2026 GAME 5 REVIEW: No Proof Of Concept

Tennessee 24  Auburn 14.  This game did not go how many people including myself thought it would go but still ended where everyone thought it would.  It was even more painful I think for Auburn fans watching this version.  Auburn had the lead at halftime against Tennessee in Neyland Stadium.  Tennessee had benched their starting quarterback who was a disaster.  Auburn just had to score a few more points and hold a Vol team that could not throw the football.  Auburn could do neither and lost the game and what looked like their best chance to pull an upset in this gauntlet of top teams in conference they have to go through this season.  Auburn will play no more conference opponents with weak quarterbacks outside Arkansas.  In fact Auburn will now have to play ALL of the BEST quarterbacks in the SEC in the coming weeks.

THE GOOD

Byrum Brown I think will be a part of this section each week.  Of course he will also probably be in the bad section as well but he is still Auburn's main playmaker.  Both of Auburn's touchdowns this week were based on great plays by Brown.  He made a great seven yard run through several Vol defenders on third and goal to put Auburn ahead in the first half.  He then in the fourth quarter when all looked lost around him scrambled for 57 yards (with help from Tennessee's over pursuing defense) to put Auburn in position to score a touchdown on the next play on a nifty pitch-pass.  That gave Auburn a chance to win in the fourth quarter which is huge for this Auburn team against anybody any good.  Unfortunately he also missed several passes and threw two interceptions but we will cover that in the next section...

The Auburn defense played a great first half although Tennessee starting quarterback Faizon Brandon looked completely lost and scared to death.  I mean I would also be pretty upset if I was a Tennessee fan that at this point in the Heupel regime they are trotting out a quarterback that unprepared.  The Vols could barely complete a pass and gained no positive yards through the air with Brandon.  In fact, he threw one swing pass well behind his receiver and then threw as ugly an interception as you can throw that gave Auburn a short field to get their first half touchdown.  The Tiger defense then stacked the box and stopped the strong Vol running game...  in the first half.  Tennessee only had 87 yards rushing at halftime in addition to being scared and behind 7-3.  Unfortunately the second half was much different...

THE BAD

Tennessee finished the game with 237 yards rushing with monster tailback DeSean Bishop accounting for 220 yards of that (!!!) and scoring THREE TOUCHDOWNS.  The Vol offensive line and Bishop simply bludgeoned the Auburn defense much like Florida did a few weeks ago.  Auburn seemed helpless against the onslaught even knowing Tennessee was not going to throw much.  Tennessee backup quarterback George Macintyre did also help steady the ship and hit just enough passes to get the Vols through.  As bad as Heupel's coaching was in the first half it was impressive watching him shift to and stick with heavy run formations.  If the teams were switched would Alex Golesh have done the same thing?  I do not think so but back to the Auburn defense.  The problem is well documented, the line is weak.  The problem is not going away and it is the reason Auburn has not and will not stop anybody any good.

The problem is the same on the other side of the ball.  It is in fact even worse.  This is one of the worst, if not the worst offensive line I have ever seen at Auburn.  As always I know these are some good guys who are working hard but they are just not good enough to play in the SEC.  Auburn did have a few good runs and it makes you wonder if things would be better if Auburn went heavy like Tennessee did "running the piss out of the ball" as Golesh promised in his opening presser?  The Tigers cannot pass.  Brown averaged under five yards a pass and rarely has time to throw and does not look comfortable in the pocket when he does.  I think Auburn would be much better served to run the ball and the clock and shorten the games.  However Golesh and his boys refuse to deviate from the hurry-up and spreading the field most of the time which is making Auburn's chances of winning any games look a lot worse.

THE UGLY

I believe I would be labelled a "negative alarmist" or something to that effect by calmer heads.  Those people point out we already knew that Auburn was in a bad spot and no matter what anybody else says this was always going to be a tough rebuilding year.  They say we have to give Golesh time.  All of that is true to an extent however my response is the same as last week.  It all comes down to whether Golesh can get a LOT of really good players to come to Auburn starting next year.  I have coached multiple sports for almost 25 years.  I have coached at every age level and currently coach at the high school level.  I have not coached football but the principle is the same.  The FIRST THING I look at for any team is how good my players are compared to the league I play in and then how can I put them in the best position to succeed.  

