Myrick Minute: Auburn has more continuity than you are led to believe

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

This past offseason, the Auburn Tigers had 36 players enter the transfer portal and brought in 40, yet there is a deeper continuity that will benefit the Tigers in year one under Alex Golesh.

November 30, 2025, the day after the Iron Bowl, Auburn football announced the hiring of South Florida head coach Alex Golesh. Marking the 33rd head coach in the program's history. A coach who had only one head coaching stop in his career, and that was at USF for three seasons. Prior, he was the offensive coordinator for Tennessee.

He's been tasked with turning a program that has not finished with a winning record since the COVID-19 season in 2020 under then head coach Gus Malzahn. A similar challenge he was given when taking the job at USF, where they were coming off a 1-11 season the year before Golesh arrived in Tampa. He went on to lead the Bulls to three straight winning seasons, with his third year finishing 9-3.

On paper, the departure of 36 players and bringing in 40 makes it seem as if the Tigers are in a complete rebuild and have no shot at being competitive this season in the SEC. Well, 13 of those 36 are from USF, and 12 are offensive players. The big one is star quarterback Byrum Brown, who led the nation in the regular season with touchdowns with 42. Along with him, he has his wide receivers from USF: Keshaun Singleton, Chas Nimrod, Jeremiah Koger, Christian Neptune, and Kory Pettigrew. So what chemistry needs to be built between the quarterback and receivers? The answer is none, this comes to the Plains preinstalled.

Yes, there are players on Auburn's roster that will have to learn the new offense that is a high-tempo, run-first veer and shoot spread scheme. Here is where Golesh has help installing this into the Tigers this past offseason: he had his offensive coordinator Joel Gordon, offensive line coach Tyler Hudanick, and wide receivers coach Kodi Burns follow him to the Plains. Burns is a big piece in what Golesh has preached to this team, a former Auburn player who understands what Auburn is and can be.

Make all the "Auburn Bulls" or "South Florida Tigers" jokes you want, but I think the because of the pieces he brought along with him, the offense should be smooth like butter. He's coached an SEC offense at Tennessee that was first in the nation in points per game with 46.1 in 2022, and last year at South Florida he had their offense finish No. 5 in the nation with 40.5. Oh, Auburn football is going to be running up the score this season, but what about the defense?

Probably the biggest move the Tigers made this offseason was retaining defensive coordinator DJ Durkin, who stepped into the interim head coach role after the firing of Hugh Freeze. Durkin's defense last season finished No. 30 nationally and No. 12 nationally in stopping the run. The Tigers only allowed an average of 20.7 points per game.

Auburn kept linebackers Xavier Atkins and Elijah Melendez, two players who will be all over the field this season. Overall, the defense has some young promising players in safety Eric Winters, safety Anquan Fegans, and edge rusher Jared Smith. A name that has started to get the spotlight he deserves is the secondary's Swiss Army knife, Champ Anthony. He has been a big vocal leader in the locker room. The last two seasons he has been injured, but he hopes to cap off his Auburn career with a stellar senior campaign.

Auburn football is back; expect a more competitive team on your TV screen every Saturday this fall. I don't think that they will be national contenders or top-three in the SEC, but I believe in what Golesh is preaching and see a winning season just on the horizon.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on  X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Jac on Twitter@Jac_Myrick

This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Myrick Minute: Auburn has more continuity than you are led to believe

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos