Justin and Dan roll out an ObservFour episode, covering Auburn football All-SEC picks, basketball players they were wrong about and more. Topics for this show include:

• maybe Xavier Atkins isn’t done improving

• you don’t want offense that’s “easy to defend”

• the Return of the Mack(pherson)

• Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, and Dylan

• Dan is brave enough to admit he doubted Walker Kessler at first

• The Guys advocate for a blockbuster friendly at JHS next summer

• quasi-obscure movie recommendations

If you’re receiving this free podcast episode and would like to upgrade to a paid subscription that gives you access to all stories and premium podcast episodes, subscribe using the button below or clicking this link.

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Follow Dan (@dnpck) and Justin (@JFergusonAU) on Twitter.

AUBURN — If Auburn would have had a receiver who put up the numbers Jeremiah Koger had last season at USF, that receiver would have finished second only to Cam Coleman in receiving yardage.

That receiver would have finished third behind Coleman and Eric Singleton Jr. in receptions.

But that receiver would have finished with the most touchdowns on the team. In fact, he would have finished in the top 10 all-time at Auburn for the most receiving touchdowns in a single season.

And he would have done it as a true freshman.

That’s the second-most impressive aspect of Koger’s 2025 season at USF — one in which he starred next to Keshaun Singleton and caught passes from Byrum Brown, earning him a priority transfer spot on Auburn’s roster after Alex Golesh was hired.

The most impressive aspect? Koger did all of that without recording a single statistic in the entire first month of the season.

Extrapolate his numbers from his final nine games at USF into a full 13-game workload, and he would have likely hit 800-plus yard and double-digit touchdowns.

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Koger has WR1 potential in this offense, having scored touchdowns and four-plus catches in all but two of the nine games in which he recorded stats last season. He’s got the size, the swagger and the smile to become a household name on the Plains.

“High-energy, big-time playmaker,” Koger said this spring when asked how he would describe himself to his new fans. “If you see me around the facility all day long, I walk around and put a smile on people’s faces. I’m smiling all day long. Everybody loves me here, and I feel like I’m a person who reflects good energy around the whole facility — offense, defense, staff, coaches, trainers.”

Koger had plenty to smile about last season. Now, Koger is another year older — and another year plugged into the same system, with the same coaches, with the same quarterback and with several of the same teammates at wide receiver.

“It’s always good when you and your QB have chemistry,” Koger said. “Somebody you know. He knows how you run, how you run your routes, where you’re going to be, when you’re going to be there, what kind of passes you need. Just having that chemistry is a big step for what we need in this offense.”

A lot of the new pieces on the 2026 Auburn offense from USF are going to be short-term rentals. But Koger has multiple years of eligibility remaining.

And he might just be scratching the surface of what he could become on the Plains.

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AUBURN — Get in, losers. We’re saving college football.

Well, that’s a stretch. I don’t know if the sport is able to be saved without some divine — read: not governmental — intervention. But we’ve gotta try to get some of it back.

This is the foundation of my stance against playoff expansion, which we discuss in the first couple of questions in this week’s mailbag. We start by looking at what it would take for Auburn to get back to contender level there, then it leads into a rant of sorts.

We’ve also got talk in here about potential money plays for Auburn’s new offense, an upset pick to watch on the 2026 schedule and an early look at the Baylor opener before we dive into the Olympic side of things with Auburn’s recent success and Messi Mania from earlier this week in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Thanks as always for sending in your questions. As always, you can email them or tweet them to me, or you can drop them in the post below if you’re a subscriber.

If you’re not a subscriber yet, come join us. Let’s go.

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Let’s say the CFP doesn’t expand and stays at 12. How long will it take to consistently compete for a spot rather than the usual flash in the pan (2013, 2017) years?

Jacob

It depends on your definition of “consistently compete,” because I would argue that Auburn was right in that ballpark for about a decade and change not too long ago.

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Christian “Chip” Clemente of Auburn247 joins Justin and Dan to talk Auburn football’s massive recruiting surge and Auburn golf’s national title. Topics for this subscribers-only episode include:

• Alex Golesh’s approach to recruiting and why it is resonating

• what Christian sees in Auburn’s 2027 commitments

• Auburn’s remarkable success recruiting running backs

• Jackson Koivun’s place in Auburn history

• the bright future for Auburn men’s golf

• NIL’s role in keeping superstar golfers in college

• by popular demand, The Guys try to go 82-0

This is a premium podcast for Observer subscribers only. You can join by clicking the button below or going to this link.

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Follow Dan (@dnpck) and Justin (@JFergusonAU) on Twitter.

