Everything we heard from Auburn football's staff to open fall camp
Before heading out for an old-school fall camp away from campus, Alex Golesh and his two coordinators shared plenty of insights on the Tigers.
AUBURN — The word “fall” might not fit the vibe of what Auburn football is about to go through, but the word “camp” will ring a lot truer than usual.
For the better part of the next two weeks, Auburn will go through an old-school fall camp — as in, the team will spend all of its time together between now and the start of classes on campus.
“There's no nothing,” head coach Alex Golesh said Tuesday morning, which was report day for the players. “No girlfriends, no dogs, cats, whatever guys are into. It's truly just us for the next 13 days, which is absolutely huge for us. We need it.”
Starting Tuesday afternoon, the Tigers are moving into the Marriott resort at Grand National in Opelika. Players will turn in their car keys and be shuttled back and forth to practices on-campus and any other team activities with the staff for the next 13 days.
“There's three built-in off days in there, mandated that way,” Golesh said. “We'll take them to Hey Day one day, grab lunch together and go to the movies. We've got some team dinners over there. But, for the most part, outside of those three off days: Wake up, get on the bus, they're here. At the end of the day, get on the bus, go back.”
Golesh said Auburn paired up roommates with the idea of making sure an older player will be with a younger player for teaching opportunities.
In a day and age when college players are on campus all year long but live in different spots, the camp approach that you see more in the NFL these days is a major and strategic shift.
“It’s totally eliminating distraction, one,” Golesh said. “Teaching what waking up and what a day and a structure should look like for an elite high-level athlete would be the second component of it. … The team-building, I think, happens in the fact that they're all together the entire time with absolutely nothing else pulling them from it.”
For Golesh, this isn’t anything new. He did it all three seasons when he was the head coach at USF. For Auburn, it’s quite different. I haven’t covered a football team that has done this, and I’ve been at every fall camp on the Plains since 2013. When I asked friend of the Observer and veteran beat writer Jason Caldwell about it, he said no one has done this with the Tigers “in at least 15 years.”
The Tigers will wake up Wednesday morning from their first night at Grand National together and head back to campus for their first practice. They are scheduled for at least five straight days of practices, with media members getting viewing windows and interview access for three of them — Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Golesh’s excitement for camp was quite obvious throughout his press conference at the football facility Tuesday morning. He opened it by saying it was “the best time of the year, meaning we get to coach football,” and he pumped his fist walking out of the meeting room saying “it’s football time, guys… let’s ride.”
He wasn’t alone in setting the tone for camp, though. Both offensive coordinator Joel Gordon and defensive coordinator DJ Durkin followed Golesh’s press conference, sharing their own thoughts on where the Tigers stand heading into an important few weeks for the program ahead of their season opener against Baylor in Atlanta.
To get you fully ready for preseason practice to start Wednesday — and we’ll have full Observations from it, per usual, right here — here is everything we heard from Golesh, Gordon and Durkin during fall camp report day here on the Plains.
HC Alex Golesh
The biggest news to come out of Tuesday’s press conference was the revelation that sophomore offensive lineman Tai Buster will miss the first several weeks of the season with an injury he suffered recently. Buster looked like a potential starter at either tackle or guard during spring practices, and the Tigers will have to shuffle without him for at least the first five or six games of the season. “It's unfortunate for him, because he's had an incredible summer, and he is working his tail off to get back.”
Here’s the rest of the injury report from Golesh heading into fall camp: