Mailbag 232: What type of head coach is Alex Golesh?
This week: USF transfer targets, Golesh's philosophy, VKW, the search, basketball rotations and keys to a massive Arizona upset
TUCSON, Ariz. — How about a massive mailbag for a massive week, shall we?
We’ve all got plenty of time before Auburn basketball has a late-night tip later today against Arizona here in Tucson. The timing is perfect to have a Saturday mailbag well before some hoops, because we’re wrapping up the first week of the Alex Golesh Era.
This week, you asked a ton about the new head football coach at Auburn and what he might bring to the Plains after getting the job shortly after the Iron Bowl. We’ve also got plenty on Steven Pearl and his Tigers’ efforts to get a third straight quality win in a row — but one that might be the toughest one to snag in a long time.
Thank you all once again for continuing to support The Observer. We added plenty of new subscribers this week with all the action from Auburn football and men’s basketball. These weeks are tiring on the body, but they’re so much fun to cover.
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You mentioned in your article comparing coaching candidates to past Auburn coaches that Golesh didn’t really fit into any of those molds. That being said, how would you describe Golesh in terms of coaching archetypes? It seems like he has this odd combination of hard-nosed and spread wizard.
Chris
Golesh is unique. There’s some mad scientist, forward-thinking innovator that we’ve seen work at Auburn in the past. But then you also see and hear the passion, the intensity and the edge that calls to mind some of the vintage coaches of the past.
It’s a blend that I think works perfectly at a place like Auburn right now. Auburn is a place where you can bust your tail in recruiting and talent development — and you’re going to have to do that — but you still won’t have the very best roster in your conference year in and year out. Your biggest rivals have historically had that advantage, and it’s only gotten stronger in recent years.
In that case, you’re going to have to do things differently. You’re going to have to use underdog tactics on the field to help make up for those gaps. Golesh did that with his offense at Tennessee, where there was an instant improvement after years of struggle. He did the same thing with the entire team at USF, going from a team that won four games in three years to one of the better Group of Five programs around. You do that with grit and work ethic, and you also do that by scheming things up.
Auburn needs that. The Tigers haven’t had elite-level offense on a consistent basis in more than a decade. It’s been the biggest thing holding them back from being true contenders in this era of college football. Golesh has shown the ability to generate that kind of attack, and he’s done it without needing the very best players around.
But you can’t just think you’re going to outsmart everyone or rely on your past successes in order to win at Auburn. We’ve seen that with the last two failed head coaches here. This is a job that takes relentless effort and energy in every single facet of the program, because pretty much everyone else in the SEC is doing that as well.
We’ll see how this archetype — this blend of new-school and old-school — works for Auburn under Golesh when it comes to getting actual wins on the field. He’s got a tough job ahead of him, trying to reverse what has been the worst run for the program in the modern era. But he’s seen and done that twice now in his last two stops, including one in the SEC. That bodes well for the future.
Is there a current USF player that will fill an immediate need for Auburn, other than Byrum Brown?
James