Alex Golesh was hired by Auburn just after midnight on Sunday morning. Today he went through a Tiger Walk and then spoke with the media. These are the things he said.
Opening statement…
“War Eagle! I am so humbled and so grateful to be standing in front of you today. It’s been a fascinating, let’s call it, 35 hours – 24 hours on campus. I can’t tell you how appreciative my family is of the opportunity. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to be standing here today. I want to thank Dr. (Chris) Roberts for the warm welcome and the opportunity. I want to thank John (Cohen) for his integrity through the search, for him doing it the right way, for the timing of it all to work out the right way, and from the start to the end doing it with the highest class and the integrity that he promised from the beginning he would do it with. I’m grateful for that, John. The Board of Trustees for how quickly and rapidly we were able to go through this process and for accepting me, I’m grateful for that. Lee Van Horn and the administrative staff that’s worked for the last 24 hours. We took a little nap last night for about an hour and then were right back at it. Everybody that was involved with the search, thank you for choosing me and this staff and my family to represent one of the most storied programs in all of college football.
The Auburn Creed. Work, hard work. I believe in Auburn and love it. John tells the story of my family coming to the U.S., and I told the staff I hate talking about myself. I don’t ever want to stand up here and talk about me. I want to stand up here and talk about this program, Auburn University and, more importantly, our players. For the next couple of minutes I’ll go through it, and then from here on out it’ll be about the program, the team and everything that Auburn University stands for. I want to thank the most important person in my life, my rock and the one who allows me to go to work and as she says, ‘Hang out and do football with my buddies’. This young lady who I’ve dragged all across the country for the last 16 years, she’s never once complained, never once said anything other than, ‘I’ve got it. I love you. You’re going to go do great, and you’re going to go win.’ My wife, Alexis, is a rockstar. My kiddos, Barrett and Corbin, all they keep talking about is they can’t wait to get up here and start playing baseball, flag football, cheering and entrench ourselves into this community. I don’t know if this community is ready for Barrett Golesh, but it’ll be a hell of a ride.
What you’re going to get from me, from our staff and as we get rolling our players, is the hardest-working, toughest, grittiest program in the entire country. We’re going to work day in and day out. We’re going to find wins at every single margin we can find. We’re going to build a process-driven program. A process-driven program where we wake up and worry about winning every single aspect of our lives every single day. I truly believe that if you buy into a process, a way of doing things day in and day out, from the moment you wake up, to how you come in, to how you attack your relationships in the building, to how you attack the weight room, sports medicine, nutrition, the film room, the teaching, and then certainly the work out on the field; if you buy into eating right, sleeping right, hydrating right, outworking people at the things that nobody else sees, the end result will happen. A lot of the time you don’t control the end result, but you control your daily habits and you control your daily process, and if you keep pouring into that day in and day out, day in and day out, us as a staff, the student athletes, everybody who touches our guys, at whatever point the process will pay you back. We’re also going to have a hell of a lot of fun doing it. We’re going to be explosive on offense. We’re going to play really fast. We’re going to challenge teams in every imaginable way. We’re going to run the freaking ball. People around here like running the football, and I can respect it. We’re going to be explosive. We’re going to play really fast and it’s going to be a brand of football that’s going to be fun to watch. Defensively, we’re going to be just as fun to watch. We’ll be aggressive, create explosives, create negatives, create turnovers. We’re going to be the most violent freaking team on the football field every single Saturday. We’re going to be different on special teams. We’re going to create explosives on teams. It’s going to be a huge difference in why we win. We’re going to outwork, outthink and outprocess people across the entire country. I told the guys yesterday in our team meeting that at whatever point, we’re ready to be a player-driven program, player-driven; I think in my time as I’ve gone through this journey, I’ve been involved in every aspect or every level of this thing. The one thing that remains the same is when it’s coach driven, when the culture, the standards of everything in the program is driven by the coaches, the support staff, you max out. Whatever that number is, you max out. When the standards are upheld within that locker room, withing each position meeting room, in every aspect of their lives, when it’s driven by the players, we’ll bring a national championship here to Auburn University.