I will deal with the latter first, I do not think as a coach Golesh is putting this team especially the offense in the best position to succeed.  In fact he seems to value his system over doing that.  His bad job with this offense which in turn is also hurting his defense is then ultimately hurting his MOST IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE and that is attracting GOOD FOOTBALL PLAYERS to come to Auburn NEXT YEAR.  He is showing NO PROOF OF CONCEPT.  I am as down as I have ever been in my life as an Auburn football fan because I do not think Auburn is going to be able to attract and bring in near enough good players to turn this disaster around and that is the BOTTOM LINE.  Auburn may up the cash but their competitors for really good players will have just as much cash and more success to sell. 

Auburn has finished the easy part of its schedule and now again face a murder's row of good teams with really good quarterbacks outside Arkansas and Samford.  Arkansas also might not be a gimme depending on the state of the team after the beatdowns that are coming.  Things are guaranteed to get worse as injuries inevitably follow a team struggling like this making things much tougher.  Golesh's best chance to show something, to show that proof of concept, and sell his program was in the first part of this season and he failed.  Stealing a quote from a friend after the game ended yesterday, Golesh can talk the talk (and my gosh he talks a lot) but at this point there is ZERO evidence that he walks the walk.  I am not sure what else Auburn and Golesh can accomplish the rest of this season other than survive it. 

2026 GAME 4 REVIEW: This Is All We Got

Auburn 21  Vanderbilt 15.  Auburn notched its first conference win since 2024 this past weekend.  It was frankly an ugly game played between two of the worst teams in the league along side Arkansas. Oklahoma and South Carolina might be entering the race for the worst team but by the end I think it will be Arkansas, Auburn, and Vandy bringing up the rear.  I have now read several times on the Auburn sites that Auburn fans just need to be happy with a win.  First, I love people telling me how I need to feel about a game and second yeh I am glad we won but I am never going to enjoy watching a bad Auburn team and that is what we have here.  It looks like Vandy other than quarterback Jared Curtis is back to being Vandy.  I do not think they win an SEC game.

The Auburn offense only scored 14 points and the Tigers were fortunate to get a punt block for the winning points.  The offense was bad most of the game and ended with less than 300 yards total offense and Auburn once again lost the time of possession battle by a wide margin.  The defense started to bend badly in the second half but luckily Vandy did not have enough to break through.  I will say again though that their quarterback Jared Curtis looks to have the potential to be a future NFL star.  I mean he is just a freshman and made freshman mistakes but he already looks like an NFL quarterback size and arm-wise.  He made a few ridiculous throws that showed some of that potential.  I am not sure why in the world he went to Vandy but whatever...

THE GOOD

I thought the best play of the game for Auburn was on that last drive on third and five with less than five minutes in the game.  I think everyone knew that if Vandy got the ball back there was good chance they would go down and win the game.  Fortunately quarterback Byrum Brown hit wide receiver Keyshawn Singleton on a bang-bang slant for the first down and a big gainer.  That was one of the few really big-time clutch plays I have seen this offense hit this season.  There were some of other big plays in the game like the early touchdown pass from Brown to Chris Nimrod and that Auburn was able to actually run out the clock at the end but that clutch slant was the key.  The defense also showed some fire after the Florida debacle and brought it in the first half.

THE BAD

This team is just bad.  I say that in the context of competing in the Southeastern Conference and compared to even average Auburn teams in the past.  Again no disrespect to the players but it appears Auburn is well below average in the trenches on both sides of the ball.  There is no all-conference talent AT ALL on team it appears outside maybe Xavier Atkins, Byrum Brown and Elijah Melendez.  This is one of the worst I have ever seen at Auburn.  I have seen worse teams but they had more talent.  They just had worse coaching and the team gave up, i.e. 2012.  This is why I was immediately so depressed when starting the season watching the Baylor game.  I knew the season was already over.  I do not even see this team making many of the remaining games even close.