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It was always going to be difficult to match the excitement of Auburn’s first official visit weekend under Alex Golesh: 16 official visitors, seven of which committed and five of them having now gone public.

This past weekend didn’t have the same volume of visitors, and there were no multi-eagle emoji “War Damn Eagle“ tweets from Alex Golesh.

But it was far from a letdown. In fact, it more of an acceleration of an absolute heater this staff has been on since the end of April.

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The Tigers landed one of their top remaining offensive line targets, stole one of the best defensive backs in the country from Georgia and picked up a blue-chip edge rusher.

And there could be more fireworks to come next week.

Here’s more on all three of the Tigers’ newest commitments for a 2027 class now ranked No. 8 nationally in the 247Sports Composite — and what’s coming up next.

The Tigers outduel Texas for another blue-chip OL

One of the most important visitors this past weekend was 4-star offensive lineman Reed Ramsier. The blue-chip prospect out of Orlando, Fla. was one of the very first players to be offered by this new staff.

Why? Because the relationship had long been there.

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It’s the offseason here at The Observer, which means its peak Mailbag Season.

We’re going to use this post as a way to collect questions over the next couple of months, whether we use them for written ‘bags or special podcast episodes.

Fire away with any questions you have on Auburn football or Auburn basketball — or any of our usual fun topics that have nothing to do with either — in the comments below. To keep track of them, I will like your comment when I answer it in a mailbag, so you’ll know when to check it out.

And, as always, you can send in questions at any time via email to the1andonlyJF@gmail.com or by sending them at me on Twitter (@JFergusonAU), Bluesky (@auburnobserver.com) or the Substack notes feature.

If you’re reading this when it first drops on June 10, we will have an Auburn football recruiting update from AUNerd later this morning.

Then we have a classic 2-for-1 Friday at The Observer tomorrow morning: A mailbag on the newsletter side, plus a podcast with our friend Christian Clemente of Auburn247 talking all things recruiting and the recent men’s golf national championship.

Subscribers get full access to all of that — along with our entire catalog of thousands of newsletters and nearly 600 episodes and everything else we do in the future, as soon as it drops.

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I’ll send this post on social media throughout the summer and try to keep it updated towards the top of our home page. Jump in at any time to give us your questions.

Let’s go.

AUBURN — In hindsight, it was rather fitting that the final official made field goal of Auburn’s 2025-26 basketball season was an absolute bomb of a 3-pointer from the hands of Kevin Overton off of an assist from Tahaad Pettiford.

Less than a couple of months later, Pettiford and Overton would stand together as the returning starters from Auburn’s offseason roster overhaul — one that watched seven players exit and seven more enter the program.

As Auburn head coach Steven Pearl laid out in a 1-on-1 interview with The Observer last month, the Tigers had several boxes they wanted to check with the way they retooled their look for next season: They got “a lot bigger” and “a lot older” — and they also got “a little more shooting.”

Last season, Auburn finished 147th nationally in 3-point percentage — about the smack middle of Division I — by shooting 34.4% from deep as a team. It was a step back from the previous two seasons, when the Tigers shot 35.9% (67th) and 35.2% (109th) in campaigns that featured some form of SEC championship hardware.

The biggest problem for Auburn in a season in which it fell short of reaching the NCAA Tournament and had to settle for an NIT run was, of course, the defense. It’s been well-documented how far the Tigers fell from their recently elite status on that end, with a lack of rim protection and overall cohesion leading to rough numbers.

But some regression in 3-point shooting, even for an offense that finished the season No. 11 nationally in KenPom in adjusted efficiency, stood out at times. There was real inconsistency from beyond the arc, particularly in a losing skid that defined the second half of SEC play.

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Auburn went 13-5 last season when it shot better than 33% from 3-point range in a game. That’s a winning percentage of 72.2%. That also means that it went just 9-11 when it was below that mark, a percentage of 45%.

Auburn also went 10-2 last season when it hit at least 10 3-pointers in a game, a mark that it hit 16 times in a historic campaign a year earlier. The Tigers were 12-14 when they were in the single digits. (Oddly enough, they were 9-3 when they hit six or fewer 3s in a game. The danger zone, apparently, was a low-efficiency seven to nine 3s.)

During its 5-0 run to finish the season with an NIT championship, Auburn shot 38% from 3-point range as a team and averaged 10.8 makes per game. While a step down to mid-major defensive competition was part of that calculus, consider that Auburn shot just 28.4% from deep against non-power opponents back in November.

The top priority for Auburn this offseason was getting bigger, because size was sorely lacking from its previous roster construction. Adding more Division I basketball experience was another need, considering how much of last season’s team was made up of players who had never played at this level.

