Auburn football littered with chances to reignite rivalries this fall
· Yahoo Sports
TAMPA, Fla. — Few coaches, in any sport at any level, would say there's a more important game than the one on the schedule. But it's been clear since Auburn football was hiring for its head-coaching vacancy last season that rivalry matchups would be paramount.
With the SEC embarking on a new nine-game conference schedule model this fall, both the Iron Bowl and Deep South's Oldest Rivalry have been cemented on Auburn's slate for the next several years. In those matchups with Alabama and Georgia, the Tigers have won just three times combined in their last 10 matchups with either program.
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Auburn will need those results turned around under Alex Golesh, but following SEC Media Days, it was increasingly clear that Golesh's inaugural campaign will be littered with rivalries, traditional or otherwise.
The Tigers will have to hit the road for their latest bouts with the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide, but they'll see some old foes for the first time in multiple seasons, namely Florida and LSU.
Auburn played the Gators 58 consecutive years between 1945 and 2002, but the programs have only seen each other four times since. A divisional rival from 1992 to 2023, LSU was also on Auburn's schedule annually, and it's returning to the slate for the first time since the SEC dissolved its two-division setup.
"I think that they're going to be a really improved program, and that's a really hard place to play always and really gives people a lot of problems," LSU head coach Lane Kiffin said of Auburn. "Kind of a magical stadium that magical things happen in. That's one of many extremely competitive games we have, including really for the first time that you have five road conference games."
Kiffin, who's entering his first season at LSU, has some history with Auburn. He was reportedly courted by the program when it hired Hugh Freeze as its head coach in 2023, and it's a textbook example of what makes Auburn's incoming rivalry bouts notable.
There's history with Kiffin and Auburn, and there's history on several levels between the Gators and Tigers. Florida ultimately hired Jon Sumrall this offseason after he was heavily tied to Auburn, and Golesh beat the Gators last season, pulling off a considerable road upset as South Florida's head coach.
Much of the same could be said for Auburn's road trip to Tennessee. It'll be their first face-off since 2020, but it'll also be a reunion for Golesh, who was the Volunteers' offensive coordinator for two seasons under current head coach Josh Heupel.
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.To support Adam's work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football littered with chances to reignite rivalries this fall