THE UGLY

I mean if what I wrote above is the "bad" then you are probably asking what the heck could the "ugly" be???  The "ugly" is the fact I do not see this administration and coaching staff turning around the recruiting effort enough to really improve Auburn anytime soon.  This offensive coaching staff is not going to bring in any real top talent on the line or anywhere else in my opinion.  I know it is the first year and it was a tough transition but their recruiting and portal evaluations look to have been terrible especially on the offensive line and I have no confidence in them getting a good quarterback to replace Brown. They are a South Florida-level staff and not SEC-caliber in my opinion. They have just not shown anything really good coaching-wise.

As the quote at the top of this blog states "I know it is just a game... but I love it".  More accurately I love Auburn football and it is killing me watching this decade-long fall to now being the team along side Arkansas and Vandy as the worst in the conference.  It is going to rip me apart watching Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, State and finally Bama all probably destroy Auburn by a wide margin.  In fact this Saturday just watching a bad Auburn team win coupled with seeing pretty much all SEC teams other than Okie, South Carolina and Vandy play better than Auburn put me in such a bad mood it ruined my Saturday night.  I could maybe take it better if I believed better days were coming but again I do not see this staff turning this program around.  I just do not see it.

2026 GAME 3 REVIEW: WATERSHED

 

Florida 44  Auburn 39.  In a game that was not anywhere near as close as the score indicates the Florida Gators manhandled the Auburn Tigers for most of the night at Jordan Hare Stadium.  Jordan Hare Stadium.  A place that for so long was one of the hardest places to play for opposing teams.  A place that was host to so many legendary college football games.  A place once seemingly filled with magic and called "haunted" by one of the game's greatest coaches.  Unfortunately opposing teams no longer fear this place and many now count it as an automatic win.  The Auburn Tigers have not won a conference game in this great place since 2024.  

I wrote about Auburn's growing irrelevance last week but it really became official this week.  This game was really Auburn's one chance at a big win and a winning season.  Now as I feared after watching the level of this team against Baylor that chance is gone.  In fact while I would still favor Auburn next week against Vanderbilt at home, it is close especially after Vandy's big comeback win yesterday.  This game and performance also cemented that the Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and Samford home games appear to be this teams only chance at wins.  The rest of the games on the schedule (at Georgia, at Tennessee, at Ole Miss, at State, and at Bama) do not appear they will even be close.

Again as always I do not mean to disrespect or insult any players, I know these guys are working their butts off and they want to win.  I am just looking at the output of the different units and the team compared to other SEC teams and it is what it is.  I would not get upset if someone looked at my tennis schedule and evaluated me and my chances of winning if they knew my ability and all my opponents.  It is not rocket science and they would probably evaluate me compared to my opponents exactly right.  Unfortunately I look a lot like this Auburn team...  (-:  

The defensive performance last night was one of the worst in Auburn history and that is not an overstatement.  Florida punted ONE TIME the entire night and that is only because they got a delay penalty on a field goal attempt.  Florida rushed the ball for almost 250 yards and rolled up over 500 yards total offense possessing the ball for almost 40 minutes of the game.  The only reason the stats were not worse and Auburn lowered their average yards per carry is Florida went conservative to get the game over.  Conversely the only reason Auburn's point and offensive production look so good is Florida going conservative on defense late in the game.  

Byrum Brown is only successful when teams drop back deep and do not try to rush him.  He is deadly then but against any kind of pressure it usually goes bad.  His legs help him escape some of the time but not near enough.  He does not seem to process quickly but the bottom line is he does not look well coached.  You can tell players and units that are well coached and Auburn is not offensively.  The Auburn rushing attack outside of Brown was also a joke again as the Auburn offensive brain trust continues to try and run out of spread sets and a below average SEC offensive line.  The results are very predictable.  All of this has been obvious in all three games this year.

