that.’”
That flexibility, Golesh said, has been central to how he’s grown as a play caller. He doesn’t talk about forcing players into a mold. He talks about finding the best way to put his best players in the best spots, with tempo still part of the equation.
“It’s truly finding the best ways, specifically offensively, to get your best players into the best situations. That goes through matchups. We certainly use tempo in a lot of ways there,” Golesh added.
“But I think we’ve changed so much schematically, operationally. We’ve got to continue to evolve as well go.
But ultimately, we’ve got to be able to go execute. So, you’ve just got to be honest on how much new you have put in.
Like, spring and summer is for that. Now, it’s moving people around to get them in the best situations to be successful.”
Auburn, 3-1 and 1-1 in conference play, meets Tennessee at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN. The Vols are 3-1 and 0-1.
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