Where Auburn's Alex Golesh Ranks Among Power Four Head Coaches

With the hiring of new head coach Alex Golesh, fans of the Auburn Tigers seem more in the dark than ever as to how exactly their team will perform in 2026. Behind every top-level team is a top-level coach, which makes it all the more interesting that Golesh barely cracked the top 50 in CBS Sports’ recent college football rankings.

On their list, Golesh ranks as the 45th-best coach in the country, with some voters placing him as high as 40th, while others dropped him as far as 49th.

“He finished between 40th and 49th on our ballots, and that consistency helped prop up his final ranking, but there isn't a long track record of success here,” CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli wrote. “Golesh has been a head coach for only three seasons, and while he went 9-3 at South Florida last year, he was 23-15 overall, with a 14-10 mark in conference play. Now he's at Auburn, which is a great place to win at if you can, but the natives aren't considered the most patient group.”

Every May the CFB team at @CBSSports gets together and ranks the 68 Power Four coaches. Every year we get it exactly right.

Here are the coaches who finished outside our Top 25.https://t.co/rPEpMwqtEO pic.twitter.com/uZHUS7X7MX
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) May 26, 2026

Indeed, Auburn fans are looking for success after such a disappointing stretch of seasons under Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze, neither of whom put together a winning season with the Tigers. In fact, the Tigers have not had a winning season since Gus Malzahn was fired, and Golesh is certainly looking to change that.

Golesh’s limited experience as a head coach is certainly a factor, but keep in mind that he was completely unranked in CBS Sports’ last head coaching rankings. He has already come quite a long way in just a few years at the helm, a quality that has certainly been aided by his experience at Tennessee as their offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.

In fact, Auburn is expected to have yet another top-level defense this year under DJ Durkin, who is largely considered to be one of the best defensive coordinators in football, so the only real gap Golesh desperately needs to fill from last season is offensive efficiency.

The Tigers struggled immensely to win in close games last year, as Hugh Freeze’s offense could never really seem to score when it mattered, or even at all, so if Golesh’s new-look offense can step up to the challenge, Golesh may find himself much higher on the rankings next year.

With that said, third-party coaching rankings are in no way a direct indicator of future success, and Golesh could over-or underperform dramatically in his first year on the Plains. Tiger fans certainly hope their team shows up in a big way this season after so many years of heartbreak, but they will have to wait to see until the season kicks off in September.

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