Quotes of Note: Alex Golesh reviews Baylor win, looks ahead to Southern Miss

The Auburn Tigers have officially finished out the opening weekend of their 2026 campaign, holding a 1-0 record after their win in Atlanta. 

Now, Auburn moves onto its home opener against Southern Miss. Head Coach Alex Golesh held his weekly press conference on Monday at the Woltosz Football Performance Center, closing things out on the win. 

Here are some of his most notable statements from his session:

On playing in Atlanta:

“I want to thank our fans for showing up on Saturday. It was a cool environment. Certainly a really neat way to open the season and it certainly felt like a home-field advantage. So grateful to them, grateful to our band. It was a great environment to play college football in. 

On the effort:

“I’m really proud of the effort. I thought from an effort standpoint, it was certainly where you wanted it to be. I am proud of the finish, and certainly the last play, but really the drive leading into the last play offensively, and then overcoming giving up a fourth down, overcoming giving up a touchdown and just playing the very next play and obviously found a win, which I think is as important as anything else, the ability to go find ways to win.”

On his assessment of the offensive line:

“I thought at the tackle spot we played well. I thought we competed at a high level there. I thought from an effort standpoint, inside, the effort was there. I thought we struggled at times. With some twist game stuff, we struggled at times from being able to climb to the second level. I think we struggled at times getting picked off a little bit in the twist game inside. So, I was disappointed with what we played like inside.”

On the three interceptions from Byrum Brown:

“I think sometimes we try to kind of make things happen a little bit, and it’s just how it shook out. Like it just is. Byrum owned every bit of it and I owned every bit of it. And that's what I love about him is he'll own it. It'll eat at him for a little while. He'll never let anybody see it and he's moved on too. So, I would tell you a combination of us forcing it a little bit, a little bit of bad luck, and Byrum moving on a little bit as well. That's just the real of the real on that.”

On Jeremiah Cobb’s effort on the fourth-quarter touchdown drive and overall:

“I thought Jeremiah Cobb's block was as big time as big time gets. I thought Jeremiah just in general, played his butt off. And just the nature of the game, I wish we could have gotten them going a little bit more, and we will hear as we go. But you talk about throwing it in there for a running back, lead blocking for somebody that was about as impressive as anybody.”

On Elijah Melendez and his abilities:

“I was beyond impressed with Elijah. Watching it was, again, played right around 90 snaps. That's a lot. That's a lot of snaps and played them extremely hard. Again, a reflection of what his winter was, his spring was, his summer was. He's training on another level. He's mentally in it on another level. Lives in this building. Takes so much pride in his play, from a physicality standpoint, from a speed standpoint.”

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