Alex Golesh Said So Much Heading Into Showdown With Florida

This is the Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Ooh, Alex Golesh making it very clear. It's time for conference play. You are Locked On Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tigers. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Yes, I'm Zac Blackerby. This is Locked On Auburn, joined by the Montgomery Radio Legend, Darrell Daprich. Coach Golesh just got done with his weekly presser. And I think the thing that's going to get the most attention is when he was asked about his relationship with John Somerall. The way the question was asked, he was citing John Somerall saying that they're friends. And then Coach Golesh said, he said, we're friends? Not this week, we're not. SEC play is back, baby. Let's go. I love that. Again, it shouldn't be revolutionary that a coach acts that way. You can be friends with people in the off season. Yeah. That's nothing wrong with that. Be casual, be cordial. But when it's game week, you know, no, there is no time for, you know, nice pleasantries. I see too much of that in sports. And to quote the great Alex Golesh, it makes me want to throw up. There's too much lovey lovey, kissy kissy on the sidelines before the game, players coming over, dapping each other up, coaches. I'm not saying be a jerk. I'm not saying tiffanize somebody. And show respect, right? Show respect, but there doesn't need to be a love fest. I'm tired of the love fest. It ain't Christmas dinner at grandma's. Just get over there, say hello, shake hands and get the bleep away from them. We all know what's on the line this week. Exactly. We all know the storylines with John Somerall to Auburn, and then Florida missing out on Lane Kiffin, and then Somerall to Florida, and then obviously Auburn scooping up Alex Golesh. We know this. And as soon as the schedule dropped, Darryl, you and I did a show, and I said this will be an arms race throughout the portal window, throughout spring, throughout summer, throughout fall, throughout the first two weeks of the season. Everything has been an arms race for this week. And so no, you don't need to be best friends with the guy you're going up against. I love it. I love it because I think it just kind of continues to show who Alex Golesh is. His job is to win football games at Auburn. And he knows what's at stake this weekend. There's a more inherent pressure from a narrative standpoint, from the coaching aspect for Auburn than Florida. So like if Florida was to win this game, the Auburn, you know, you hear the noise with people going, Oh, Cohen, you know, missed out on some role. That's not going to be the case for Florida because Florida wanted Kiffin was left at the altar. It's not like Golesh was choosing between Florida and Auburn and chose Auburn. So there that narrative is really one sided on that. So when you talk about an arms race, I disagree. That's great because I think in the court of public opinion, outside of Auburn, outside of Florida, just like, you know, unbiased. I think the pressure is on Florida as well because I think most people believe John Somerall is the better coach. I mean, you look at the benefit of the doubt that Florida has gotten throughout the offseason over Auburn, I think that's pretty telling. Except that it looks like the perception is that Florida swung for the home run and had Kiffin considering them and then settled for Somerall. And Auburn, Somerall and Golesh were kind of like 1A, 1B. I mean, you know, if you believe the narrative that Somerall was first choice, I don't. I think there were some negotiating back and forth and that Golesh was always in the picture now. I've come to believe that. So that's why I feel like there's a little bit more pressure. Now, the one thing that Auburn and Florida have in common in a weird way in this coaching carousel besides the Somerall narrative is they both got left at the altar by Lane Kiffin. One happened five years ago or four years ago, three years ago, and then the other happened to Florida last year. So there's just these, I don't know, similarities that between both, I think, both schools have won 17 games over the last three years. Both had coaches and Billy Napier or Hugh Freeze that woefully undercheat. That's why this arms race thing that you mentioned is the exact narrative and adjective that needs to be described for this game. That encapsulates all of it. Who gets there quicker? Who breaks out of the funk? Who breaks out of the trend in the last three years? Does Florida or does Auburn? Whoever does, this game is step one towards that. Yeah, and big picture like, does whoever loses on Saturday mean they hire the wrong guy? No, it doesn't. But man, whoever wins it, I just think is going to feel like they're playing with house money for the rest of the year. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. All right. As far as like things of note that probably like actually impact Saturday. CK Murray and Womack practicing today, obviously that's going to be super important. Darryl, I know that you interacted with Womack before the game. Sounded like he was healthy, just wasn't a go on Saturday. So that's obviously great news. Auburn needs all the help at edge as they possibly can get. I love the fact he was very genuine with me when he said, I'm healthy, I can play, but I don't know if I'm going to play. And I said, really? And he goes, it's not my decision. They're going to let me know if I'm going to play or not. So that was telling he could go, he could have played. I think it was the smart move, the right move. At the end of the day, when you beat somebody 35, it really looks like a smart move. CK Murray and him give them much needed depth, much needed experience out there on the outside and talent. I mean, they've played well. And so that's a big, big plus and bonus for the Auburn defense. Yes, I agree. Was asked a lot about the interior offensive line. Didn't say anything like super definitive on it. Did you feel like you flat out like hinted that Zero was the starter or I mean, he didn't say it, right? Like you didn't explicitly say it. What is your takeaway from that? I don't know if he starts. I hope he does. I think he