Alex Golesh reflects on facing Ryan Silverfield at USF, coaching against him again at Auburn
By Sydney Hunte
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Alex Golesh and Auburn will host Ryan Silverfield and Arkansas at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday.
It won’t be the first time the two head coaches have faced each other, though.
Golesh, at USF, and Silverfield, at Memphis, faced each other from 2023 to 2025 as members of the American Conference. All three meetings went the way of the Tigers, a wild 59-50 affair in 2023 before a 21-3 victory in Orlando in 2024 and a 34-31 home win in 2025.
While the Razorbacks are 1-4 in SEC play, Golesh feels they may be better than their record suggests, and that they mirror some elements of the Silverfield-led Memphis teams he went up against at USF.
“We’ve had some battles (in The American). Man, those teams were always tough … and finished. Those guys finished. And you watch this Arkansas team, like, they’ve gotten better every single week,” Alex Golesh said on Thursday.
The first-year Auburn head coach tipped his hat to his Arkansas counterpart, who was 50-25 at Memphis before coming to Fayetteville.
“(The) guy’s a good football coach. He’s got veteran guys that are really good football coaches. So I got a lot of respect for those guys,” Golesh said. “These dudes will just finish. They’re fighting, they’re scrapping, they’re getting better and better, and that’s what I hope we are doing.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