The best player on Auburn's offense is wide receiver Keyshawn Singleton but he is not near enough.  Also considering Auburn's current spot in the pecking order I am sure a better program will offer him more money and he will be moving on after this season.  I am simply shocked at the overall talent level of the Auburn football program.  Obviously the effect of four straight losing seasons is coming home to roost.  I think everyone was hoping Golesh could stop the bleeding but the talent level is now lower than during Harsin and Freeze's tenures and it looks like Auburn will have a worse record than at any time under those two bozos. 

We will know whether this season will be just be a really bad season or start competing with 2012 next week.  Auburn has to beat Vandy at home to stop this season from hitting another level.  I cannot believe it has come to this.  I knew we would not be great this season but even I am shocked at our offensive and defensive line talent level.  Florida absolutely mauled us on both sides of the line of scrimmage.  The lasting images of the night are some of the massive open holes Florida running back Jaden Baugh ran though and the replays of the Auburn right offensive guard just getting absolutely embarrassed multiple times.  It is bad folks, it is really bad.

I thought last nights game was a watershed moment in this season.  The word "watershed" is defined as: "a crucial dividing point, line, or factor : a turning point".  I think last night was a turning point for this season and unfortunately things went the wrong way.  Next week will be another huge turning point.  All of their warts notwithstanding this group of Auburn Tigers, coaches and players, have to make a stand next week.  It is a 100% must-win game or again things go to another level.  Auburn must make a stand.  They must stop this losing streak at home.  They must stop this losing streak to Vandy.  They must put everything and I mean everything into this upcoming game.

2026 GAME 2 REVIEW: Late Start, Sloppy Win

The 2026 Auburn football Tigers opened their home season with a big win over Southern Miss.  Head coach Alex Golesh summed up the game for everyone who watched in this quote:

“I don’t care what the score is, I don’t. That’s what I just told these guys. A win is a win and winning college football games is hard, but if the standard is that and that’s what it looks like, we’re going to have a really, really long season."

I mean that pretty much says it all.  The Tigers won big but committed a lot of penalties and made a lot of mistakes.  They might be able to clean some of that up and "raise the standard" but I still think it is going to be a really, really long season...

Starting in 1983 with Pat Dye Auburn became one of the six modern powers in the SEC.  In fact since Ole Miss repeated as SEC Champions in 1963, the only team outside the "Big Six" to even get a share of an SEC championship is Kentucky who tied with Georgia in 1976. That means in the last 50 YEARS only Auburn, Bama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, and Tennessee have won SEC championships.  Each of those teams have also won national championships in that time as well.  Auburn won SEC championships in 1983, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2004, and 2013.  Since the Tigers last appearance in the SEC Championship game in 2017 after defeating both #1 Georgia and #1 Bama at the end of that season the foundation has eroded due to horrible leadership and numerous bad decisions.

Auburn does not appear to be a part of that elite group of teams anymore regardless of the additions of Texas and Oklahoma.  Auburn appears simply irrelevant in the SEC discussion anymore.  The once mighty Tigers look a lot more like the Bulldogs at Mississippi State than the ones in Athens, Georgia.  Actually that is not true, it is worse, right now I would take State over Auburn.  So while I tried to "enjoy" a sloppy mistake-filled win over a bad Southern Miss team, all I see is how far Auburn has fallen.  It is hard to transition to just hoping for a winning season and being completely irrelevant in the SEC.  It has now been almost a decade of irrelevance, other than the Iron Bowl win in 2019 Auburn has not won a big game since the end of the 2017 season...

I guess I could try to "analyze" this game...  Quarterback Byrum Brown had a good game with over 300 yards running and passing plus three touchdowns, two passing and one receiving (!!!).  It was the type of one man show we have not seen since Cam Newton roamed the plains. Running back Omar Mabson put up over 100 yards, mostly in garbage time but still a big moment for him.  Finally the defense dominated the Golden Eagles holding them to a little over 200 yards total offense and causing two turnovers.  I mean I am down but I still agree with Coach Golesh that "A win is a win and winning college football games is hard."  You can never take winning for granted but again I also agree with the second part of what he said: "but if the standard is that and that’s what it looks like, we’re going to have a really, really long season."  He said it, not me.

