New Auburn coach Alex Golesh will retain defensive coordinator DJ Durkin on his new staff, CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello reports. Durkin has been with the program since 2024, when Hugh Freeze hired him to fix an ailing defense.
He made an immediate impact in his first season at Auburn. Under his guidance, the Tigers posted their best rushing defense since 2010 (117.8 ypg), the best total defense since 2017 (330.8 ypg) and the best scoring defense since 2019 (19.5 ppg).
Durkin served as Auburn’s interim coach after the school fired Hugh Freeze, guiding the Tigers to a 1-2 record and a near upset of rival Alabama in the Tigers’ season finale.
Auburn hired Golesh from USF on Sunday as it looks to reclaim a position as an SEC contender after five consecutive losing seasons, the school announced Sunday.
“Auburn Football is one of the proudest, most tradition-rich programs in all of college football and my family and I could not be more excited to join the Auburn Family,” Golesh said in a release. “This will be a player-driven program, and no one will outwork our staff. Auburn has won, can win and will win championships. Let’s get to work.”
Auburn has not had a winning season since Gus Malzahn’s final year in 2020 when they went 6-5. Since then, the Tigers have gone 28-35 and have made it to two bowl games, losing both. This year the Tigers went 1-7 in conference play and finished tied for 13th with Mississippi State and South Carolina, with only Arkansas below them.
After back-to-back 7-6 seasons, Golesh led USF to a 9-3 record in 2025 that included wins over Boise State and Florida to start the year. The Bulls eventually slipped out of the American Athletic Conference title race with losses to Memphis and Navy, but still posted their best season in nearly a decade. That performance made Golesh a hot name on the coaching market, and after reportedly turning down Arkansas, Golesh opted to take the opportunity on the Plains.
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