Alex Golesh wants you to care about Auburn's special teams again

From hiring a dedicated coordinator to landing the nation's No. 2 kicker, Golesh wants the Tigers to get back to winning football in all phases.

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(Payton Smith/The Auburn Observer)

AUBURN — It only took two questions into his tenure as Auburn’s head coach for Alex Golesh to start talking about special teams.

Golesh’s reputation for aggressiveness as an offensive coach had been well-documented, and it was a primary reason why he got the job. He had also been vocal in years past about having that type of tenacity on defense, which made the retention of DJ Durkin feel like a no-brainer.

But Golesh doesn’t view the sport as a battle between two sides of the football. He wants you to know that third side is just as important.

“I think the most important thing, whether it’s offense or defense or special teams, it all has to complement each other,” Golesh said at his introductory press conference. “When you talk about complementary football, it’s gotta match. The culture you build on all three sides of the ball, it has to match. We’re going to be uber-aggressive on offense. … If we’re gonna be uber-aggressive and make defenses play on their heels, the defense has gotta match. You’ve got to create extra possessions. You’ve gotta create explosives. You’ve gotta get the ball back to the offense.

“And the special teams have got to match it — if you’re gonna be uber-aggressive on offense and uber-aggressive on defense, the special teams have got to match.”

The most notable example of this mindset from Golesh came in USF’s season-opening win over Boise State. In a tight game midway through the third quarter, USF faced a fourth-and-6 just across midfield.

The Bulls subbed in Locklan Hewlett — a backup quarterback now at Auburn — into the game at punter. At gunner, No. 1 wide receiver Keshaun Singleton — also at Auburn now — blew past his matchup and went back to catch a jump ball from Hewlett at the 20-yard line. Singleton grabbed it and powered in a touchdown.

The trick play broke it open. USF would use all the momentum it grabbed on that touchdown and cruise to a 34-7 statement win at home. Three months later, Golesh was bringing his success from USF to Auburn as a first-time SEC head coach.

“We’re going to be different on special teams,” Golesh said in his intro.

Before a snap of football has been played under Golesh, Auburn has shown that it wants to invest in special teams. It’s a decision that could pay dividends on Saturdays.

Golesh hired a dedicated special teams coordinator — that is, someone who doesn’t have any other job responsibilities, like assisting with an offensive or defensive position group. And Jacob Bronowski was already a sitting Power 4 STC, having spent the last two years of his career at Pittsburgh.

Through all the roster upheaval from the coaching change, Auburn prioritized quality depth among its specialists. The Tigers brought back starting kicker Alex McPherson and starting punter Hudson Kaak. They retained backups Connor Gibbs and John Maguire. They also went out and got a former “5-star” long snapper in Hudson Powell, who Bronowski signed when he was at Miami-Ohio.

Auburn also started looking ahead to the future by bringing in Max Bourke, an Aussie Rules football import, to train behind Kaak and Maguire in 2026.

“I think it just sets you up for longevity in that room, which is really exciting to have,” Bronowski said earlier this year. “Not that we want to punt a whole lot.”

Then, on Monday, following what appeared to be an extremely successful recruiting weekend — Golesh tweeted out his commitment bat signal six different times — Auburn picked up a public pledge from an elite kicker prospect in Noah Ash.