Unfortunately again I think it is going to be a really, really long season.  It is not because the players are not trying to meet that "standard".  It seems like Auburn has some really good guys on this team that are again working their butts off.  Unfortunately Auburn just does not look like the other top teams in the SEC in my opinion.  In fact it does not look very close.  It just does not seem Auburn has near enough of that elite talent needed to compete for SEC championships.  I hope I am wrong.  We will all find out a lot this weekend as in many ways Auburn will play its biggest game of the season in its first SEC game on Saturday hosting Florida.  I believe this will also be a first in Auburn history opening the SEC season with the Florida Gators.

This game is big for so many other reasons...  Florida, a perennial SEC power like Auburn, has been down like Auburn for awhile as well.  They have gone through several head coaches as well over the last decade and are starting fresh this year like Auburn.  In fact, Florida ended up with Jon Sumrall who was LONG rumored to be headed to Auburn last season.  I have gone over my thoughts on what happened there in my last post of last season on the Bama game and Golesh's hiring last season so I will not go over it again here.  I will say though I still think based on their history that despite Golesh being a good hire Sumrall was the top choice.  His three conference championships, two at Troy and one at Tulane plus a playoff berth are the evidence.  He is not a one year wonder to do that at two different schools in highly competitive conferences.  

We will see this weekend but a cursory look at the rosters and the first two games suggest that Sumrall was able to retain and raise the talent level at Florida over Auburn who had the better roster last year.  Again I have just been so disappointed with several aspects of the Auburn offense so far this season especially up front.  We will know a lot more about both teams and both coaches around 10pm this coming Saturday night.

2026 GAME 1 REVIEW: STILL MISSING

This is an actual picture of a dominant Auburn left tackle

Auburn 17  Baylor 16.  The Alex Golesh era finally started in Atlanta with an ugly win over Baylor.  However it was a win and of course a win is always better than a loss.  As always the Auburn players worked extremely hard and played their guts out.  I am happy for them as they deserve some good things to happen for all the work they have put in this offseason.  I am happy for the fans that made the trip.  I still hate it they had to go to Atlanta for an Auburn HOME game (thanks John Cohen).  There were some bright moments like the two touchdown runs, the Bryce Cain reverse and the defense getting nine tackles for loss.  However, for me, overall the game was very unsettling.  Simply put, after an entire offseason of Alex Golesh pontificating and reading the homers I thought this team would be much better.

I know it is the first game and I know all the coach speak about the most improvement being between the first and second game but wow this Auburn team did not look very good.  They definitely will improve but how much?  Right now they look like a bottom third of the SEC team and I do not see them being able to improve much on that.  I do not think I had too high of expectations coming into the season and I guess there is still a decent chance Auburn could meet those expectations.  I was hoping Auburn would be able to beat Arkansas and Vandy at home plus State on the road and maybe beat Florida at home to give the Tigers their first winning season since the pandemic.  After watching the Baylor game I have to say the chances of this Auburn football team doing that are looking a lot lower to me.

I was shocked at how bad Auburn was on offense.  Auburn brought in a supposedly good SENIOR quarterback in Byrum Brown plus two of his offensive linemen and his three starting wide receivers from South Florida last year.  Auburn also brought in his head coach and his entire offensive coaching staff!!!  I understand all that South Florida coaching and playing talent struggling against say Georgia but Baylor???  I would think South Florida last year under Golesh would be on the level of Baylor.  I would think all these people coming to Auburn would be able to at least slightly improve their situation however that does not seem to be the case.  The offense just looked terrible most of the game outside a few big plays.  Brown just looked as slow as Christmas running and throwing.  

I wanted to start with the offense because that was the biggest shock and issue to me but let me real quick comment on the defense before going back to the offense.  The Auburn defense did not struggle like the offense and Brown certainly hurt them throwing three interceptions.  Auburn certainly will not win many SEC games turning the ball over like that.  The much hyped Auburn linebackers, edge rushers and safeties made some big plays but the line and secondary definitely struggled at times.  Baylor quarterback D.J. Lagway threw for over 300 yards with over 150 of it going to wide receiver Gavin Freeman including a long 4th down conversion where a stop wins the game.  The defense played good enough to beat Baylor but it looks like it will struggle against better SEC teams especially on the line.  