But the Tigers added both of those components while also adding more firepower from 3-point range. When you compare what left Auburn to what joined it, the results are significant.

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Ahead of Argentina-Iceland, Justin and Dan discuss Jordan-Hare Stadium and Alex Golesh’s efforts to make the crowds truly matter again. Topics for this show include:

• a quick look back at Auburn baseball’s exit and a look ahead to what’s next

• the magnitude of the Argentina-Iceland friendly inside Jordan-Hare Stadium

• Alex Golesh making JHS a major emphasis from Day 1

• how Auburn can get back to winning home games that matter again

• why the Tigers’ fan support in football is different from so many schools

• the importance of taking full advantage of an all-in fan base

• an early peek at Florida and LSU coming to the Plains this fall

• Justin’s take on how Auburn could use JHS to speed up its rebuild

• Dan’s continued stance against AI and sports gambling influence

• World Cup hype

• a round of 82-0 and a call to action

If you’re receiving this free podcast episode and would like to upgrade to a paid subscription that gives you access to all stories and premium podcast episodes, subscribe using the button below or clicking this link.

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Follow Dan (@dnpck) and Justin (@JFergusonAU) on Twitter.

AUBURN — The expectations on the Plains are only continuing to rise.

After hosting its first ever Super Regional in 2025, Auburn — a team filled with youth — ran back nearly the same script by earning the No. 4 national seed and winning its regional for the second year in a row before bowing out to Ole Miss in the supers.

Great stuff. Truly. Would have been applauded around 2018 or so.

But it’s 2026, and the expectations have massively evolved for the program.

“I think the guys are really upset,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “It’s not a celebration and a pat on your back that you are in the Super Regional anymore.”

Auburn had its chances over the Super Regional weekend, but just constantly found itself a couple inches short.

Nothing represented that better than a late line drive hit to center field by Ethin Bingaman with two on and two out that chased the Ole Miss center fielder back towards the wall, forcing him to leap and somehow snowcone the ball for the final out.

“Now that it's over I will say, when that ball was hit, and center fielder went back, I said, 'Man, this might not be in the cards,'“ Thompson said. “It was the first time I felt that.”

The next inning, Ole Miss homered twice off of Jackson Sanders, who had been absolute nails out of the bullpen all season. Guess what? That’s baseball.

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The end result hurts, but as Thompson mentioned prior to the Ole Miss series — and once again after it had ended — Auburn as a program hasn’t been better under him. And, with a core set to return a lot of key pieces, there’s a lot to look forward to.

“We made it to Omaha in ‘19,” Thompson said ahead of the Super Regional. “But where the program was in ‘19, to where it sits today, it ain't even close. You look at the quality of player and what our amazing staff's been able to acquire, it's because the people that come before them, and that growth build out of everything happened together.

“I just absolutely love where our program is.”

But, with that said, the Tigers will likely still have to replace some outgoing talent. How much, exactly? That’s still to be determined.

“You’re not going to hear just all portal, portal, portal,” Thompson said of his team’s recruiting philosophy. “And people who are doing that are older clubs that don’t have a choice. I feel like we're doing a good job of getting them here, developing them, growing them. It's an amazing sophomore class, and we had some freshmen help us again.

“And so it’s being true to those guys and taking care of those guys properly, instead of them feeling like they got somebody over the top of them. We need to add complementary pieces that would fill in what we lose.”

With all of that in mind, here is The Observer’s first Auburn Baseball Roster Tracker. This will stay on top of all the comings and goings for the Tigers, and it will evolve throughout a busy offseason.

Subscribers can click the button below for a spreadsheet version of this tracker.

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AUBURN — Auburn is two wins away from playing on college baseball’s biggest stage.

And, from there, the Tigers absolutely have what it takes to win it all in Omaha — something Auburn head coach Butch Thompson has told his team from the jump.

“I told them two weeks ago I thought they were good enough to win the whole thing,” Thompson said Thursday. “I said let that settle in for about one minute and then get back right where we were, because I didn’t want to go through this whole experience and whenever it ended not ever tell them how I really felt and told them what was possible.

“So, yeah, I think they could hook it up and win the national championship, but if you’re not present… this may be the toughest part of the journey right now. But I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure every coach, player, and our fans absolutely enjoy this team.”

Following a weekend that included a stunning opening loss, various rain delays and four wins in three days, spearheaded by clutch pitching and a legendary performance from Chase Fralick, the Tigers became the third team to advance to the Super Regionals in back-to-back years, along with North Carolina and West Virginia.

