Quotes of Note: Alex Golesh touches on brutal second half against Ole Miss
One week after a rough showing against LSU at home, the Auburn Tigers showed signs of making things close against the Ole Miss Rebels on the road, but last week’s performance showed up in the second half as the Rebels dominated 45-15 in Oxford on Saturday.
It was a game that saw the Tigers get outcored 31-6 in the second half and outgained 301 to 141 yards in that same time frame.
Auburn now falls to 4-4 overall and 2-4 in conference play heading into the month of November. However, according to Head Coach Alex Golesh, there is still a whole lot that the team has to work on between the time it gets home to the Arkansas game in Jordan-Hare Stadium on Nov. 7
Golesh held his postgame presser immediately following the game’s conclusion.
Here were some of his most notable quotes from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium after the loss.
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On the overall outlook of the game:
“I thought through the first half, through the beginning part of that third quarter, I thought there was an intent like you wanted. You obviously left some points out there, but really on all three sides of the ball, it was going back and forth. Some good, some bad. And then you have the turning point: The quarterback run on third-and-11, with a penalty, and they score three plays later. I just felt like we never had a chance.”
On the defense not being able to stop Trinidad Chambliss:
“I think we've got to figure out a way to make sure, especially when you're playing a quarterback like this, that you can affect him. And that's at the end of the day, as good as he is, we're in position to affect him, and we don't. That's on us as coaches to figure that out. You're not wrong there.”
On the eight penalties by the Tigers, especially the costly ones:
“Yeah, I mean, the stuff that's inexcusable is not being onside with the tackle. Like that's coaching in every way. The back-to-back holding PI, like man, things that are playing penalties that happen bang bang every now and again, you can live with hard playing penalties. When it's truly pre-snap on us, that's the stuff that kills you.”
On the explanation he got on the fair catch mishap late in the third:
“Yeah, the explanation is that the other returner gave the kill signal thinking it's gonna go out, and you can't. The guy that's catching it has gotta do it. Honestly, it's a mistake and a really, really costly one.”
On the changing of the starting offensive line on Saturday:
“We're going to continue to evaluate, like I've said since day one. And that's not just the O-line group. It's every single position. The challenge to us is that we learn and continue to learn how to work. How to put Sunday into Monday, into Tuesday, into Wednesday and into Thursday and Friday. That's when you truly earn the right to be confident going into a game. We felt like that that was the group that gave us the best chance.”
On the message to the team going forward:
“I just challenged them, if you think you've worked hard, you gotta work harder. If you think you ain't pulling your weight, you gotta work harder. Challenge our coaches in the same breath. Play the dudes that you feel like are gonna go finish.”
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