I am not criticizing the players.  I know the Auburn offensive and defensive linemen are some good guys that are working their butts off to be the best they can be for Auburn.  They are giving their blood, sweat, and tears for this team.  However when comparing them to the teams Auburn is going to play this season it just does not look good.  The defensive line looks noticeably weaker this season compared to last season and that does not bode well.  I hope I am wrong but I just do not think Baylor is very good especially with their quarterback playing on a hurt ankle the whole game.  I know the defense will improve but injuries are also just as likely.  The biggest problem is the defense has to get help from the offense with things like getting leads and time of possession and yeh that is going to be a problem.

So back to the offense and the biggest problem is Auburn could not run the ball consistently.  They finally wore Baylor down late but they were lucky it was Baylor and the score was still close scoring only ten points in three quarters. TEN POINTS IN THREE QUARTERS AGAINST BAYLOR.  Again with a SENIOR quarterback throwing to his same three wide receivers as last season being coached by his same head coach and entire offensive coaching staff.  Ten points in three quarters against Baylor after listening to Alex Golesh pontificate all off-season about how great Brown is and the importance of running the ball.  I mean I do not think I am out in left field here.  I do not think Baylor is a defensive juggernaut.  I just cannot believe how bad the Auburn offense was Saturday.

However I should have known better.  I should have known that changing coaches and quarterbacks will not matter until ONE THING is changed.  I am not sure what I was thinking since I wrote it in my last post after the Bama game last season talking about that game and Golesh coming in.  I am not patting myself on the back since the fact is obvious to most of us but I guess we all including me need to be reminded again.  Here are the facts that appear even truer today after the Baylor win than when I wrote them last season after Golesh was hired...

"The problem with this offense is you cannot build a team on wide receivers and that is what Hugh Freeze tried to do.  It will not work no matter who the coach is.  Derrick Nix did a great job, even with the horrendous start to the Iron Bowl, with this offense but the unit is fundamentally flawed.  The offensive line was better under him but they were still a BELOW AVERAGE SEC UNIT.  It is the most depressing part of this game and this season for me and it is the biggest question I have with the new coaching staff.  Auburn has not had a top SEC offensive line in ALMOST A DECADE now with NO END IN SIGHT.  After all the hoopla and the sunshine pumping sychophantic optimistic new coach blather I only have ONE QUESTION of Alex Golesh.  ONE.  Can he and his staff recruit and develop a top level SEC offensive line?  The years are going by...

Getting back to the theme of this post the only thing I care about is getting top offensive tackles.  CAN GOLESH BACK UP ALL HIS BRAVADO AND RECRUIT AND THEN DEVELOP SOME TOP OFFENSIVE TACKLES AND BUILD AN SEC GOOD OFFENSIVE LINE?  Right now that is THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS.  This season and especially the Iron Bowl proved that it does not matter if you have a good quarterback, running back, and wide receivers if you do not have the offensive line.  You bring up a great Auburn football team and I will show you a great offensive line.  IT... IS... THE... ONLY... THING... THAT... MATTERS.  Auburn's football fortunes will not change regardless of the coach till this is done.  (Written December 6th 2025)"

It sure appears that nothing has changed in this area this season which spells doom for yet another Auburn season.  The statement continues to echo, Auburn's football fortunes will not change regardless of the coach till a good offensive line and especially the tackles are brought in.  It really is that big a deal folks.  Again name me a great Auburn team and I will show you a good offensive line led by a great left tackle.  1983 and Bo Jackson had Steve Wallace who would go on to block for Joe Montana  and win Super Bowls.  1993 Auburn went undefeated with Willie Anderson (pictured at start).  The great 2004 team had Marcus McNeil...  I could go on and on.  Also all of those guys had long NFL careers.  GOOD TEAMS HAVE GOOD TACKLES, GREAT TEAMS HAVE GREAT TACKLES.  It is just a fact.