The Auburn Tigers ended a long home SEC losing streak on Saturday against the Vanderbilt Commodores, winning 21-15 with less than 300 yards of total offense.
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The win was the first time since the Texas A&M game in 2024 that the Tigers had won a conference test at home, and the first time since 2023 that the program had taken down Vanderbilt.
After the game, Auburn Head Coach Alex Golesh took a few moments to speak to the media, reflecting on the game and talking about what he thought of his team’s performance.
Here were some of his most notable quotes from that session.
On finishing in a close game in the fourth quarter:
“I told Clark (Lea) this before the game and I told him again after—this is a guy that's built a program from nothing, and those guys are finishers. Those guys find ways to finish games. It's been that way for two years for them, and for us to be able to go find a way to finish it, I think, is huge for us.”
On the performance with the run game:
“It felt like it was tough at times. I felt like getting in some open sets and running it that way was going to benefit us, and it did. I felt like getting in some open sets and running Byrum (Brown) at some critical times was going to help. We certainly tried. Certainly, we tried with Jeremiah. We tried with Bryson. We tried with Omar. At times, it was really, really good, when we got going.”
On the punt block resulting in a touchdown:
“Obviously huge. It was a point in the game where, offensively, we couldn’t get it going. We need the spark. That was absolutely huge. We’ve been aggressive on punt block. Don’t underscore the stop of the fake as well. That was absolutely huge to get the ball at midfield. Both of those plays were absolutely huge. If you can block a punt, I don’t what the percentages are analytically but it’s somewhere over 80 percent that you’ve got a chance to win the game. That was absolutely huge. Momentum-wise, it was huge. The 6-point game plays out very differently.”
On the defensive performance:
“There's still a ton of missed tackles, especially on the perimeter. But I thought really gutsy. I thought we had a good plan. For the most part, we executed a plan, thought there was still miss leverage in the pocket and let Jared (Curtis) get out of the pocket some. The whole emphasis was to keep him in there.There was a couple times he scrambled out and made some decisions on the perimeter. I thought, gutsy, there's a ton to clean up. We're about to go play another quarterback that's a young cat, super talented, that's super mobile, that can make every throw. Like we gotta learn. We got to grow, and that's the challenge.”
On being pleased by Jeremiah Cobb and his late-game performance:
“Yeah, really proud of him. He's what an Auburn Tiger should be and is. He just keeps coming to work, keeps getting coached, leads, head down, just works. Really proud of him, and it'll keep coming his way. It'll keep getting rewarded. I'm excited for him to feel like man, it's all paid off. And I think he felt that way in the fourth quarter. But he's electric with the ball in his hands. We gotta continue to find ways to get him the ball.”
On getting third down stops to keep the lead comfortable:
“The challenge to our defense, and to be honest with you, our offense as well, after these first three weeks, is just the ability to go play this play, like one play at a time. I talked last week about being, like playing in this crazy emotional state. Like, ‘Let's play this play, man. Play the next play. Play the next play. Play the next play.’ I thought we did that. That was the challenge of all challenges was just respond play-to-play. Both of those field goal situations were absolutely huge. I think one of them we got a hand on. I think Cody Sigler got a hand on, but obviously huge when it becomes a six-point game at the end.”
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
