Paul Finebaum reacts to Alex Golesh hire at Auburn, questions what went wrong with Jon Sumrall

The coaching dominoes quickly toppled in the SEC on Sunday. Outside of the Lane Kiffin drama, USF head coach Alex Golesh, who had previously been rumored for Arkansas, took the Auburn job. Jon Sumrall, who had been rumored for Auburn, landed at Florida. Meanwhile, Arkansas ended up with Ryan Silverfield.

In the wake of all of that change, Paul Finebaum appeared on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. There, he would dive into the Auburn situation. In particular, he questioned what went wrong with hiring Sumrall, though he did make sure to also take the time to praise Alex Golesh too.

“I think Alex Golesh is a very good hire,” Paul Finebaum said. “I think he brings a great deal to the table. Now, it’s just like yesterday was, so was Friday, Saturday, and into Sunday morning for Auburn, it was a little bewildering because I think everyone had their hearts set on one person, Jon Sumrall. I would like an autopsy of the Auburn athletic department to see exactly what went wrong there, because it doesn’t affect who Alex Golesh is. It doesn’t affect what type of coach he can be. I think he can be a very good coach, but I would like to know what went wrong on Sumrall, because whatever went wrong there is still there, in spite of being able to snare Alex Golesh from Arkansas. That’s exactly where the pecking order was.”

Alex Golesh was born in Moscow and would move to the United States as a child. He would begin coaching at the high school level in 2003 and later became a student assistant at Ohio State. Coming up largely as a tight ends coach, he got his first chance as an offensive coordinator under Josh Heupel, first at UCF and later at Tennessee. For the last three seasons, he’s been rebuilding USF to the tune of a 23-15 record with two bowl wins.

“So, I’m concerned about that. I’m concerned about some of the arrogance that may have gone into running Sumrall away,” Finebaum said. “But the question was about Golesh. I think he’s done a lot. He’s shown he can turn programs around. There’s a lot he hasn’t shown because he hasn’t had an opportunity at a school like South Florida, but I think he’s a good hire. I can’t sit here and tell you he’s going to change the world. I know Auburn fans and every fanbase wraps their arms around the coach on day one — I like his story, I like a lot about him. But I still feel a little bit deflated about the process.”

Auburn needs its own turnaround now and finding the right coach is vital. That means some stability. After all, since Gus Malzahn was fired in 2020, the Tigers have gone through two coaches. That’s before counting all the interim coaches. Many fans had attached themselves to the idea that would be Jon Sumrall, but now it will need to be Alex Golesh.

Whether or not something went wrong in the Auburn search can be debated. For Finebaum, he thinks not landing Sumrall came down to taking him for granted, though, and not going forward with enough emphasis.

“It feels like they took him for granted,” Finebaum said. “And I’ll defer to Cole [Cubelic] because I think he knows more than I do. I’m just giving you my best judgement that they felt like they could get him at this price with some stipulations, and that’s not the way you run an athletic department. When your fanbase and everyone has coalesced around one candidate, you go get him. You can dislike what LSU did. You can say it’s distasteful, but they got their man. That’s what this is about. It’s about getting your man and winning and showing excellence. That is where Auburn has failed miserably in the last seven or eight years.”

Regardless of how the search ended up shaking out, Alex Golesh is ready to take over at Auburn. There, he’s tasked with rebuilding the program into a competitor in the SEC again.