Paul Finebaum gives early evaluation of Alex Golesh after hire at Auburn

Alex Golesh has been on the job for a little over two weeks now since becoming the next head coach at Auburn. And, to this point, Paul Finebaum doesn’t know how much better of a start he could be off to down on The Plains.

Finebaum commented on the very early start to Golesh’s tenure with the Tigers during his appearance on ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday. He thought, based on still what little has been done so far, with nothing big-picture yet beyond what they’ve been doing optically since the hire was made, it has been good so far for Golesh.

“To me, two weeks into it, it’s been very positive,” said Finebaum. “Again, so much of it is optics because most of us don’t know Alex Golesh. But, he’s done a really nice job of, you know, being out front, saying the right things…I mean, at Auburn, sometimes the message is fairly important, and, too often, the coaches have not had the right message down there. He understands that.”

Since his introduction on December 1st, Golesh has spent the past two weeks setting the foundation of what’ll be his career at Auburn. That starts with the hires, whether confirmed or just reported to this point, to his debut staff as well as members of their front office, with new names brought in as well as familiar ones retained, with the Tigers.

Beyond that, Auburn also managed, on some short notice with this hire before December 3rd, to get some things done with their incoming recruiting class around National Signing Day. The Tigers inked ten players during that period, with them at a total of 19 recruits currently set as part of their class for 2026.

Golesh, again, is in the very early stages of piecing together his version of the program at Auburn. Now, with the staff trending toward completion, the next step, following what they did with their recruiting class, will then be roster decisions, as some of those choices have already been made one way or the other, ahead of the opening of the NCAA Transfer Portal on January 2nd, which is where Finebaum more so expects his real first impressions to be made on the Tigers.

“The staff is good,” said Finebaum. “The players? That’s always going to be a little bit of a game right now because you don’t know exactly who you’re going to get, who you’re going to keep, and, quite frankly, who do you want to keep.”