Alex Golesh shares high praise for familiar foe DJ Lagway before Week 1 clash with Baylor
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Alex Golesh won’t be facing an SEC team in his very first game as head coach at Auburn, but he’ll be trying to slow down a familiar name with SEC ties when the Tigers take on Baylor in the Week 1 showdown on Saturday.
The 3:30 p.m. ET matchup on ABC will feature Golesh trying to make a good first impression with his new fan base while coaching against a quarterback in DJ Lagway who’ll be making a debut of his own as the signal caller in Waco. So, Saturday’s matchup on the Plains will have the subplot of a head coach making his SEC debut against a quarterback who once played in the SEC but decided to take his talents to Baylor.
That would be Lagway, who spent 2 years at Florida in 2024 and 2025 before transferring to Baylor in the offseason. Golesh and Lagway went in opposite directions, with the former entering the SEC and the latter leaving the SEC, but the 2 crossed paths just last season in a Week 2 matchup in Gainesville when Golesh’s South Florida team faced the Gators in an in-state matchup.
Golesh got the win that day in an 18-16 stunner at The Swamp. Lagway went 23 of 33 for 222 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception, and it wasn’t good enough to prevent the upset that began Florida’s descent into irrelevance last season.
Despite the shocking result a year ago, Golesh had glowing words for Lagway on Monday while speaking to reporters about the transfer quarterback who is trying to turn over a new leaf in Waco.
“In all honesty, if this is the very best version of him, he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the entire country,” Alex Golesh said. “And again, will present a ton of challenges.”
Golesh is well aware of Lagway’s history of playing a lot of college football as a young quarterback at Florida.
“Played as a young guy and got better and better and better as it went,” said Golesh, who revealed how challenging it will be to contain Lagway on Saturday because of his ability to hurt defenses with his arm and his legs.
Golesh is trying to establish a fresh culture of winning at Auburn in Year 1 on the Plains. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about Auburn’s potential win total for the 2026 season:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
