Auburn is changing up fall camp in a big way, and Alex Golesh made it clear Tuesday that the Tigers are doing it on purpose.
Instead of letting players scatter to apartments and houses during camp, Auburn will keep the team together at the Grand National Marriott in Opelika, Ala., about 20 minutes from campus. Golesh said the point is simple: remove the noise and keep the focus locked in on football.
“We need it. Just us,” he said.
“Nothing else. No girlfriends, no dogs, no cats."
The setup stands out, especially when measured against Hugh Freeze’s fall camps. But the timing makes sense.
School is about to start, students are returning to town, and the usual social pull around campus is about to ramp up. Golesh wants his players away from that while they work through what could be the most important stretch of practice all year.
That matters even more because a number of these players are still getting their first real taste of Auburn as students, whether they arrived as transfers or true freshmen. With that in mind, the message is clear: football comes first, and everything else can wait.
There are still questions hanging over the Tigers heading into camp, so Golesh clearly doesn’t want any wasted energy. The goal is to stay focused, stay together and build the kind of connection that can carry through the rest of the offseason.
And while the team will be tucked away at the hotel, Golesh may not be entirely immune from a little fun. He was already shown in a viral summer photo throwing himself into a hotel pool on a team trip.
Auburn opens against Baylor exactly one month from Wednesday, so the countdown is on. Golesh’s approach says plenty about how seriously he’s treating this stretch as the Tigers try to get ready for the season ahead.
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Auburns New Era Already Faces Doubt In The SEC
Alex Golesh has barely settled into the Auburn job, and already the SEC is trying to sort out what kind of hire this really was. Since arriving, he has been credited with helping change the programs culture, bringing a clearer identity to a place that badly needed one, but national outsiders are still approaching him with caution. CBS Sports recently ranked Golesh 12th among the leagues 16 head coaches, a reminder that reputation in this conference is built on results, not intent.
For Auburn, the ranking is less a verdict than a snapshot of the uncertainty surrounding a new era. Goleshs early focus has been on recruiting and on laying a foundation the Tigers can actually build on, which is exactly what a program in transition needs. The real test, though, is still ahead, and it may take another season or two before anyone knows whether the early optimism was justified or if the skepticism around his SEC track record was the sharper read. [Read more 🡒]