Game preview from the Auburn perspective…
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Auburn to be tested by Baylor in season opener | Alabama News
Jonathan Matlock | 08.31.26
Week 0 of the college football season came and went.
Now, Auburn gets its turn.
After an offseason built around a coaching change, a new offensive identity and a roster reshaped through the transfer portal, the Tigers will finally usher in a new era Saturday when they face Baylor at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Aflac Kickoff Game will mark Alex Golesh's debut as Auburn's head coach and the beginning of a season that has carried plenty of questions since he took over the program.
Auburn has spent the last several months installing, evaluating and trying to build a new identity.
Now comes the part that actually matters.
Can it work against somebody else?
Baylor offers a fitting first test.
The two programs opened last season against one another in Waco, Texas, where Auburn left with a 38-24 win.
But neither team looks the same as it did that night.
Auburn changed head coaches and brought Golesh's high-tempo offense to the SEC.
Baylor changed quarterbacks, rebuilt its defense and brought in a new defensive coordinator.
Both programs also spent the offseason trying to fix some of the exact weaknesses the other exposed a year ago.
That is what makes the rematch more interesting than simply looking back at last season's score.
Auburn rushed for 307 yards against Baylor last year.
Baylor threw for 419 yards against Auburn.
Those numbers tell the story of what each team had to address.
Baylor's inability to stop the run became one of its defining defensive problems in 2025.
Auburn's secondary, meanwhile, was repeatedly tested by Sawyer Robertson and Baylor's passing game despite eventually winning by two touchdowns.
Now both sides believe they are different.
Saturday will provide the first real evidence.
For Auburn, the attention starts with Byrum Brown.
Brown followed Golesh from South Florida and gives Auburn something most first-year coaching staffs do not have: a quarterback who already knows the offense.
He threw for 3,158 yards and 28 touchdowns last season while adding 1,008 rushing yards and 14 more scores.
More important for Auburn right now, he knows how Golesh wants the offense to operate.
Brown understands the tempo. He understands the checks. He understands how the week should be prepared.
Golesh has repeatedly said that familiarity has allowed Auburn to move much faster offensively than a typical team installing a new system.
When Auburn's first group is on the field, Golesh has said the Tigers are "lightyears ahead" of where his previous first-year offenses were at the same point.
The question comes once Auburn starts substituting.
That has been one of Golesh's biggest concerns throughout camp.
The Tigers have experience at quarterback and several other offensive positions, but the roster becomes young quickly once Auburn moves deeper into the rotation.
That is particularly noticeable at receiver.
Golesh has said Auburn has around six players it feels comfortable using there, but freshmen DeShawn Spencer and Brian Williams, Jr. are among the young players being asked to grow up quickly.
Sam Turner has also pushed toward the rotation after missing significant time.
That depth matters in an offense designed to play fast.
If Auburn wants to maintain its tempo, it cannot rely on the same 11 players for an entire afternoon.
Saturday should give the first indication of whether Auburn's second wave can maintain the same level of organization as the starters.
The offensive line faces a similar challenge.
Auburn spent much of camp trying to identify its best five while also developing a seven- or eight-man rotation.
Cole Best and Cole Skinner provide familiarity with Golesh's system after transferring from South Florida, while Stanton Ramil, Jo Simmons, Jacob Strand and others have competed for larger roles.
Golesh has sounded increasingly confident in the group as the opener approaches.
But offensive line confidence is difficult to prove in August.
Saturday will provide a better answer.
Baylor spent the offseason rebuilding the part of its defense Auburn punished most last season.
The Bears allowed nearly 200 rushing yards per game in 2025 and surrendered 307 to Auburn in the opener.
Dave Aranda responded by reshaping the defensive front and hiring Joe Klanderman as defensive coordinator.
Klanderman arrives after coordinating Kansas State's defense and brings a reputation for creating pressure, disguising looks and forcing turnovers.
That creates one of the most important matchups of the game.
Auburn believes its offensive line is better, and Baylor believes its defensive front is better.
One of those groups will begin proving it Saturday.
Brown adds another problem Baylor did not face from Auburn's quarterback position a year ago.
His ability to run is not simply an emergency option.
It is part of the offense.
Golesh's system uses the quarterback to change numbers in the running game, forcing defenses to account for another potential ball carrier on every snap.