And while having to rally from the losers bracket is a physically taxing experience, it’s nothing they aren’t able to handle.

“It’s normal,” third baseman Eric Guevara said. “We all want to play at the next level, and we know it’s going to take that. Just making sure that our bodies are feeling good after taking the rest on Tuesday. (Wednesday) was a lighter practice. (Thursday) was making sure we got right back after it and moving around so our bodies are feeling good.

“Whether that’s being in the cold tub or whatever it is, it’s making sure your body is feeling good. Most of the guys did a really good job of recovering.”

Even though the job isn’t anywhere near finished, the previous weekend alone provided quite a few incredible moments for fans, coaches and players alike.

“We absolutely had a lifetime of memories of what we just went through in this last week,” Thompson said. “So, I got some stuff on this journey of watching what (Ryan) Hetzler did, watching what Chase Fralick did. I mean, Hetzler, man, in that third and fourth inning, after throwing three innings in the first game, he was looking at me and giving me a thumbs up, like the last five hitters he faced.

“I got that for life, and I just want people to enjoy this journey with these guys.”

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Now, the Tigers are looking for their third appearance in the College World Series since 2019, which would tie them for the most in the country in that time span with Tennessee, Stanford and Texas.

Since that appearance in 2019, which was Auburn’s first in 22 years, the Tigers have made four more tournament appearances. That includes hosting their first-ever Super Regional last year, even if it did end in a loss to Coastal Carolina.

“Where the program was in ‘19 to where it sits today, it ain’t even close,” Thompson said. “We had a record crowd Monday night, and we’ve sold probably 2,000 more tickets than that for (Friday) night. You look at the quality of player and what our amazing staff’s been able to acquire, it’s because the people that come before them, and that growth build out of everything happened together.

“The momentum of our program, I’ve never been more excited.”

Auburn was swept in its home super regional last year to a Coastal team that made it all the way to the College World Series final.

For Andreas Alvarez, who started Auburn’s second game as a freshman and will start the Super Regional opener against Ole Miss, it left a bitter taste for him and every returner from last year’s team.

“Having a team beat you on your own field to go to Omaha, that hurt,” Alvarez said. “We’re just looking to come back here and take the next two out of three and, hopefully, get to Omaha.”

Standing in the Tigers’ way of making more history? The Ole Miss Rebels, a team that defeated Auburn on its way to a national championship in 2022. Due to the sheer size of the SEC, the Tigers and the Rebels didn’t face each other in the regular season.

Ole Miss is a squad that just went 3-0 in the Lincoln regional, which included two wins over Arizona State, both in extra innings.

“You know you’re going to have to earn it,” Thompson said. “And it just feels like you’re playing another great team that we didn’t play this year, a conference foe and somebody I respect so very much in Mike Bianco and Ole Miss.”

There is one word that Thompson used repeatedly to describe the Rebels.

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Justin and Dan do another mailbag episode that ranges from Alex Golesh vibes and basketball expectations all the way to cinnamon rolls. Topics for this subscribers-only podcast include:

• potential adjustments to Alex Golesh’s offense at AU

• expectations for AUMBB next season

• unbreakable rushing records

• memorable weather

• more nonsense than you could possibly imagine: wrestling gimmicks for the newest basketball players, potential James Bond casting, and Dan pitches his JetGate movie

This is a premium podcast for Observer subscribers only. You can join by clicking the button below or going to this link.

Follow Dan (@dnpck) and Justin (@JFergusonAU) on Twitter.

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AUBURN — In late April, Alex Golesh said he was “beyond excited” — twice — about the state of Auburn football’s recruiting for the 2027 class.

“I think the commitments we’ve got, I’m beyond excited,” Golesh said before an AMBUSH event in Montgomery. “The guys we’re trending with, I’m beyond excited about. The OVs will be huge, in the sense that you feel like a majority of these guys that aren’t committed have four or five official visits. It will be absolutely huge.”

At that point in time, Auburn had just gotten a commitment from elite running back Myson Johnson-Cook, who is currently rated as a top-50 player overall and a top-five prospect nationally at his position. He was only the third commit in the class.

But Golesh was still excited. He acknowledged that a lot of the early recruiting work for a Year 1 staff is playing catch-up, and things were going to have to take time on the trail for the Tigers.

“I think when I was young, I would panic early and feel like you need some sort of traction, or… I don’t know if ‘buzz’ is the word,” Golesh said. “I feel like we’re trending in the right direction. We’ve been really picky, and we’ve hit on some guys that we need to. I think, by the end of June, you’ll feel like you know where you want to be.”

Judging by Auburn’s June so far, he might have been underselling his excitement.

