Who Will Call Plays for Auburn's Offense in 2026?

After a coaching debacle regarding play calling in 2025, new head coach Alex Golesh has revealed who Auburn Tigers' play-caller.

Auburn Tigers football head coach Alex Golesh first broke-out as Tennessee's offensive coordinator. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers dealt with a lot of noise around the play calling situation in 2025, with both Hugh Freeze and multiple assistants calling plays in an offense that seemed perennially stuck in neutral. New head coach Alex Golesh helped quell fears of a similar situation on Wednesday during his time with the media.

“We have a single play caller,” Golesh said. “Joel Gordon calls the plays on game day. And I go back to the way we play. It’s really hard to interject sometimes in the middle of it. I have been known to interject a lot at times, but it is truly a collaborative effort.”

And for any member of the Auburn faithful who would be worried about the interjections, Golesh provided some reassurances.

“You can ask Joel [Gordon], but my hit percentage on scoring touchdowns when I speak up is up there,” Golesh said.

Gordon, while speaking to the media after Golesh, corroborated the story, laughing to himself at the podium before putting any potential fears at rest.

“He was telling the truth,” Gordon said. “He was over 90% [scoring touchdowns] I think. He was right on time. There were some timely, timely calls that, we’ll take them.”

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Golesh and Gordon have worked together at two different schools before coming to Auburn, Iowa State and USF. At each stop, their offenses have been highly effective. Last year’s USF offense was No. 3 nationally in total offense and No. 5 nationally in scoring offense.

Another key aspect of the new playcalling strategy is cooperation, as the collaborative nature of the process doesn’t allow for very much selfishness. Golesh was highly complimentary of that aspect of his staff, praising each member’s ability to both give and take input from others.

“Part of what makes us so good is that there’s no egos,” Golesh said. “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 an idea as we’ve had.”

Though play calling is always key to properly implementing an offense, the main concern is obviously still being both efficient and effective, two things the 2025 Auburn offense very rarely was. If Golesh, Gordon, and the rest of the new staff can get the 2026 Tigers’ attack humming under new quarterback Byrum Brown, the Auburn faithful won’t care who is calling the plays.