Alex Golesh came to Auburn with a simple promise: make the Tigers more disciplined. Five games into the season, that part of the rebuild still feels stuck in the same place.
The latest reminder came in Auburn’s 24-14 loss to Tennessee, a game where the Tigers kept stacking problems on top of problems. Five false starts.
Four straight three-and-outs. A night that looked less like a team being outclassed on every snap and more like one repeatedly tripping over itself.
That matters because Auburn’s offensive line is already fighting uphill. When a unit is struggling to win its matchups, self-inflicted wounds hit even harder. Every penalty, every negative play, every drive that starts behind schedule makes the job tougher than it already is.
Against Tennessee, Auburn’s first four possessions all included either a penalty or a negative play on an early down. The result was four consecutive three-and-outs, and that makes the usual conversation about play calling a lot harder to sort out. It’s difficult to judge an offense’s rhythm when it never gets the chance to build one.
That kind of sloppiness is not going to hold up in the SEC, and it certainly won’t play well when Auburn comes out of the bye week and heads to Georgia. The Bulldogs may be the best team in the country, and the Tigers are staring at the toughest stretch of their season.
No one reasonably expected Golesh to rebuild Auburn’s offensive line in one season. The issues up front have been building for years, and fixing them will take more than one recruiting class.
It’s also fair to say Golesh and his staff missed badly on talent evaluation with some of the players they brought to the Plains. But discipline was supposed to be different.
That was supposed to show up immediately.
Instead, Auburn is still dealing with the same kinds of mistakes that have haunted the program for years.
Golesh has talked about execution, fundamentals and winning in the margins. Those are the right words.
Now they have to become the right habits. Right now, Auburn is not talented enough on offense to survive this many wasted snaps and still expect consistent results.
When a team is already trying to establish the run, protect the quarterback and sustain drives, it cannot keep turning second-and-five into second-and-ten because somebody jumps early. In an offense built on tempo and rhythm, negative plays are poison. They kill drives before they have a chance to breathe.
The bye week gives Auburn a chance to clean up some of this for the first time since Golesh took over. No one should expect the Tigers to suddenly look elite against Georgia, or even necessarily threaten to win that game. October is a brutal run for this group.
But there is still one thing Auburn can and should start doing right now: stop beating itself.
In Other News...
Ex-Auburn QB Holden Geriner's Pitt Buzz Faded Fast Under Pressure
Holden Geriners sudden rise at Pitt looked like one of those September detours that can change a season. After Mason Heintschel went down with a season-ending injury in Week 5, the former Auburn quarterback stepped in, helped the Panthers beat Virginia Tech and pushed Pitt into the AP Top 25 Poll, a jolt of momentum for a team trying to steady itself at the position.
The follow-up, though, was a reminder of why the job never looked fully settled. Pitt dropped its Week 6 game at North Carolina and slid out of the rankings, with Geriner throwing two interceptions and taking two sacks as the Panthers again ran into the sort of issues that have followed him before, especially with mobility and holding onto a starting role. For Pitt, the early buzz has cooled quickly, and the bigger question is whether Geriner is a bridge or something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Still Has The Same QB Problem Auburn Just Exposed
Tennessees depth chart heading into the Arkansas game offered a clear look at how unsettled things still are under center. Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre were listed as co-starters, a reflection of the uncertainty that has followed the Volunteers even after their recent win over Auburn, where the Tigers helped expose how shaky the quarterback picture can look when the pressure rises.
Josh Heupel has already acknowledged Brandons shoulder issue, and both quarterbacks remain available, which keeps the decision in motion rather than settled. For Auburn fans watching from a distance, the update is a reminder that the loss still carries some aftereffects for Tennessee, and that the Volunteers are carrying real questions into a crucial SEC stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Auburns Defensive Portal Class Is Already Raising One Big Concern
Five games into the season, Auburns defensive transfer class is starting to get a position-by-position audit, and the early picture is a mixed one. The defensive line has held up reasonably well, earning the strongest mark of the bunch at a B thanks in part to Cody Siglers contributions, while the edge rusher group has landed at a C+ as the Tigers keep looking for more consistent disruption off the edge.
The concern is showing up a level deeper in the defense, where the cornerback group has been graded C- because the transfer additions have not produced much so far. Linebacker and safety have also brought only limited impact from the portal, which leaves Auburn with one obvious question as the season settles in: whether the defensive additions can become more than just depth pieces before the schedule starts pressing harder. [Read more 🡒]