Auburn (3-1, 1-1 SEC) plays its first road game of the season Saturday, Oct. 3, at Tennessee. Kickoff at Neyland Stadium is 2:30 p.m. CT, according to Auburn’s schedule. For coach Alex Golesh, it is a return to Knoxville, where he was Tennessee’s offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022 under Josh Heupel. It will be the two men’s first meeting as head coaches.
“I have so much respect for Coach Heupel. He gave me an opportunity in 2020 and brought me with him to Tennessee,” Golesh said at his Monday press conference. “It changed, in a lot of ways, how I look at offensive football and how I look at running a program… I’ve rooted for him from a distance, and, obviously, this week the challenge at hand is to go get the win.” He said knowing Tennessee’s staff “makes you sit and think twice” about some things, but warned against overthinking it: “If you do what you do and you do it at a high level, I think that gives you the best chance to win.”
Looking back at Saturday’s 21-15 win over Vanderbilt, Golesh said the offense’s first two drives were “really, really poor” and that slow starts have been a problem all season. “I know I own a lot of it, I truly own that,” he said. He praised quarterback Byrum Brown for handling Vanderbilt’s pressure and delivering the late throw to Keshaun Singleton. On defense, he said Auburn was good on third down but failed to stop Vanderbilt on any of its four fourth-down tries, three of them 4th-and-1. “Those were turnovers that need to go our way,” he said, adding that Tennessee also has a quarterback who can beat you with his legs.
Source: Auburn Wire (USA Today Network)
Opelika Daily News — Tuesday Report, Sept. 29, 2026 | Compiled by Viktor AI for Opelika Daily News
