Everything we learned from Alex Golesh's introduction at Auburn
We've got details on Golesh's new staff, his 6-year contract, his approach to the Auburn job and a whole lot more from Monday at Jordan-Hare.
AUBURN — Talk about setting a tone.
When Alex Golesh took the microphone on Monday morning to address Auburn fans directly for the first time, the speakers cracked several times because of his yelling.
Considering Golesh estimated that he has only slept one hour in total since getting offered the head coaching job at Auburn a little after midnight on Sunday, the energy was significant.
But that’s exactly what Auburn is hoping for with Golesh: Someone to bring a much-needed spark to a program with championship standards yet has just finished its fifth straight losing season. It’s a job that’s going to require plenty of energy, every day.
“We’re going to build a process-driven program: A process-driven program where we wake up and worry about winning every single aspect of our lives every single day,” Golesh said Monday. “I truly believe that if you buy into a process, a way of doing things day in and day out: From the moment you wake up, to how you come in, to how you attack your relationships in the building, to how you attack the weight room, sports medicine, nutrition, the film room, the teaching, the work on the field, if you buy into sleeping right, eating right, hydrating right — outworking people in the things that nobody else sees — the end result will happen.
“A lot of the time you don’t control the end result. You control your daily habits, your daily process. And if you keep pouring into that day in, day out… at whatever point, the process will pay you back. We’re also going to have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.”
Golesh had his introductory press conference at Auburn on Monday, which was also his first time inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. That came with the first Tiger Walk for Golesh and his family, with Auburn fans, cheerleaders, employees and band members lining Donahue Drive to welcome them to the Plains.
Both members of The Observer were there Monday to ask Golesh questions and get more information about the early days of his transition from USF to Auburn.
Here’s everything we saw and heard as a new era of Auburn football gets underway.
Golesh says he will not be the primary offensive play-caller as the head coach at Auburn. That job will go to his offensive coordinator. Joel Gordon, who served as USF’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the last three seasons, is reportedly joining Golesh’s staff at Auburn. Gordon previously worked with Golesh at Iowa State, where he was a quarterbacks coach under Matt Campbell.
When asked about his staff plans on the defensive side of the ball — specifically current Auburn defensive coordinator and former interim head coach DJ Durkin — Golesh carefully worded his answer: “The answer to the defensive side, I’m working through it. We’ve got a plan. We’re working through steps to execute the plan. My hope is that in the next or 24 to 48 hours, that that gets finalized and we have some clarity with which direction we’re going, but we’re working through it.” As for what that might mean for Durkin…