How coaching carousel shaped Florida vs. Auburn clash

There are no shortage of ties between Florida and Auburn.

Let’s start nearly a year ago in November, a month that housed perhaps the most raucous, swirly, mind-boggling college football coaching carousel ever. At the eye of this tornado that ripped across the Southeast lay Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss, displacing coaches in six SEC institutions — the most ever. Schools wanted a piece of the hottest commodity to hit the coaching market in years, from Florida to Auburn to LSU, where he settled after one of the more painstaking journeys in recent memory.

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But after his anticipated decision at the end of the month, the other SEC contenders who didn’t win his heart had to pick up the pieces quickly, with Early Signing Day four nights out and the transfer portal shaking alive with each passing minute. Florida swooped in on coach Jon Sumrall, who led Tulane to the College Football Playoff last year, despite Auburn expressing clear interest earlier. The Tigers then settled on Alex Golesh, USF’s coach, who happened to upset Florida last September, giving the carousel its first push.

The two facing one another in Week 3? Scheduling gold by the SEC. How much does the first meeting between Florida and Auburn (2-0) since 2019 matter? More than you would know.

“We’re excited about SEC play,” Sumrall said on his weekly “Gator Talk” show. “The real season starts now.”

The Gators are 2-0 for the first time since 2021, the final year of Dan Mullen’s tenure in Gainesville. September largely can’t define a season for new coaches. Billy Napier once upset a top-10 Utah in his first game at Florida.

But a chance for an early statement in the changing of the guard: a staple win against the school that in the last 10 months desperately recruited you? Sumrall and, by product, his Gators, care deeply this week.

It helps that the two teams are comparable. As a product of each resetting with new coaches and bringing more than 25 transfers, the first two weeks of the season featured each school finding itself. Auburn’s slate was more difficult, sneaking by Baylor (and former Gators quarterback DJ Lagway) 17-16 in Week 1 before leveling Southern Miss 43-8 last Saturday. Conversely, Florida beat up on Florida Atlantic to open the season, then scheduled an FCS beatdown as its tune-up before heading to the plains.

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While difficult to gauge much from a 52-3 rout of Campbell, the Gators appear better assembled than Golesh’s new team. Among those: receiver Vernell Brown III. The sophomore didn’t score during his freshman season, despite leading Florida in receiving with 512 yards. To make up for it, he has four touchdowns through two games, two of which were punt-return scores against Campbell.

“He’s been dynamic,” Golesh said of Brown. Sumrall praised Auburn’s improvement equally, specifically the boundary offense Golesh runs that knifed through Florida last year. With quarterback Byrum Brown, who transferred from USF to Auburn with Golesh, the Tigers spread teams out and rely on his mobility (14 rushing touchdowns and more than 1,000 yards last year). None of this is new to Sumrall, who led Tulane to a 45-10 win over Golesh in 2024.

“If you wanted to have a really, really rough morning,” Golesh said this week, “you could have sat with me and watched that yesterday again, for maybe 200th time — and again, wanted to throw up.”

This time, though, he’s playing host in a stadium that holds more than 88,000. At this time last year, neither program knew where it would be in a month, let alone a year. Neither coach could have predicted their next venture, resurrecting fallen SEC giants. Yet both, in respective SEC openers, could use a win more than ever after the carousel spit them out into disaster relief.

“It’s really just y’all and a few fans,” Florida linebacker Myles Graham said. “It’s thousands and thousands of people that want to see you fail, and it’s nothing like just having that bond with your brothers and going in there and just doing your thing.

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“There’s nothing like it.”