New Auburn Head Coach Alex Golesh Reviews Positives from Spring Game

Springtime is upon us, and with it comes the Auburn Tigers’ annual spring game. This year, new head coach Alex Golesh revealed a new format for the game, and it resulted in quite an interesting look at the new roster, with many highs and lows represented across the roster.

After the game, Golesh took to the media to talk about what he saw, and quite a few positives made his list.

Golesh started off his interview by describing the impact of playing in Jordan-Hare Stadium in a gameday-like environment, particularly for the players who had never played on the Plains before.

“I don’t know how many people were here, but it was really, really cool,” Golesh said. “I can only imagine what it will be like with 88,000 here. For our guys, especially our guys who have not been here, to get that environment and to be able to play in front of people, that’s a blessing for us.”

Golesh went on to talk about some defensive positives, and in a game where Byrum Brown threw two interceptions, defensive commendations were certainly in order.

“I thought Jared [Smith] on that interception was huge,” he said. “Guys getting their hands on the ball defensively was huge.”

On the other side of the ball, Golesh talked a bit about the rushing game, which accumulated 158 yards off of a game-leading 57 rushing yards from Jeremiah Cobb. Additionally, the Tigers’ rushing depth began to show during A-Day, as Nykahi Davenport, a new USF transfer, also rushed for 41 yards and a touchdown.

New Oregon State transfer quarterback Tristan Ti’a also rushed for a touchdown, though he only had nine yards on the ground.

“I thought offensively we ran the ball well,” Golesh said. “I thought the backs did a good job of hitting holes and getting downhill.”

The biggest positive in Golesh’s eyes, though, is an injury-free spring game. Many do not consider the risks of hosting a mostly full-contact scrimmage, but Golesh is relieved that no Tiger will miss any time on account of a spring game injury.

“There’s no winner in this thing other than our team not getting banged up,” he said. “You sit there and say a prayer before, you say it after each TV timeout, and we made it out healthy, which is a credit to these guys, but I thought it was as physical, which we wanted.”

As a whole, Golesh was clearly quite impressed with the effort put forth by both his athletes and coaches, and believes it will bode well for his team’s first year.

“I do love this group,” Golesh said. “They’re intentional in what they do. We’ve asked them to turn it up, they turned it up. We’ve asked for more attention to detail, they’ve paid more attention to detail… They've answered the bell in the regard that every time I've asked them to do something, they've done it.”

Sign up for our free Auburn Tigers newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news!

Add us as a preferred source on Google