Why Alex Golesh 'Wanted to Throw Up' After Auburn's 43-8 Win Over Southern Miss

The first-year head coach wasn't pleased with Auburn's execution on Saturday night.

Auburn head coach Alex Golesh wasn't pleased with his team's miscues against Southern Miss on Saturday. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Auburn Tigers took down Southern Miss 43-8 in dominant fashion on Saturday night in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Alex Golesh’s squad held a considerable advantage in nearly all aspects of the game, posting over 600 yards of total offense and holding the Golden Eagles to single digits.

However, despite the blowout win in front of a sold-out Jordan-Hare Stadium crowd, Golesh didn’t seem too pleased with his team’s execution in multiple facets of the game.

“I was just so beyond disappointed in the sloppiness. I was beyond disappointed in the block in the back on the punt return, and then the fumble in the red zone. Just sloppy. Sloppy,” Golesh said after the game.

Auburn committed 10 penalties for 73 total yards, with the offense contributing 55 of those yards with seven penalties. The Tigers were flagged for four holding calls, two false starts and one illegal formation.

One of the three non-offensive penalties came on a punt return early in the second quarter, when Scrap Richardson was called for a block in the back on a punt return to negate an 18-yard return by Christian Neptune and push the Tigers back deep in their own territory.

Auburn also recorded two fumbles (one lost), with the most notable coming when Jeremiah Cobb lost control of the ball after a head-on collision with a Golden Eagle defender near the red zone. The ball shot forward, and the visitors recovered it on the Southern Miss 4-yard line.

“I don’t care what the score is. I don’t. That’s what I just told these guys,” Golesh said. “A win is a win, and winning college football games is hard, but if the standard is that and that’s what it looks like, we’re going to have a really, really, really long season.”

Although Golesh had his criticisms of the performance, Auburn’s offense certainly clicked at a higher level than it did last week against Baylor.

Quarterback Byrum Brown went 17-of-28 passing for two touchdowns and no interceptions, seemingly much more comfortable than he looked in Atlanta to open the season.

Brown also added 88 yards on 13 carries on the ground. The senior broke loose on Auburn’s first offensive drive of the game for a 52-yard touchdown run up the middle, but a holding penalty on left tackle Jo Simmons brought it back and resulted in no touchdown.

Overall, Auburn’s offense was humming, recording 343 rushing yards and 610 combined, but the Tigers could’ve easily eclipsed 700 if it weren’t for a few mistakes and debatable calls by the officials.

With the Florida Gators looming and set to visit Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time since 2011 next Saturday, Golesh understands that he has minimal time to tweak and fix the flaws revealed against Southern Miss.

“We have to have a sense of urgency on cleaning this up and that’s on me beyond anybody else. We can’t hold the way we did. Just sloppy,” Golesh said. “I want to throw up. It made me sick, to be honest with you.”

Golesh is appreciative of the win and of the Auburn Family for creating a tough home atmosphere, but he knows his team must make some strides before Jon Sumrall and company come to town next weekend for likely the most important game of the season.

“We’ll take the win and we’re grateful to our fans, but there were so many points offensively left out there,” Golesh said. “It makes me sick. We’ll get it right. We’ll get it cleaned up, but there needs to be a sense of urgency to clean it up.”