Alex Golesh offensive philosophy: How his schemes has changed since Tennessee

By Jerry Humphrey III | jhumphreyiii@al.comAuburn football coach Alex Golesh returns to Neyland Stadium on Saturday, where he once coordinated one of college football’s most explosive offenses.Golesh was Josh Heupel’s offensive coordinator at Tennessee during the 2020 and 2021 seasons. In his final season with the Volunteers (2021), Tennessee’s offense led the nation in points per game and total yards.Since elevating to a head coach at South Florida and Auburn, Golesh credits a lot of his offensive philosophy to Heupel, who also helped pave the way for Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby.Golesh talked about the evolution of his offensive scheme since working alongside Heupel, and how he’s grown as a play caller since being a head coach. “I think, more than anything, we’ve tried to year in and year out fit what we want to do with what our guys do well,” Golesh said. “As the personnel has evolved — when you go Year 1 at Tennessee, it’s vastly different than what you were in Year 2 Tennessee, in terms of what we looked like. And, primarily, that was because of personnel.”“We got to South Florida, and it was back to square one in the sense of personnel. You had to start from scratch, and you gotta have a foundation somewhere of who you truly are. I think as we have evolved and grown, we’ve gone back to our roots of what we know, which is players, formations, plays. Who are the players, put them in situations formationally where you get the matchups we want. The plays are the third piece of it.”Auburn Tigers head coach Alex Golesh seen during warmups ahead of a game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (Will McLelland/AL.com)Will McLellandAfter moving to South Florida, Golesh’s squads remained in the top 20 for total yards per game and even reached No. 3 nationally in 2025. At Auburn, Golesh has seen growth through four games after bringing 11 offensive guys with him from USF. Auburn is currently averaging 235 passing yards, 178.5 rushing yards and 30.0 points per game. “We look different than we did a year ago at South Florida,” Golesh said. “Honestly, in a lot of ways, we looked different last week than we did Week 1. As we put guys in situations that we think, ‘man, he can handle this’ or ‘he’s really good at this,’ you can get into a game and you’re like, ‘he’s not really good at that.’”Golesh said his offensive approach has always been about adapting to his personnel rather than forcing players into a rigid system.“It’s truly finding the best ways, specifically offensively, to get your best players into the best situations. That goes through matchups. We certainly use tempo in a lot of ways there,” Golesh added.“But I think we’ve changed so much schematically, operationally. We’ve got to continue to evolve as well go. But ultimately, we’ve got to be able to go execute. So, you’ve just got to be honest on how much new you have put in. Like, spring and summer is for that. Now, it’s moving people around to get them in the best situations to be successful.”Auburn (3-1, 1-1) and Tennessee (3-1, 0-1) will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.Jerry Humphrey III is an Auburn Sports Beat Writer for AL.com since Oct. 2024, covering football, basketball and all things Auburn sports. Prior to joining the sports staff at AL.com, Jerry spent time at...