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Since MJC’s commitment in late April, Auburn has picked up 11 new players for its 2027 class. It’s now soared into the top 20 nationally, per the 247Sports Composite, and is currently No. 5 in the SEC. Conference powers such as Georgia, Texas, Alabama and LSU are all looking up at Auburn right now in the early arms race.

It’s also very much a quality over quantity class at this point in the cycle. (Note how Golesh said the Tigers have been “picky” so far in recruiting.) Only three teams with fewer than 15 commits are ahead of Auburn in average player ranking, and they are some huge names: USC, Ohio State and Oregon.

And, for those of you who are focused on the Blue-Chip Ratio: Exactly half of Auburn’s current 14 commitments are 4-stars in the 247Sports Composite.

Golesh and his Year 1 staff at Auburn are swinging with some of the very best on the trail, too. They’ve notably beaten out Miami for an elite running back, Notre Dame for an elite offensive tackle and — most recently — Georgia for an elite linebacker. This isn’t piling up 3-stars that just want to be in the SEC. These are legit battles.

But Auburn isn’t purely star-chasing. The Tigers could have very well ended up with 4-star linebacker Jeremiah Culpepper from nearby Troup County (Ga.), but, after evaluating 3-star Kareem Palmer, the Tigers decided to take him instead. (Culpepper recently committed to Ole Miss.) Auburn has pounced on 3-stars after spring evals and just offered a defensive back that doesn’t have any recruiting site profiles.

It’s been a fascinating time to watch the recruiting strategy unfold, and it’s yielded plenty of results. This recruiting heater cranked up the temperature to a new level this past weekend, which was the first of the summer for official visitors on the Plains.

As is tradition for coaches, Golesh has tweeted out his version of a “bat signal” whenever the staff gets word of a commitment. Over the weekend, it was a “War Damn!” followed by an eagle emoji.

The number of emojis grew. His last one had seven of them.

What’s interesting about that is Auburn has only had five recruits announce commitments since May 31: 3-star cornerback Nash Johnson, 3-star kicker Noah Ash, 4-star running back Kingston Miles, 3-star cornerback Aidyn Wiggins and 4-star linebacker Isaac McNeil.

However, it’s worth noting that the counter reset for Golesh right around the time McNeil announced his commitment to Auburn on Tuesday evening.

That means there could be as many as three more Auburn commitments that haven’t gone public yet. It’s the type of run that could put the Tigers’ past weekend of official visits as one of the very best for the program in a long time, even going back to those legendary ones under Gene Chizik in 2009 and 2010.

And, again, this was the first official visit weekend for Auburn football under this new staff. There are still some major weekends ahead, which is an insanely positive signal for the direction of the recruiting class.

There’s a long way to go between now and National Signing Day in December, and trophies aren’t handed out for summer recruiting. (They also aren’t handed out for recruiting at all, as Auburn learned during the Hugh Freeze tenure.)

But, for a new era that could have very well been in “wait and see” mode with recruits, this has been a start that has exceeded expectations. Win some games in the fall, and it should only get better for the Tigers — even as they look to 2028 and beyond.

In this edition of the Observer newsletter, let’s catch you up on the latest with Auburn football’s hot run in recruiting and project what could be next for the Tigers.

Here’s the 2027 class so far…

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Adam Cole and Henry Patton return to go deep on Auburn baseball’s wild regional win and preview supers vs. Ole Miss with Justin and Dan. Topics for this episode include:

• how Auburn fought back to win four straight elimination games

• memorable moments and performances of the weekend, starring Chase Fralick

• the role that a record crowd at Plainsman Park played in the proceedings

• the “carnage” of Regionals

• what Auburn should expect from Ole Miss

• a Summer Movie Preview

If you’re receiving this free podcast episode and would like to upgrade to a paid subscription that gives you access to all stories and premium podcast episodes, subscribe using the button below or clicking this link.

Follow Dan (@dnpck) and Justin (@JFergusonAU) on Twitter.

AUBURN — Losing the first game of a regional is supposed to be a death sentence.

That’s even true for hosts, like Auburn was — and still is.

Since 2016, including this upset-filled ongoing 2026 tournament, there have been 23 regional hosts that dropped their opening game. And, of the 23, just five have rallied to win four straight games and advance to the Super Regionals.

Auburn became team No. 5 on Monday night after defeating Milwaukee, 8-3, to cap a had-to-have-it run of four straight wins at Plainsman Park.

“This was the hardest, probably most rewarding thing that I’ve been through,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson said. “For me personally, to see what these guys had to go through with the weather and the doubleheaders and getting punched in the mouth to get started…

“They found a way.”

