Alex Golesh sees disjointed calendar as Auburn football's advantage

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AUBURN — The calendar surrounding Auburn football, and really every FBS program, has never been messier.

The offseason begins in the postseason. There’s effectively no time between the College Football Playoff and the transfer portal, and the February signing day has turned into a non-event. What has taken over is the early signing period, which occurs after the regular season.

Alex Golesh knows of the chaos, but he sees it as positive for his latest circumstance. It’s “an advantage to a staff coming in, because you do have time before January when it actually opens up,” the Auburn head coach said Monday, Dec. 8.

While the rules and guidelines for college football seems ever-changing, the NCAA adopted a new policy this year which gave Golesh, and every program making a hire after the 2025 season, some breathing room. Players were previously give a 30-day window to enter the transfer portal after a program made a coaching change.

That was changed to a 15-day window five days after a new hire was announced, but On3 reported in October that the NCAA sent out guidelines for coaching change transfer window and said it only adheres to schools making a hire between Jan. 2 and June 30.

So, Golesh hasn’t had to rush to recruit his own roster, which won’t have a chance to transfer until the portal officially opens in January. That’s especially vital for Golesh, who inherited a roster that was 13th nationally in 247Sports talent composite this past season.

Four other programs were rated higher than Auburn and also find themselves with new coaches, but Golesh has said since his hiring that Auburn’s current roster was his biggest immediate priority.

“The intent with me coming in … is not to run guys out of here, but to make sure we find guys that want to be here, we want them here, and that match can happen,” Golesh said. “Every situation is absolutely different. It’s the depth in the room. Has the young man played or not? Are you retaining them off potential? Are they waiting to stay off of giving us a chance? Each spot is completely different.”

To this point, Auburn has six players with plans to enter their names into the portal. The most notable include former starting quarterback Jackson Arnold and wide receivers Horatio Fields and Perry Thompson.

“I have tried to come in genuinely, without passing judgement until I was able to truly evaluate the roster, watch the film,” Golesh said. “What’s awesome coming in is that you’ve got practice film. You could see the progression of these guys. I’m counting on my own evaluation in a lot of ways, but I’m counting on our staff to dig and research.”

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alex Golesh sees crazy calendar as Auburn football’s advantage

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