A much-needed break has arrived for the Auburn Tigers and Head Coach Alex Golesh as they are in the midst of their bye week after finishing their first five games of the season.
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Sitting at 3-2, Golesh is being given a lot of time to evaluate things and see where parts of the program are as Auburn gets ready for the back portion of its season, starting with a rivalry game on the road at Georgia.
One of those things the head coach has taken a look at is the overall health of his team, and the Tigers up to this point in the year have been a relatively healthy team, with just offensive lineman Tai Buster and tight end Hunter Herring being listed on the official SEC availability report each week.
Soon, that short list might be decreased to just one player.
On Monday, Golesh spoke to the media at the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham and provided an update on Buster, who has been out since before preseason camp.
“He started his onfield running progression last week, so he’s still a couple weeks out,” Golesh said. “It’ll be this week, next week of onfield running progression and then hopefully be able to get him into some contact stuff to where he can start to work himself back in the rotation.”
On report day of preseason camp, Golesh gave an update on where the health of the team was heading into the weeks before the campaign started, when he revealed that Buster suffered an “unfortunate deal” at the end of the summer period.
Prior to the injury, Golesh praised Buster for his performance in the summer. The redshirt freshman was slowly working his way to be in contention to be on the two-deep depth chart heading into the opener.
Outside of Buster, Golesh also talked about the overall state of where the Tigers are, and through five games and following a loss to a physical Tennessee team, things are extremely minimal.
The head coach said that the bye week comes at a good time, as it allows those who have been on the field constantly to get a little prolonged recovery period before a rought stretch through the rest of October, when Auburn will take on three ranked opponents that are all in the race to be in the College Football Playoff.
“We’re relatively healthy,” Golesh said. “Some bumps and bruises this past weekend. This will be a good week for a couple of our guys that have taken a ton of reps and have gotten a little bit beat up, but for the most part, other than the guys that have been out, we’re entering this bye week relatively healthy.”
After the conclusion of the bye week, the Tigers will take a road trip to Athens, Georgia to take on the Georgia Bulldogs, a team they have not beaten since 2017.
The opening kick for the game is slated for 2:30 p.m. CST, with a network designation to be determined later.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