The Auburn regional included a bit of everything that makes college baseball the spectacle that it is.

The Tigers opened postseason play against a Milwaukee team that entered Friday’s game six games below .500. And yet, the Tigers found themselves down 10-0 in the fourth, with ace Jake Marciano not making it through two innings.

Auburn wound up losing 13-8, improbably dropping it to the losers bracket, where it was met by NC State — led by Elliot Avent, who had just announced his retirement.

The game had a bit of everything to it.

This time, the Tigers jumped out to a massive early lead, scoring eight in the first and another two in the second to take a 10-0 lead in just the second inning. The Wolfpack posted a five-spot in the third inning to cut it to a 3-run game before the Tigers answered with seven more runs to push their lead back to 10.

A stubborn NC State simply would not go away as it scored six more runs, forcing Auburn to have to use superstar reliever Jackson Sanders to close a 17-13 game that ended with a pitch-clock violation strikeout on a full count.

“Our phrase is ‘We’ve got to.’ We don’t have a choice,” Thompson said after the win over NC State. “We’ve got to keep fighting and find a way through this regional.”

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The next day, the Tigers were set, hopefully, for a doubleheader. But first, they had to take care of UCF at 2 p.m.

Actually, 3 p.m.

No, 4:30 p.m.

Let’s try 5:06 p.m. — but, like, actually this time. And let’s add another 30-minute delay in the second inning.

After all of that, Auburn was able to win a 9-3 game where it got a quality start from Alex Petrovic, with Ryan Hetzler slamming the door behind him.

That doubleheader, by the way? Oh, it was still getting played. How about a 10:10 start time?

And, because of how well Hetzler had thrown to end the game, he was given the ball to open the Milwaukee game. He, along with LJ Cormier, did more than enough to lead Auburn to an 8-1 win, setting up the decisive final game.

The game, which was initially set for 5 p.m. Monday, was moved back due to more weather. It created an 8 p.m. start time in which the Tigers sent Marciano back out to right his own wrongs.

Behind him, a Sanders masterclass out of the pen and an explosive sixth inning, the Tigers pulled out an 8-3 victory over the Panthers — their fourth win in three days and setting them up with a Super Regionals date with Ole Miss from Plainsman Park.

That’s a lot, but it was just the tip of the iceberg. And, as Bo Jackson once said, it’s a big-ass iceberg.

Let’s dive into it with a special edition of the Observations.

What on earth got into Chase Fralick?

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AUBURN — It’s win-or-go-home time.

After dropping its opener to Milwaukee, Auburn has fought all the way back to the winners bracket with three straight wins and has itself a win away from a date with Ole Miss in the super regionals.

But first, the Tigers have to complete the job and beat Milwaukee for the second time in as many nights. First pitch is scheduled for 8:06 pm CT.

We’ll have batter-by-batter live updates from all the action at Plainsman Park for Observer subscribers. Refresh this page for the latest, and feel free to chime in with your thoughts on the game in the comments below.

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AUBURN — It only took two questions into his tenure as Auburn’s head coach for Alex Golesh to start talking about special teams.

Golesh’s reputation for aggressiveness as an offensive coach had been well-documented, and it was a primary reason why he got the job. He had also been vocal in years past about having that type of tenacity on defense, which made the retention of DJ Durkin feel like a no-brainer.

But Golesh doesn’t view the sport as a battle between two sides of the football. He wants you to know that third side is just as important.

“I think the most important thing, whether it’s offense or defense or special teams, it all has to complement each other,” Golesh said at his introductory press conference. “When you talk about complementary football, it’s gotta match. The culture you build on all three sides of the ball, it has to match. We’re going to be uber-aggressive on offense. … If we’re gonna be uber-aggressive and make defenses play on their heels, the defense has gotta match. You’ve got to create extra possessions. You’ve gotta create explosives. You’ve gotta get the ball back to the offense.

“And the special teams have got to match it — if you’re gonna be uber-aggressive on offense and uber-aggressive on defense, the special teams have got to match.”

The most notable example of this mindset from Golesh came in USF’s season-opening win over Boise State. In a tight game midway through the third quarter, USF faced a fourth-and-6 just across midfield.

The Bulls subbed in Locklan Hewlett — a backup quarterback now at Auburn — into the game at punter. At gunner, No. 1 wide receiver Keshaun Singleton — also at Auburn now — blew past his matchup and went back to catch a jump ball from Hewlett at the 20-yard line. Singleton grabbed it and powered in a touchdown.

