Auburn wants to make sure you know Alex Golesh can develop quarterbacks.
Whether he actually developed the quarterbacks in the graphic they posted on Sunday morning — Brock Purdy, Hendon Hooker, and Joe Milton III — is another question.
The graphic wants you to believe Golesh developed Purdy, which would be impressive considering Purdy went from Mr. Irrelevant to starting a Super Bowl. The problem is Golesh didn’t actually develop him. He helped recruit Purdy to Iowa State and coached tight ends there from 2016-19, but he wasn’t calling plays, wasn’t the offensive coordinator, and wasn’t coaching quarterbacks.
Hooker is a different story. He played at Tennessee when Golesh was the offensive coordinator from 2021-22, finishing as SEC Offensive Player of the Year in 2022 while leading the Volunteers to the No. 1 ranking in total offense nationally. Golesh deserves credit for that season. But Hooker’s NFL career consisted of three games, 62 passing yards, and getting waived by the Lions in August. He’s on the Panthers’ practice squad now.
That’s not exactly “development that translates beyond Saturdays.”
Milton backed up Hooker before taking over as the starter after Hooker’s ACL injury. He had a solid 2023 season at Tennessee, and the Patriots drafted him in the sixth round in 2024. He’s played one game in the NFL and is currently backing up Dak Prescott in Dallas. Again, not what you’d call translating to the next level. At least not yet.
The weird part is that Auburn’s official release announcing the hire doesn’t mention Purdy or Dillon Gabriel at all. It highlights Hooker, whom Golesh actually coordinated at Tennessee. It mentions his work at UCF in 2020, where the offense ranked second nationally in total offense (Gabriel threw for over 3,500 yards and 32 touchdowns that season). And it points to Byrum Brown at South Florida, who totaled 4,166 yards this fall and became just the 12th player in FBS history to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 in the same season.
Brown is actually the best example of Golesh’s quarterback development work. He went from three-star quarterback prospect to one of the most productive players in college football under Golesh’s coaching. The graphic went with Purdy, who Golesh recruited but didn’t develop, alongside Hooker and Milton, who had solid college careers but haven’t done much in the NFL
Suffice to say, if Golesh wants to succeed at Auburn, he’ll need to actually develop quarterbacks who translate to Sundays, not just have his new social team create graphics claiming he already has.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.