Quotes of Note: Alex Golesh finishes out Arkansas, previews Mississippi State
The book has now been closed on the Arkansas game for the Auburn Tigers and Head Coach Alex Golesh after the Tigers stormed back to win 26-23 on Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
The win gave Auburn its fifth win on the season, putting it one victory away from achieving bowl eligibility for the first time since 2023. The Tigers still have work to do though, and that first comes in the form of playing the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Auburn will travel to take on Mississippi State on Saturday in Starkville, Mississippi, trying to keep positive momentum rolling in November.
Golesh and his coordinators held their weekly press conference to begin the week on Monday.
Here are some of the head coach’s most notable statements from the session.
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On the offensive performance in the first half:
“I thought offensively, the first half was exactly what it looked like on the field: It was six drives, five of which guys took turns all over the place, being off in our detail and therefore our execution piece was awful. I thought to go finish the first half, be able to put a two-minute drive together and get points out of it gave a little bit of glimpse of, all right, if we can just operate and go, it gives you a chance.”
On the performance of the pass rush:
“I think the biggest thing was — wasn't just getting home. I thought it was creating negatives on top of that. I think 14 total there, and the ability to do it out of majority light boxes and four-man rushes was honestly, in a lot of ways, the key to the game. There was enough on the perimeter where you were anxious to bring a ton with really two outside guys that you felt that could hurt you in a big way, but I thought certainly some individual efforts.”
On the improvement from AnQuon Fegans:
“He continues to improve, continues to get better and we're counting on him to do so. It's allowed us to create more depth back there. It's allowed us to rotate a little bit more, certainly with Eric and Kaleb and Sly. Getting Sly back this week will help in a big way this week with the ability to rotate a little bit more back there. But Newboy's ceiling is really, really high. We're continuing to push him to get there and he's continuing to get better.”
On Byrum Brown protecting the ball more as a passer:
“We've done some things to allow him to get really settled in and get comfortable. But truly at the end of the day, it's on him to make decisions where ultimately your biggest job is to take care of the football, and he's continued to do a solid job there.”
On the challenge of facing Mississippi State quarterback AJ Swann:
“Where he's different is it's a different dynamic in the run game. Where, what they did the first five games, and really what Leb’s done for quite a while, is the ability to involve the quarterback in the run game and have it to account for certain things. Where AJ's good enough to get out of trouble and certainly can pull the ball down and go, so you've got to be really sound defensively, but just a different type of athlete.”
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