The trick play broke it open. USF would use all the momentum it grabbed on that touchdown and cruise to a 34-7 statement win at home. Three months later, Golesh was bringing his success from USF to Auburn as a first-time SEC head coach.

“We’re going to be different on special teams,” Golesh said in his intro.

Before a snap of football has been played under Golesh, Auburn has shown that it wants to invest in special teams. It’s a decision that could pay dividends on Saturdays.

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Golesh hired a dedicated special teams coordinator — that is, someone who doesn’t have any other job responsibilities, like assisting with an offensive or defensive position group. And Jacob Bronowski was already a sitting Power 4 STC, having spent the last two years of his career at Pittsburgh.

Through all the roster upheaval from the coaching change, Auburn prioritized quality depth among its specialists. The Tigers brought back starting kicker Alex McPherson and starting punter Hudson Kaak. They retained backups Connor Gibbs and John Maguire. They also went out and got a former “5-star” long snapper in Hudson Powell, who Bronowski signed when he was at Miami-Ohio.

Auburn also started looking ahead to the future by bringing in Max Bourke, an Aussie Rules football import, to train behind Kaak and Maguire in 2026.

“I think it just sets you up for longevity in that room, which is really exciting to have,” Bronowski said earlier this year. “Not that we want to punt a whole lot.”

Then, on Monday, following what appeared to be an extremely successful recruiting weekend — Golesh tweeted out his commitment bat signal six different times — Auburn picked up a public pledge from an elite kicker prospect in Noah Ash.

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AUBURN — Simply put, the odds are not in Auburn’s favor.

Since 2006, 39 NCAA Tournament regional hosts have lost their opening game. And, of that total, only 12 have bounced back to win four straight games and advance to the super regional — which works out to a 31% success rate.

Furthermore, since 2016, 19 regional hosts lost their opener. And, of those 19, only four rallied to win four straight — just a 21% comeback rate.

Here is the list of the teams that have pulled this feat off:

1. 2025 Oregon State

2. 2019 East Carolina

3. 2017 Florida State

4. 2016 South Carolina

5. 2014 Louisiana

6. 2012 Baylor

7. 2010 Cal State Fullerton

8. 2008 Georgia

9. 2008 Stanford

10. 2008 Florida State

11. 2007 Wichita State

12. 2006 Oklahoma

The main reason for this is that the team that makes it to the winner’s bracket out of Game 1 — in Auburn’s case, Milwaukee — plays one less game than the team that ends up meeting it in the end.

This means that team can save arms, something that is already becoming a real concern for an Auburn team that had the best staff arguably in the country this season.

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Now, here’s some good news: Of that 39, 14 of those losing regional hosts — about 36% — went on to lose their very next game. Because Auburn won a high-scoring game over NC State on Saturday, that narrows the comparable list down to 25 teams, with 12 having made it the supers.

That’s a 48% hit rate. Better.

Additionally, three other 2026 hosts — UCLA, Southern Miss and Florida State — lost their opener. Playing the odds, one of the four advancing to the supers would be a 25% hit rate, which falls fairly well in line with both the 21% and 31% marks. Southern Miss has already been eliminated.

Basically, in other words, one of those three remaining teams finding their way into the supers is likely. So why not Auburn?

For this experiment, we’re going to compare 2026 Auburn to the four teams since 2016 that have pulled off the four wins in a row and see how they managed to do so.

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AUBURN — Adversity is something that has never really fazed Alex Petrovic.

On the mound, the Auburn pitcher has always been calm and collected. A shining example came in a two-game stretch in which he allowed multiple runs in the first inning against Florida and Oklahoma before shutting them out the rest of the way.

“He’s always been very emotionally even,” Zeljko Petrovic, Alex’s father, told The Observer. “He’s just balanced. Composure. Belief in his tools that they’ll play out well. He doesn’t get rattled, and I noticed that as he was growing up. A lot of kids would run high and low… good and bad, he’s always composed.

“You definitely see competitive spirit. But, when he’s on the mound, he’s able to keep his composure and execute in some of the tough moments and bounce back when something doesn’t go his way.”

For a while, there was a lot that did not go right for Petrovic.

In his senior year of high school, Petrovic began to experience inflammation in his throwing arm, which lingered. Flash-forward to the fall of 2023, his freshman year at Auburn, Petrovic threw just one bullpen session before seeing the inflammation again.

Petrovic recovered from that and felt great heading into his first spring. But he was only able to throw 11 innings before a stress fracture in his right elbow ended his season prematurely.

After rehabbing and returning in the spring of 2025, Petrovic suffered the same injury in a different spot. But this time, instead of another surgery, he went down to the Florida Base Armory in Lakeland, Fla., for six weeks — where the trainers were able to nail down the cause of his injuries and how to fix them.

