What will play-calling look like under Auburn football OC Joel Gordon?

AUBURN — No, Auburn football won’t have a different play-caller for every down and distance under head coach Alex Golesh. He’s said as much multiple times since coming to the Plains and reiterated it once again Feb. 4.

It’ll be Joel Gordon, Golesh’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, calling the shots for Auburn‘s offense, but both coaches highlighted what goes into their play-calling strategy.

“I’m really excited that we were able to bring the guys that we did with us, and we’ve got a ton of guys from South Florida off the field that are coming as well,” Gordon said. “They are all going to critical to our success in player development, teaching how this offense works, game-planning, all of that.”

It’s not the same setup former Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said he used, with himself, former offensive coordinator Derrick Nix and quarterbacks coach Kent Austin seemingly having their voice lead the headsets depending on the down. But it’s still collaborative for Golesh’s staff.

“There’s a lot of smart people on these coaching staffs — offense, defense — on every team around the country,” Gordon said. “The way that we’ve always done it where I’ve been. We’re going to be able to try to get to what we think is the best thing to start out a drive. And then, yeah, once we get going, it’s going to go really fast, and that’s going to be on my shoulders.

“But I’m also going to listen when I feel like I need to do that. If I’m going to be convicted about, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do this, that or the other,’ then we’re going do it. And that is what it is. But if there’s any kind of situation that comes up in a game where, man, KB’s (Kodi Burns) got a thought, Hood (Tyler Hudanick) has got a thought, AG’s (Golesh) got a thought, I’m going to listen, and we’re going to try to put our kids in the best situation to be successful.”

With Golesh and Gordon in identical roles at South Florida last season, the Bulls had one of the nation’s best offenses. They were top-five nationally in scoring and total yards, and their rushing and passing attacks were top-20 nationally. The coaches Gordon mentioned — Burns and Hudanick — were also on that South Florida staff, and both followed Golesh to the Plains after helping lead the Bulls to such heights on offense.

“Part of what’s made us really good is that there’s no egos,” Golesh said of play-calling. “Everybody has a voice. Sometimes that voice is coming from one of the young coaches, and it’s like, ‘Hey, I’m going to speak up here. I think we should do this,’ and it’s as good of an idea as we’ve had. … Everybody knows they’ve got a voice, so that they can speak up. I certainly do speak up when I feel like I’ve got something that’s really good. You can ask Joel, but my hit percentage on scoring touchdowns when I speak up is up there.”

According to Gordon, that’s true. Golesh wasn’t all talk.

“He was over 90%, I think, this year,” Gordon said. “He was right on time. There were some timely calls. We’ll take them.”

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: Auburn football’s Alex Golesh, OC discuss shared play-calling strategy