Arkansas football opposing coach profile – Alex Golesh, Auburn

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Auburn is not Arkansas' number-one college football rival, but the way Auburn performs will be of intense interest for Razorback fans this year. Alex Golesh and Ryan Silverfield will be compared all the time, for all the obvious reasons.

For a brief period of time last November, it seemed Alex Golesh was on the verge of becoming Arkansas' new coach, as station KARK wrote:

"On Saturday, the Arkansas Razorbacks officially concluded their 2025 season with a 31-17 defeat at the hands of the Missouri Tigers. With the season over, so ends the tenure of interim head coach Bobby Petrino, leaving hog fans wondering who the team’s next head coach will be following the firing of Sam Pittman in September.

"Reports earlier this week said that South Florida Bulls coach Alex Golesh had 'accepted an offer' to be the next head coach of the Razorbacks. On Saturday morning, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported during “College Gameday” that a pair of SEC foes were interested in him as well, making the search to find a new coach just as competitive as the action on the field.

“'The Auburn job and the Arkansas job could end up intersecting at Alex Golesh. Alex Golesh is the USF coach, he has an offer from Arkansas, there’s interest from Auburn; Ole Miss is also expected to be interested if Lane Kiffin leaves,' Thamel said. 'Golesh plays Rice tonight, he’s not expected to make a decision until tomorrow. It’s gonna be a hectic 24 hours, guys, for all these dominoes to fall.'

"Last Saturday during the fourth quarter of the Hogs’ loss at Texas, Thamel gave an update on the coaching search, saying that the list came down to four names.

"'I’ve been told to expect some resolution in the upcoming days, and sources have told me there’s four names that have been linked to this search the most: [South Florida’s] Alex Golesh, Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield, North Texas’ Eric Morris and Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack,' Thamel said.

"With Eric Morris chosen as the next head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys this week, if Golesh chooses another school, the list of potential Hogs coaches could be dwindling as coaches around the country make decisions about their careers with the regular season ending."

Plenty of college football analysts will say that Golesh — coming from The American Conference at South Florida — is basically a better version of Ryan Silverfield, who also came from the same conference at Memphis. Many analysts will say that Auburn got the better head coach and offensive tactician. We can debate these points all day long, but Silverfield will get his chance to prove himself against Golesh when Arkansas and Auburn step onto the gridiron. Every game matters, but this one might matter more than any other Silverfield will coach in 2026.

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