How a Mock Game Week Has Auburn Well-Prepared For Week 1

A new head coach and his program means putting an emphasis on procedures for the rest of the weeks to come. So, Auburn head coach Alex Golesh used a mock game week to display that.

Last week, the Tigers handled all of their schedule like they were preparing for an opponent at the end of the weekend. Offense coordinator Joel Gordon said that it was an important adjustment, mainly because of the routine the athletes have to get into now that classes are in session.

“A lot of those days are the same as it was the day before and repetitive in that fashion,” he said on Monday. “Then, all of the sudden you get to the mock week and it's different.”

Golesh sees an adjustment not only for the players, but the new staff too. While he brings in some former staffers from his time at USF, other names, like defensive coordinator DJ Durkin for example, remained with the program after the 2025 season.

Now, everybody is on the same page following the adjusted week.

“When you have a new staff, it's so different for the staff, just as much as the players,” Golesh said. “I thought they responded fairly well. I'm so process-oriented, and hammering home what authentically high-end routine should look like is what we needed last week.”

Durkin, the interim head coach from a year ago, saw it as “extremely valuable. The process was a lot easier than expected due to Golesh’s ability to communicate with his staff.

“I've said it before, he just does a great job communicating,” Durkin said. “The communication of this is a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so on and so forth, of what the expectation is and how we do it, I think it was good for our players.”

The emphasis on doing the mock week helps with the details. The earlier that every player is on the same page, as well as the staff, it limits the mistakes that are seen on the field with routines being cemented. Week 1 of a college football season could bring plenty of those miscues that Auburn can’t have.

It’s one less distraction for the Tigers to worry about with doing it a week in advance.

“Before long, if you have players that are just adjusting to a schedule, as little as that seems, it can cause hiccups in execution and what am I supposed to do on this play or that play,” Gordon said. “I think it's a great deal that we do just to expose the players to what this week is going to be.”

The preparation isn’t over though. Golesh will continue to stress the routines in the actual game week this week before Auburn heads east to Atlanta to face Baylor on a neutral site.

He hopes that the additional will have a new-look squad ready to go for a statement 2026 season.

“It'll be big for us this week to go through another one,” Golesh said. “I think we all learned a bunch and adjusted some things. So it will be big.”

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