Baylor struggled with Auburn's quarterback run game last season when Jackson Arnold rushed for 137 yards and two touchdowns.
Now the Bears get Brown, who topped 1,000 rushing yards last season in this system.
That does not mean Auburn should expect another 300-yard rushing performance.
Baylor spent an offseason specifically trying to make sure that does not happen.
But it gives Auburn a clear place to test whether those changes are real.
The same is true when Baylor has the football.
Auburn won last year despite allowing 483 total yards.
That included Robertson's 419 through the air.
The Tigers spent the offseason reshaping the secondary while also adding former Tennessee defensive coordinator Tim Banks to work alongside DJ Durkin.
Rayshawn Pleasant, Andre Jordan, Jr., Eric Winters, Kaleb Harris, Sylvester Smith-Reed, AnQuon Fegans and Champ Anthony are among the players Auburn has worked through different combinations during camp.
The versatility is there. Now comes the test.
Baylor will bring DJ Lagway to Atlanta.
Lagway transferred from Florida after throwing for more than 4,000 yards across two seasons with the Gators.
He has one of the better physical skill sets Auburn will see at quarterback this season.
He also enters Baylor with questions.
Lagway threw 23 interceptions during his Florida career, making Auburn's ability to pressure and disguise coverages especially important.
The challenge will be doing it without allowing Lagway to escape the pocket and create plays with his legs.
Baylor also gets running back Dawson Pendergrass back after he missed last season.
At 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, Pendergrass gives the Bears a physical running option they did not have against Auburn last August.
That creates a different problem for Durkin's defense.
Last season, Auburn could largely focus on Baylor's passing attack.
This time, the Bears have more balance available.
There is another area Auburn will want to prove has changed.
The red zone.
Auburn scored touchdowns on only 20 of 41 red-zone trips last season and just 10 of 28 during SEC play.
Golesh spent significant time on red-zone work throughout camp.
Auburn believes having bigger bodies at running back, receiver and tight end gives the offense more options when the field gets compressed.
Saturday provides the first measurable result.
Getting into the red zone will not be enough.
Auburn needs touchdowns.
That will be one of the simplest ways to determine whether the offense has actually changed.
Special teams could matter too.
Rayshawn Pleasant changed last year's Baylor game with a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown immediately after the Bears cut Auburn's lead to seven.
Alex McPherson gives Auburn an experienced kicker.
Baylor counters with one of the country's better punters in Palmer Williams, who averaged nearly 47 yards per punt last season.
In a neutral-site opener, hidden yardage can quickly become real points.
The larger challenge for Auburn, however, may be something less obvious.
Golesh has spent much of August talking about focus. Not talent. Not scheme.
He has questioned whether Auburn is mature enough to eliminate distractions, handle adversity and execute situational football consistently.
That is why the Tigers spent last week going through a mock game week.
Players practiced the routines they will use during the season.
Coaches worked through communication.
The team practiced substitutions, sideline operation and situational football.
Golesh wanted the mistakes to happen before Baylor week.
Saturday will show whether the rehearsal worked.
How does Auburn handle substitutions?
Does the offense get lined up correctly at tempo?
Does the defense communicate when Baylor changes formations?
Are there wasted timeouts?
Pre-snap penalties?
Missed assignments?
Those details may tell more about Golesh's first Auburn team than any explosive play.
This is still Game 1.
There will be mistakes.
There will be things Auburn has not shown publicly and things Baylor has not put on film.
Both staffs will spend the early part of the game learning what the other actually looks like in 2026.
That makes the first quarter particularly important.
Baylor has no film of Brown running Golesh's offense with Auburn personnel.
Auburn has no film of Lagway operating Baylor's offense or Klanderman coordinating the Bears' rebuilt defense.
Both sides will be adjusting in real time.
Auburn enters as roughly a touchdown favorite.
That tells us what the market expects.
It does not tell us whether Golesh's rebuild is ahead of schedule.
Saturday begins answering that.
Auburn spent the offseason saying the offense is further along than most first-year systems.
The offensive line believes it has improved. The secondary believes it has improved. The red-zone offense has been rebuilt. The roster has been pushed to become more physical, more disciplined and more connected.
But Baylor has done its own rebuilding.
Now, neither side gets to talk about progress without showing it.
Week 0 may have started the college football season.
For Auburn, the real test begins Saturday in Atlanta.