Recruiting is exactly the same. We are rolling up our sleeves. We’ve been here for 24 hours and we’ve gone to work. We’re going to recruit this 250-mile radius harder than anybody in the entire country. The high school football within these 250 miles is nothing short of elite. I’ve been in this part of the country for a long time. I’ve recruited this part of the country for a long time. Our staff, as it all comes together, is going to have a giant footprint in this 250-mile radius around campus. We’re going to identify, we’re going to recruit, we’re going to attack, and we’re going to bring those guys right here to the Plains. We’re going to develop as hard as anybody ever has. The investment that has been made by the administration to go and attack every single part of recruiting is phenomenal – nothing short of phenomenal. We’ve got every resource known to man right here to be able to go attract, recruit, retain and develop the best talent there is in the entire country.
Twenty-two straight sellouts here in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Three straight years of sold-out season tickets. The support is real. You could feel it walking in here this morning. We’re in a race against ourselves to give this elite fanbase, to take these elite resources and give what these Auburn fans deserve in every imaginable way. We’re in a race against ourselves to do it as fast as we can. At the end of the day, I can’t wait until the fall – 88,043 to cheer on our guys and to give this fanbase exactly what you deserve.
I’m humbled. I’m honored. I’m so grateful to be here. This is a dream come true. To be the head football coach at Auburn University, to represent this fanbase, I’m beyond grateful for you choosing me, John (Cohen). I’m going to pay it back tenfold. I will give this fanbase, the alumni base, the former players and everybody involved in this university every single bit of everything I’ve got. I’m grateful, I’m humbled and I appreciate you. War Damn Eagle. Let’s rock.”
On how to describe his offense…
“I would tell you that the foundation of it is that everything starts with the run. We find ways to run the football. We find ways to create matchups in the run game. Off of the run game sets up everything downfield in the pass game. We use the entire width of the field. We’ll condense it. We’ll expand it, and we use tempo to our advantage. Put defenses in a disadvantage. Try to simplify what defenses can do, and we try to create one-on-one matchups with as much space as you imagine we can. That’s the offense.”
On being aggressive in all phases…
“I think the most important thing, whether it’s offense or defense or special teams, it all has to complement each other. When you talk about complementary football, it’s got to match, and the culture you build on all three sides of the ball has to match. We’re going to be uber aggressive on offense. Aggressive means calculated. That doesn’t mean you’re doing things that are irrational or don’t make sense, but if we’re going to be uber aggressive, we’re going to make defenses play on their heels; the defense has to match. You’ve got to create extra possessions. You’ve got to create explosives. You’ve got to get the ball back to the offense. The special teams have to match it if you’re going to be uber aggressive on offense and defense. The special teams tie it all together. As you look at what we’ve done throughout my time, whether it be as an offensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, as a head coach, that’s been the key. As you build a culture within a program and you go into offseason training, and they understand that the theme of what you do is very aggressive… That’s how you train in the offseason. That’s how you prepare in the offseason. We’re going to play fast on offense. We’re going to play fast on defense and play fast on special teams. We’re going to train that way. I think it truly becomes your foundation. It becomes the culture core for your program. You’re going to be aggressive.”
On building his coaching staff…
“We’ve been here for 24 hours and obviously had a plan going in that we presented, and we’re slowly but surely executing the plan. You mentioned Kodi Burns – Kodi got the phone call at 2 a.m. and man, you talk about excited. All Kodi’s talked about since the day that he joined our staff six years ago is how incredible this place is and what Auburn University has meant to his life. A lot of years of stories of playing here and playing there and what this stadium is like day in and day out. Kodi is going to be our associate head coach. Kodi’s been by my side for so long and is as incredible as they come as a teammate for me and for our staff. He’s an elite teacher, elite man and an elite football coach. So, you talk about a guy that is happy to be here, I’m beyond excited to be able to be a part of bringing Kodi back home and he’ll have pointers for me forever.
The answer to the defensive side is that I’m working through it. We’ve got a plan, we’re working through steps to execute the plan. My hope is that in the next 24 to 48 hours that gets finalized and we have some clarity with which direction we’re going, but we’re working through it.”