was very, very, uh, clear in saying that it's rare for a guy that young to be able to move inside and outside and that Zero did that. And so that he gave him high marks for that went right into the whole thing about then the offensive line held on some plays that hurt them and you can't do that. So I don't, he really didn't tip his hand too much on, on who would start. I personally from the eyeball test think that the offensive line played much. I call it the gunner Britain factor, moving an offensive tackle to guard. And he can play at that level and can, and play well. I think it makes your offensive line better. I mean, Dylan Way do it. Yeah. So scoot guys in. It's hard to scoot guys out. For sure. Absolutely. So if that can happen, I think it makes the offensive line better. Yeah. I think from a football standpoint, those are the two biggest things. There really wasn't much meat on the bone there. Before we hit record, I wanted to see if he backtracked at all. Yeah. Hold on. Let's jump into that too. You did say this was your biggest takeaway before we clicked record. That's coming up right here. Unlocked On Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Omaha Steaks. Love Omaha Steaks. Daryl, some of the best steaks and ribs. They've got all sorts of different meats over at Omaha Steaks. Omaha Steaks makes it easy with high quality proteins, butchered and aged in-house and sourced right here in the US. Shop proteins you can trust at omahasteaks.com, and right now get two pounds of premium ground beef free with orders over $129 using code COLLEGE. At checkout, that is omahasteaks.com. Terms apply, see site for details. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. FanDuel is America's number one sports book right now. Auburn, a two and a half point underdog. If you think Auburn wins on Saturday, the money line for FanDuel is prime value. If you think the Tigers should be favored going into Saturday. You can get $350 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet $5 every day for seven days. Bet $5 each day, you get $50 in bonus bets every day for seven days. Visit fanduel.com to get started today. Yeah, Darrell, you just teased it. What would you say your biggest takeaway from what we just heard Golesh say? I think this is a great point. I paid really close attention to his demeanor and his overall body posture during the press conference to see if he backed off at all of what he came out with Saturday night that, you know, I want to throw up comments, sloppy, disappointed, used all the adjectives. Sometimes Zac, as a coach, you're in the moment, you're in the heat of the game, you're emotional, then you take 24 hours to decompress and process, watch film. And I've seen a lot of coaches like back off that and go, now that I've watched film, you know, they've come out two days later. No senior for Alex Golesh. He did not come off that at all. He is still, used the term, makes me want to throw up. Of course, he was talking about the Tulane game two years ago, still used sloppy a lot, still used disappointed a lot, talked about leaving points on the field, talked about missed tackles, used words like unacceptable. He has not eased up and lightened up at all from watching what happened 48 hours ago. And that was very, very telling to me. Yep. Yep, I think so as well. I like that a lot. I'll never forget. I'll never, and this is where I started thinking, oh no, this isn't going to go well. When Brian Harsin lost at Penn State and he was asked about the two-point conversion call. Yeah, he was asked about the two-point conversion call at the end. And after the game, he's like, yeah, we got to go look back at film. I'm not sure what went wrong. Okay. And then the look on his face when he came out the next week and was like, all right, you watch film. What did you see? And like his face was like, oh, y'all aren't over this yet. And it's like, Alex Golesh isn't over this yet. And that's exactly, I mean, he wasn't over, you know, he was asked about some are all playing them a few years ago and he was watching tape yesterday and he said, he still wanted to throw up from watching a game that was several years old. Like you want a coach that doesn't get over that stuff. He allows things to stick with him and he wears things. And I understand about turning the page and he mentioned, okay, turn the page. He turns the page, but he puts a bookmark in the previous chapter. He just does. It's like, okay, because I'm going to refer back to that if I need to, for what I want to accomplish in this next game. If I don't learn or utilize this lesson, from what happened, so that I can apply that to win this next game. It's great to put things in the past and not dwell on them, but dadgummit, you better learn from them too, and you better be able to go back to them when the situation occurs again, i.e. positive and negative. When Auburn gets in a situation in a game, and there's 40 seconds left to go in the half, and they are starting at their own 25-yard line, there's no way you can convince me that they will not have the confidence to move the ball 50 yards to get field goal range because of what they did last week. Sure. It happened in the past, but you pull from it, and you pull from the negatives too. Hey, we don't need to do this. We don't need to do that. He is... it's a very good balance of looking forward, but learning from what's behind. And just coming out in this press conference today, it was indicative that that's how he's wired. Yeah, which is what we assume, and it's nice to see it actually happen. I mean, it's so much different. I mean, it's the complete opposite from the we're close thing, right? Like it's just a complete, complete opposite. You're winning and it's not good enough, which is great. Which is great. So awesome. Please like the video, please subscribe. Darrell, how can people check out everything you've got going on? Wherever you get your podcast with you and Locked On Auburn, Auburn Numerous during the week, and then some on Auburn Daily as well. Please once again, like the video, subscribe, all that good stuff. We'll see you next time. This has been Locked On Auburn. 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