Auburn football did something that it hasn’t done since the 2017 season: beat the No. 1 team in the country, the Georgia Bulldogs. However, the Tigers’ head coach, Alex Golesh, is already looking to upset another team, this time at home.
Despite the celebration at Toomer’s Corner when Auburn returned to the Plains that night, Golesh is already fixated on his next opponent, which will be a different set of Tigers, in No. 18 LSU.
He’s preached in the past how winning a big game can lead to a lack of sharpness in the next game. For Auburn, it can’t afford to do so, with the matchup with Lane Kiffin’s group being the only game that the Tigers have inside Jordan-Hare Stadium for October.
Instead, Golesh wants to take advantage of the momentum.
“That's the piece, and I’ve said this before, good win or tough loss, it all has to be the same on Monday morning,” he said on Monday. “I'll give our kids a lot of credit. They responded.”
For a coach who picked up the defining moment of his coaching career in just the sixth game of his tenure at Auburn, Golesh has stressed that he wants to put this program in situations where it can be a contender to win any game.
Especially against an LSU team that has won away from Tiger Stadium this season, Auburn will have to replicate the performance of the Georgia game to get a chance to do so. That isn’t before the Tigers’ head coach is holding his group accountable for the mistakes that were made that made them almost lose the game, losing a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
The question Golesh asks his players is simple: “Fundamentally, are we getting better?”
Are we tackling better? Are we blocking better? And I'm talking about pad level, hat placements, run tracks. Uncharacteristically, we had five drops in that game, and two in the first drive of the game from guys who don't do that,” he said.
Auburn enters that game as a touchdown underdog against LSU, which is looking for something to prove away from Baton Rouge as well. If the Tigers on the Plains can limit the turnover margin while forcing takeaways off of transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt, which he has done to begin his career in the Bayou, it could mean Golesh shocks the conference again with a statement win.
The return home is another advantage Auburn will look to take advantage of, too.
"The excitement to get back home, the excitement to play at Jordan-Hare, the excitement to play in front of our fans,” Golesh said, “I can't tell you how geeked our guys are to get right back out on the field.”
Of course, that excitement can’t just happen on the first drive both ways. If Auburn can continue to follow Golesh’s process-driven culture throughout practice this week, and makes the winning plays he preaches, it could have LSU on the ropes at points throughout the 60-minute process.
However, the Tigers’ head coach says the margins are thin. Just look at what happened to the Bulldogs last weekend.
“We're going to need our crowd. We're going to need it to be juicy, rocking as it always is, and we need a huge week of prep,” Golesh said. “Like I said, right back to the fundamentals, right back to making sure schematically we're right, and go and compete at a high, high level on Saturday."
Kickoff between Auburn and No. 18 LSU is set for 11 a.m. Central with the game to be broadcast on ABC.
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