On working with Josh Heupel and becoming a play-caller…
“So I was with Josh (Heupel) at UCF prior to (Tennessee), and I think the biggest thing from an offensive side when we went to Tennessee was the fact that we had to adjust. We had to change. This league is different, the defenses are different, and certainly the level of talent is different. The packages you get are different, and third down looks like a completely different world in this league. Josh had been in it and forced us to change and evolve, and I think that was probably the biggest growth for me offensively that I made as a play caller was just understanding is to be different but also forcing us to change and adjust. The same thing happened when we went to the University of South Florida. We had to change and adjust to a different brand of football, different defensively, and different in terms of what you’re seeing. I think the unique thing with the offense specifically is you have to continue to evolve as people and figure out exactly what you’re doing, and I think that’s what is awesome about the offensive staff we’re bringing in with Kodi Burns and as other names here come out. Having guys that are elite at adjusting and changing and evolving as one, time goes, but two, who you’re playing goes. In terms of the play calling, it’s going to continue to be what it has been here in the last couple of years with the University of South Florida. We got an offensive staff that is going to be absolutely elite, a large chunk of which is coming with, and those guys will absolutely crush it. Our offensive coordinator will call plays and everybody else in that room will have a ton of input. And I’ll be honest with you, going back to the Tennessee time, it’s always been a collaborative effort. The offensive line coach is crazy involved, the receiver coach is crazy involved, the quarterback coach is crazy involved. We’ve got young coaches that are crazy involved, and when you get into a game, there’s so much conversation in between drives, it’s as truly as a collaborative effort as you could ever imagine. I have a two cents at times, we all kind of do, and ultimately the guy calling the plays, it’s on him to get us in the right spot. It’s a constant communication and it’s a really cool way that we’ve done it; collaborative up until the offensive coordinator makes the play call.”
On competing and recruiting against Alabama and Georgia…
“I think as a competitor in any way, you thrive for the competition to be elite. This is the greatest conference in the entire country. The rivalries you just mentioned are the greatest rivalries in college football. The hair on my arm just stood up thinking about the Iron Bowl. I absolutely can’t wait to be a part of, to be back to being a part of, rivalries like that. It’s, like I already said, goosebumps. That’s what you live for. If you’re any sort of competitor, if you’re in this game, that’s what you live for. We’ll be ready to rock.”
On what he learned at previous coaching stops…
“That’s a good question. For whatever reason, the good Lord has blessed me with being a part of staffs that have come into situations, going all the way back to the University of Toledo and my first full time job, going into situations that weren’t great when we got there and being part of the rebuilding. When I tell you, you learn the good with the bad, every aspect of those experiences is what you build on. It gives you the confidence to go do this at this level. What you learn is you have to have a plan. You have to live by the plan, stick to the plan, and more importantly than having the plan, you better be able to make corrections to the plan. I think the experience is what allows you to be confident going into it. You mentioned the last two places, drastically different. Drastically different timing wise, drastically different eras in college football. Where I gained confidence from both of those experiences is I was heavily involved in the Tennessee one simply because, obviously being in the coordinator role, but the timing of it. It was as unique of a situation as you could imagine getting there at the end of January as the transfer portal closed, as crazy as you could imagine, and navigating that process. Then going to the University of South Florida where the timing was more right, I guess you could say, in terms of getting there at the beginning of December and working through it. I think the one thing that doesn’t change is this; you have to be able to identify the immediate roster and figure out really quickly who fits. By fits I don’t mean offensively or defensively or special teams, who wants to be there. Who has at least a chance to buy into what you’re doing. Understanding that when you come into a situation where the success wasn’t flowing, change has to be made. I think ultimately, I told the guys yesterday, change is inevitable. What they choose to do with the change is their choice. Identifying who wants to be here, making sure it matches who and what this program is truly going to be about, and by that I mean what the standards of this program are, and then being able to bring your staff in as quickly as you can. Not too fast. You want to make sure you get the right people, but bringing in your staff as fast you can and immersing your players with your staff. At the end of the day you have to have the plan coming in, be able to adjust with it, and we’re on hour 23 of the plan right now.“
On what it takes to win close games…
“I think the biggest thing when you talk about closing out games, finishing, is a mindset. You train year-round in our sport, for 12 guaranteed opportunities, and you fight your tail off for 13, and 14, and 15, and gosh darn it 16. The mindset that has to be built, the level of accountability that trains discipline within a program, is what prepares you for the fourth quarter. You have to train it. We’re going to train the fourth quarter part of what we do, starting the very first second that we start in January with our guys. And it starts with winter workouts. In the spring, certainly in the summer, and what that looks like in terms of training discipline day-in and day-out. And then fall camp is the final piece of that. But you train discipline daily to be able to go finish in the fourth quarter. That piece of it is simply who wants it more. There’s obviously a scheme part of it. There’s certain things and margins that you’ve got to be able to go get. Finishing in the fourth quarter is a mindset. The game is still a one-on-one game. You’ve got to want it more than the other guy, and you’ve got to train it. We’ve got to train it better than anybody in the country.”
