Everything we heard from Alex Golesh *before* SEC Media Days
The first-year Auburn head coach gave plenty of valuable insight on his team with the local beat before making the rounds in Tampa.
TAMPA, Fla. — It’s a SEC Media Days tradition that doesn’t get the nationally televised spotlight or the viral social media buzz — and that’s by design.
Media Days, at its core, is an event for everybody else. This is an opportunity for people who cover the sport on a national or regional basis to talk to plenty of head coaches and players. It’s also a time where those who cover teams can ask questions and gain insight from opponents for the upcoming season, if they so choose.
When it comes to head coach interviews, the stuff you might see on TV or online can be very surface-level, since the vast majority of the media members involved aren’t experts on that specific team. There’s still value to be found in the “big room,” especially when it comes to talking to players. But a lot of it is not for the diehard fan.
Fortunately, over the years, Auburn has made a point to give the local beat a chance to talk to the head football coach before he goes through the Media Days circus. It’s the chance to get plenty of real-deal information before the start of fall camp.
This year, Alex Golesh participated in this tradition for the first time at Auburn. Before a scheduled AMBUSH alumni club event Monday night in Tampa — where he was USF’s head coach for the last three years — Golesh sat down with local media members who had already made the trek. (Steven Pearl and John Cohen did, too.)
Golesh even dressed up for the occasion, joking that Auburn people really hadn’t seen him in a suit since his introductory press conference back in December.
Auburn’s first-year head coach spent nearly a half-hour fielding questions Monday night, breaking down what he’s seen from his team over the summer months and where things stand with quite a few players heading into fall camp.
In this morning’s newsletter, Observer subscribers can read our notes from everything Golesh had to say Monday night in Tampa.
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Auburn will start fall camp in two weeks, with players reporting on August 4 (Tuesday) and practice beginning on August 5 (Wednesday).
The status of edge rusher Da’Shawn Womack, who was arrested earlier this summer on a charge of reckless endangerment, is still unclear right now. “We've handled the punishment piece internally. We're waiting on the legal part of it to go through what it's gotta go through. Then we'll make a decision from there.”
Golesh said that he expects a nearly clean bill of health when the Tigers open camp. The only exception is cornerback Devin Williams, who missed all of his first season in 2025 and will be out all of 2026 with an ACL injury.
Auburn had three different players undergo shoulder surgery after spring practices, but they are expected to be cleared later this week. The Tigers will “take it easy” with them when it comes to contact early in fall camp.
Golesh: “We kind of pulled back a little bit this week and next week to try to get their legs back a little bit and get them fresh. … Outside of (Williams) and the post-shoulder surgery crew, we've got everybody going into fall camp healthy, knock on wood. We've got this week and next week, but we'll be healthy going in.”
A major name on that clean bill of health is offensive tackle Stanton Ramil, who is expected to be a top contender for a starting job despite him missing almost all of spring practices while recovering from offseason surgery. “He's had a really, really good summer. I'm really proud of where he's at. It's going to be on us and our medical team to manage his load through camp, because again, he didn't go through spring. So now it's just building up to get ready for Week 1 to ultimately be able to play, hopefully, 16 weeks.” Now, about that offensive line…