Alex Golesh gets another shot at Ryan Silverfield, and this one comes with a different backdrop.
Saturday’s meeting between Auburn and Arkansas brings together two coaches who crossed paths in the American Conference before both climbed into the SEC spotlight. Golesh is now at Auburn, Silverfield at Arkansas, and their programs arrived here after a coaching shuffle that briefly tied both men to the same job.
That part of the story still lingers. On Nov. 26, just days before he took the Auburn job, Trey Schaap of 103.7 The Buzz in Little Rock, Arkansas, reported that Golesh had accepted an offer to be the Razorbacks’ head coach.
That report was never confirmed, though 247Sports reported that Golesh had been offered the job. Golesh ultimately landed at Auburn, while Silverfield became Arkansas’ choice.
The Razorbacks are 3-5 in Silverfield’s first season, and a 10-point win over Vanderbilt is the only thing keeping them from being the SEC’s clear bottom team. Auburn is only a game better at 4-4, but the Tigers’ shocking win over Georgia has given Golesh’s first year a very different feel.
Still, this matchup carries a personal edge for Golesh because of what happened when he was at South Florida and Silverfield was at Memphis. Silverfield beat Golesh three straight times, and the Tigers were the more established American program when Golesh arrived in Tampa. Even after USF closed the gap by Year 3, Golesh never got over the hump against him.
Two of those Memphis wins came by multiple scores, including a 21-3 result in 2024. The tightest of the three came last year, when Memphis scored the winning touchdown with a minute left and escaped 34-31.
“We’ve had some battles,” Golesh said of Silverfield on Wednesday. “Man, those teams are always tough.”
This is also the second time this season Golesh has faced one of his old American Conference rivals. Auburn already lost to Jon Sumrall’s Florida team earlier in the year, and that game carried extra weight for Auburn fans because it matched the coach many wanted with the coach they got.
Golesh isn’t framing Saturday’s game that way. He’s focused on Arkansas’ recent improvement and the way Silverfield’s teams have finished games in the past.
“They go finish, so I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys,” Golesh said, mentioning Arkansas’ in-season improvement. “We’ve emphasized that.
We’ve emphasized finish in general, but these guys will go finish. They’re fighting and they’re scrapping and they’re getting better.
That’s what I hope we are doing.”
Golesh also pointed to Auburn’s “lack of finish” against Ole Miss, a game in which the Tigers surrendered 28 unanswered points to close it out. Arkansas doesn’t have Ole Miss’ talent, but Golesh said the Razorbacks’ ability to close has shown up before, including in Memphis’ fourth-quarter surge in that last meeting with USF.
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