Since that point, Petrovic has not only managed to stay healthy, but he’s also managed a 3.21 ERA, a top-five mark among all SEC starters.

Additionally, he is also one of only four SEC starters to have a WHIP below 1.0 at 0.996.

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But for him, that’s just the icing on the proverbial cake. He has started 15 games this season for the No. 4 overall seed Auburn Tigers while completing his main goal: staying healthy for a full year.

“Awesome experience,” Petrovic said. “Been able to give back to the coaches that have kept me here — that’s definitely something that’s always been on my mind, being able to reciprocate the faith that they’ve had in me and being able to do it for my teammates as well.

“Being out there every week is a blessing; I don’t take it for granted. Being healthy, I don’t take for granted. It’s something that’s definitely taught me a little in my journey.”

Petrovic admitted the negative thoughts began to creep in after his third injury.

“Is it going to keep happening?”

But, ultimately, his unbreakable mentality won out. It’s something he credits heavily to his family.

“That’s how my family works,” Petrovic said. “It’s work ethic. It’s process over results. It’s everything that I can do myself and not have to worry about anything like that.”

The word “inat” is a Serbian word that describes a deliberate, passionate determination to prove skeptics wrong and triumph because somebody said you couldn’t.

It has no one-to-one translation into English or any other language. It’s also a word tennis superstar Novak Djokovic has often used throughout his career.

It’s a word that describes not only Alex and his recovery, but, really, his whole family.

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AUBURN — Surprise again. It’s another Thursday mailbag.

I don’t know if this is going to be the new format moving forward, although I have enjoyed the “there are no rules” vibe of these summer ones.

We’re running the mailbag today because Auburn baseball is about to take center stage at The Observer this weekend through the work of our own Henry Patton. He’s got a feature story on a Tiger that will go up Friday morning, and he’ll be covering all the action at the regional live from Plainsman Park here.

Because of that, I wanted to go ahead and shoot the mailbag out to everybody on this Thursday afternoon, so it doesn’t get lost in all the (deserved) baseball attention.

This week, you asked about Auburn football’s 2026 roster compared to years past and what that means in this day and age of college football. We also take a look at the running back rotation, offensive tackle recruiting, Auburn-Florida memories, the status of basketball’s European imports and giving Alabama food to aliens.

You know the vibes around here. Let’s go.

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How do we measure total roster talent level in 2026, and how does the overall talent level compare to 2025? Is any type of measurement possible or even worth talking about?

You are in Auburn and want to pick up dinner that is fast, casual, and healthy. What do you choose?

John

Measuring the talent level of college football rosters has been an evolving question over the last several years, thanks to the advent of the transfer portal and what is now unlimited free agency for players. It’s becoming tougher to keep great recruiting classes together longterm, even if you’re not a team going through coaching changes.

Playoff expansion has also affected this. There was a time when the four-team field was almost always made up of the very best recruiters in the sport. Now, you’re seeing more upward mobility. Stacking talent is harder than ever, and it’s not guaranteeing anything on Saturdays.

National champion Indiana was the ultimate example, ranking No. 72 on the Team Talent Composite last year. Miami (No. 15) ran all the way to the national title game with a roster that, on paper, was weaker than the one Auburn (No. 13) had. You also had Ole Miss, which was No. 11 in the SEC, make it to the semifinal. Georgia and Ohio State, No. 1 and No. 3 overall, didn’t win a playoff game. No. 2 Alabama won one, then got blown out by Indiana. Half of the top 10 didn’t even make the playoff.

Does this mean recruiting rankings are useless? Not exactly. Recruiting at a high level is still the easiest way to have a team built to compete for championships. The problem is that ranking transfers, now a huge part of roster-building, is pretty nebulous. Players who weren’t impressive high-school recruits are turning into title-winning pieces after getting their starts elsewhere. How can you project that?

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Adam Cole and Henry Patton join Justin and Dan to preview all things Auburn baseball ahead of this weekend’s regional at Plainsman Park. Topics for this subscribers-only episode include:

• the role coaching plays in Auburn’s success on the baseball diamond

• how the pitching staff went from question mark to exclamation point

• why big bets on young position players are paying off again

• x-factors who could step up in the postseason

• the biggest obstacles on Auburn’s path to Omaha

• keeping Barry Bonds on your team when the rest of the roster wants him gone

• standout directorial debuts

This is a premium podcast for Observer subscribers only. You can join by clicking the button below or going to this link.

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Follow Dan (@dnpck) and Justin (@JFergusonAU) on Twitter.

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