On how his family story impacted his life and shaped him as a coach…
“There’s so many emotions I go through when I think about my parents who dropped everything in 1991 to bring me and my brother here and give us a better life. What was going on at that time, they didn’t want us to have anything to do with it. And we watched our parents go to a new country with no jobs, with no promise of anything. And, I was seven, my brother was 10 and we watched them work tirelessly. We had an apartment, we had a roof over our head, we always had everything we needed. And I think I learned, at a really early age, really two things from them. One, you can still out-work people in this life. One thing about this country is you can still out-work people. It’s the same in football as it is in the business world as it is in any aspect in any other industry. But I think, two, more than anything else, the power of love, the power of commitment, the power of sacrifice. It resonates in every aspect of society. You just go outwork people, love on people, give them more of yourself than you ever take, you can change people’s lives. And ultimately, amongst all of the craziness in college football, the one thing that hasn’t changed is these young guys still want someone to love on them, help them get better, help develop them, and know that somebody cares. Build a level of trust that they’ll do anything for you because they know you’ll do anything from them. That’s what I learned from my parents.”
On prioritizing roster retention, recruiting and hiring a staff…
“I think the most critical thing I was asked earlier is to have a plan going in. Give John (Cohen) credit, and his search committee. He wanted to know the plan. We have an incredible support staff that helped put this plan together, but when I tell you minute-by-minute, we get close. Minute-by-minute we have mapped out the entire first six months as we go forward. These first really seven days are as critical as anything else. You’re right, hiring a staff, recruiting for signing day Wednesday, I think more important than any of that is meeting with our current players here. Truly, a lot of these guys are in the same footprint that we have been in for a long time, so a lot of these guys in some capacity somebody on our staff knows the recruiting process from the beginning, but some of them don’t. So that is the priorities – our current players here, which is why the first thing we did when we got in was we went and talked to our players. From there, the class that’s committed, the class that’s committed and may be wavering a little bit, working through that part of it, working through the guys that we have been recruiting at the last place or that may be committed elsewhere, trying to make sure Wednesday is the very best that it possibly can be. Lastly, as you get a break in between using the restroom and trying to eat a Doritos, you’re trying to finalize hiring a staff. And all of that, you’re truly bouncing back and forth, but again I think the most important thing, and I can’t say this enough, is the current players that are here because these are the guys that have the most immediate choice to make right now. It’s either ‘I am going to stay here and keep with it and build something really special,’ or ‘Man, I don’t know if this is for me,’ but I think my most important priority is our current players; not to me, but to whoever said I’m coming to Auburn and I’m part of this Auburn Family and I want to do this the right way here. So now everything else comes after, but that’s pretty much it.”
