Golesh Details Auburn's Rushing Identity for 2026 Season

Auburn Tigers running back Jeremiah Cobb headlines the returning players on offense.

Auburn Tigers running back Jeremiah Cobb headlines the returning players on offense. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As Alex Golesh settles into his new gig as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers, much remains uncertain. However, there’s one aspect of Golesh’s game that he’s been quite clear about since his very first press conference: running the “freaking” ball, as he put it.

Golesh held true to that aspect of his game in his Wednesday press conference. When asked about the rushing aspect of his offense, particularly in the wake of the Bryson Washington signing, he made his offensive identity clear.

“We’re going to run the heck out of the ball,” Golesh said. “That’s where it starts offensively for us. You’ve gotta be able to run the football.”

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Signing Washington, a Baylor transfer, was a massive acquisition for the Tigers, as he will join a backfield that returns just one player in starter Jeremiah Cobb, who rushed for 969 yards and five touchdowns last season while averaging 5.5 yards per carry.

Washington, on the other hand, rushed for 788 yards and six touchdowns over the course of 154 carries. The rising junior should be a great option for the Tigers, which has built a three-headed monster in their rushing attack through Cobb, Washington and new quarterback Byrum Brown, who rushed for over 1,000 yards in a Golesh-led offense last year.

Auburn signed running back Bryson Washington out of the transfer portal. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

“I would tell you that the foundation of it is that everything starts with the run,” Golesh said in his introductory press conference over two months ago. “We find ways to run the football. We find ways to create matchups in the run game. Off of the run game sets up everything downfield in the pass game. We use the entire width of the field. We’ll condense it. We’ll expand it, and we use tempo to our advantage.”

Under Hugh Freeze, Auburn’s rushing ‘attack’ became something of a joke among the Auburn faithful, as many believed that top rushing talent such as Cobb, Damari Alston and Omar Mabson weren’t being utilized to their fullest potential.

Under Golesh, however, that looks to be changing. He’ll be without 75 percent of the “Freeze Four,” a top-level group of receivers recruited by Freeze that transferred following his firing. Though he’s reloaded his receiving room impressively, the run will still be crucial if the Tigers are to succeed throughout a difficult 2026 schedule.