AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn hired South Florida’s Alex Golesh as its next head coach on Sunday.
The 41-year-old Golesh, who was born in Russia and moved to the United State at age 7, is signing a six-year contract to replace Hugh Freeze. Freeze was fired in early November after failing to fix Auburn’s offensive issues in three seasons on the Plains. Freeze lost 12 of his last 15 Southeastern Conference games.
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The Tigers owe Freeze $15.8 million, with no mitigation, from a six-year, $39 million deal he signed to replace Bryan Harsin in 2022. Freeze got the boot at 15-19 overall and 6-16 in the conference. The last five losses included more offensive woes.
Golesh becomes Auburn’s fourth football coach in seven seasons. The Tigers fired Gus Malzahn in 2020, Harsin in 2022 and now Freeze in 2025. Together, the school will end up paying $52.5 million in buyout fees.
Golesh went 23-15 in three seasons with the Bulls, a tenure that culminated with USF ranking fourth in the country in scoring. The Bulls upset Florida in Gainesville in September and lost road games at Memphis and Navy by three points each to miss out on the American Conference championship game and a potential berth in the College Football Playoff.
He previously worked as Josh Heupel’s offensive coordinator at UCF (2020) and Tennessee (2021-22) before taking over at USF.
