Since the beginning of preseason camp for the Auburn Tigers, one of the biggest questions that has come out of the unit is how the offensive line will perform in 2026.
In the season opener against Baylor in Atlanta, the Tigers offensive line gave up five sacks to the Bears defense, a mark tackle Jo Simmons called ‘unacceptable’ and a major area of focus for Alex Golesh and his squad have been working out since the game.
Auburn is now entering its third game of the year, taking on the Florida Gators in Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday night. It is a game where the Tigers will have to be stout, as the Gators are going to look to do everything possible to make quarterback Byrum Brown uncomfortable.
Specifically, Auburn’s area of weakness has been placed on the interior of the line at the guard spots, which are the two spots that the team did not have a defined starter heading into the first game.
There has been a large amount of rotation through the first two games at the guard positions, especially at left guard, a place Wilson Zierer has seen some action at.
To get him and others out on the field is something Golesh said is valuable.
“I think it was really big to just get real game reps,” Golesh said. “You can simulate all you want. Until you're out there, and I don't care who you're playing, but until you're out there, and it's just you and the 10 dudes around you, there's nothing like game reps.”
Going forward there are still a lot of questions to be answered about what the offensive line will look like as a whole for the rest of the year.
As for how often the group will rotate players in and out of the game, Golesh is not sure. However, that factor will depend on what’s happening on the field.
“The tempo piece at which we play, it certainly helps if you’ve got some depth there that you can rotate. It all is on how it's going, and that's the truth,” Golesh said. “If it's going well, you don't want to break up any synergy those guys got out there. If you feel like, man, it's not going real well, then it's like any other position group. You sub it out and you see if you can get some mojo going.”
Just like last week, the depth chart has not truly changed across the offensive line, meaning there is likely a similar plan heading into the game against Florida as there was against Southern Miss.
Golesh indicated that in terms of the upcoming game and beyond, his players are competing and trying to get better with every practice, looking to put the room in the best position possible for SEC competition.
“We're continuing to evaluate it,” Golesh said. “Those guys are competing. I feel good. It'll be good to go up against a really, really good front and let those guys go compete, but I feel good about it.”
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