On his success developing quarterbacks and Auburn’s current QB room…
“Yeah, I think quarterback play is so much about putting a system together that fits the quarterback. I think so much in college football is about when we run a system, this is what we do and this is how we do it. I think elite coaches can say, ‘Man, this is the best quarterback that we have. Now let’s tailor the system for him.’ It’s truly the same for every other position is making sure that you’re fitting your system around the quarterback. I think that’s what’s so unique about what we do offensively. If you really study us and you look at what we do, it’s not what we talk about being able to adjust earlier, but it’s not plug and play. What we do schematically changes year to year. It grows as the year goes, as the quarterback grows. It grows as you have injuries, potentially. You have to be able to adjust personnel settings. It’s always going to be about players, formations, plays and offense. The quarterback is certainly the most critical piece of that. We were fortunate to have high-level quarterbacks the last 10 years or so that have played for our staff. Part of that is recruiting the right guy. Part of that is the elite development at that position, and the two guys that are coming in to work with the quarterbacks are the best I’ve ever been around, which is why they’re coming to Auburn. I think fitting the system around whoever ends up being the one, and then ultimately the two and the three, will be absolutely critical to our success this fall. You look at a room that is uber talented – young in some ways, experienced in some ways – and as we work through and navigate truly who wants to be here, who wants to continue in their development under this coaching staff, I think we’ll have more clarity here in the next, let’s say, a week and a half in terms of that. We’ve met with a majority of the guys that are here, and we finished here this morning. Really trying to make decisions in terms of who wants to be here, who truly doesn’t want to be here, and then we’ll figure out how attack the room after that.”
On golf…
“So, it’s a setup question. I’ve been here long enough to know that. So, my little man, Barrett, loves golf. Corbin used to, and she’s now super into cheerleading and flag football, so she’s just doing it as a hobby now. My wife is an elite golfer. I like football more than golf. And I am terrible.”
On what inspired him to become a football coach…
“I think, if I heard your question right, did I at (age) seven think I’d be standing here in front of you? I think this moment, standing here in front of you, for me is incredibly surreal. I have dreamed of this moment. I don’t know if I did at seven. I think at seven, I was just hoping I could get a new Nerf ball that I could play football with. But I think for me, I wanted to coach because I had incredible coaches growing up. I had elite examples of what men of character, who care about young people, who give more of themselves than they ever take, I had some incredible examples. Some of them are going to be on our staff. I think as I got into college and really started to think about what I wanted to do, I wanted to coach and ended up coaching high school football to start. Then I realized that the 3-6 p.m. was what I was really excited about. The 7 a.m.-3 p.m. I actually didn’t care for because all I did was think about football the whole time. I had some incredible opportunities as I’ve gone through this profession that I just continue to immerse myself in the game, and here we are.”
On Auburn’s current roster impacting his decision to take the job…
“The biggest factors that go into choosing a job is, number one, alignment. That’s where it starts. I’m not avoiding the question, but alignment meaning is who you are going to work with going to lock arm-in-arm with you, have the same vision that you do? Is it aligned from the top, with the commitment that’s being talked about, is it elite? That was factor number one in terms of making sure the situation we walk into aligned, and there was a real commitment to winning, and not just kind of winning, but an elite commitment to being the best in the country. There wasn’t anybody like this place in terms of alignment and commitment. Number two is, is there support? Is there real, authentic support? What I saw Saturday night at the end of that (game), on the TV, was the greatest atmosphere in college football. When you combine that, you can win at a high, high level. The current roster is certainly something that you look at, I think, as you evaluate it. It’s important to have a foundation, but I think it’s the third of what was important, at least to me and our staff and my family.”
On his approach to find the right quarterback…
“Yeah, I think that’s a great question. I’ve been in situations where you knew going into spring who your one, two and three were. We were in that boat a year ago. I’ve been in situations, shoot, more times than I can even think of, where it went all the way through August. I don’t know if you can rush that part of it. I do know this – you want to have the best competition we possibly can in a room because if you do, you let these guys compete, give them every opportunity to grow, develop within the base foundation of what you are from a system standpoint, and then you pick the guy that you feel like gives you the best chance to win. There are so many factors that go into that. There is obviously the mental side of it, like who can process it faster than anybody else. There’s obviously the physical component to it, and I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. I don’t think you can rush that part of it. There’s talented, talented dudes in that room. They have tape, certainly, at this level. We are evaluating it like crazy; we evaluated it coming in. I think the biggest thing we have to figure out right now is the competition part of that. Are you going to add someone else? Are you going to add multiple people? At the end of the day, the competition will take as long as it needs to. I think in the perfect world we would love to know in January, but in our situation here we won’t, and we probably won’t until August I would imagine, unless spring ball carries out in such a fashion that you’ll know.”
