The Auburn Tigers are heading into the latter half of their season following a bye week on the second weekend of October, and while the rest was much needed for Alex Golesh’s squad, the program is being thrown right back into the fire this week.
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Auburn travels to Athens, Georgia on Saturday to take on the Georgia Bulldogs in another renewal of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. Georgia is looking to make it 10 wins in a row over the Tigers, and Golesh’s squad will be looking to prevent that without one of his key veterans.
Auburn will be playing with the absence of junior linebacker Xavier Atkins in Athens, who Golesh said on Wednesday is “not with the team right now.” The head coach said that the staff will revisit the situation after Saturday’s game, but everything as of now is being kept “in-house.”
Atkins has been one of the key veterans on DJ Durkin’s defense so far this season, having the second-most total tackles on the team through five games.
Nonetheless, players are going to have to step up against a juggernaut of a Bulldogs offense, one of those being the sophomore who is Elijah Melendez.
Since preseason camp, Melendez has been a name that has been thrown around as having stuck out the most, which has become noticeable on the field in game action.
“He's been, I mean, nothing short of phenomenal in terms of the leadership aspect,” said Alex Golesh on Wednesday. “He's played lights out, whether home or away. That's what you need. You want to build the defense down the middle. And man, that dude continues to lead in a big way, continues to play in a big way.”
Melendez is currently the leading tackler on the team with 43 to pair with his three sacks that he has recorded.
While he has quickly become a mainstay in the long line of talented Auburn linebackers, Golesh noted what he has had to work on the most is not necessarily something physical, but instead from a vocal perspective.
“Elijah six months ago wouldn't speak up, and he didn't feel like, ‘Man, I've played enough or well enough, or there's not a body of work to back that up,’” Golesh said. “Elijah will be the first one to put himself out there and say, ‘Man, just follow me. Like, let's go follow me.’”
Even with how talented the sophomore is though, playing without the other half of the starting duo is a tough challenge up ahead as Georgia likes to test the middle of the field.
Nonetheless, it is a challenge Golesh is confident that he will step up to, as he has shown it in his work every single day.
“He's got to continue to get better,” Golesh said. “The most exciting thing about Elijah is how young he is, and the level of football he's playing at, but that's what his process is during the week.”
Melendez has been talked about as one of the examples Golesh wants when it comes to the program eventually being player-led, both mentally and physically.
If he can get guys to mold into that same form, the head coach is confident in the trajectory of where things can go.
“Man, you get 100 dudes like him from a mental side and a physical side, you got a chance to do some really, really special things, and that's what I'm hanging on to is building around those guys that are so all in, their process is so high end, man,” Golesh said. “That's a dude you ride with all day.”
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
