One week from Saturday, Alex Golesh will be making his head coaching debut at Auburn and in the SEC. On Wednesday, he made his first appearance on this year’s edition of Tiger Talk. Golesh talked about his time in Auburn thus far and feels there are certain things that set the city apart from other places he’s coached.
“I think what makes Auburn unique, living in a bunch of college towns. The first question everybody asks you is do you love Auburn? Like has Auburn been good to you? Which I think is really really unique because Auburn people want you to love Auburn as much as they do.”
Golesh and his team are in the midst of working through a “mock game” week. They have been studying what Baylor could throw at them next Saturday. He said it was a welcome change after preseason camp concluded last week. “It was cool to turn the page and get working on somebody else and cool to watch a different defense, different offense, than what you you've been watching for the last three weeks.”
Golesh was asked during the show about the versatility of some of his defensive players and their ability to play multiple positions. “So the multiplicity of what we have defensively and the ability for guys to play different packages in different spots allows you to be really really multiple and and Durk’s been open to being more and more multiple… guys know that the more they could do the better chance they got to play and the better chance they got to stay on the field through situational football.”
After the first team scrimmage, Golesh told his players to get ready to “humble themselves.” He wanted to convey that players need to take the criticism and correction from coaches and teammates. Almost two weeks later, Golesh feels the team has gotten better in this aspect.
“The why is what a lot of people miss. I think if you give them the reason for why they'll generally do it. And when you have a real relationship, they'll be able to talk about if they don't agree with it. So that's the piece that I'm proud of right now.”
On Monday, Golesh talked about how he likes where his team is right now. However, he feels the true on-the field test hasn’t happened yet. “As much as we've tried to make situations hard on them and put them in tough spots, until you get into the season and you deal with the highs and lows and all of that that come with a five month grind of a season you don't know how we're gonna respond.”
Golesh wound up his first Tiger Talk by saying he and the coaches were going to spend the rest of their Wednesday night touching base with recruits and continue working to get the game plan ready and schedule out the rest of the week. Auburn and Baylor will kick things off in Atlanta in nine days.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
