Last weekend's Auburn football game against the Tennessee Volunteers was a tough watch for Tiger fans. The defense showed up and repeatedly created opportunities for the offense, but the offense just couldn't figure it out.
For first-year head coach Alex Golesh, an offense-minded coach, the struggles on that side of the ball are glaring.
“I’ve prided myself for a long, long time on having answers offensively to be able to go,” Golesh said. “And we didn’t. And that’s the part that eats at me.”
As the game went on, the pre-snap penalties piled up and the Tigers lost 94 yards to penalties by the end of the fourth quarter. The offense couldn't get into any rhythm, and despite having capable running backs the Tigers continue to struggle to establish the run game.
Golesh said earlier in the season that the coaching staff is still working to find the best rotation of 10 different players when it comes to the offensive line, but that unit is still having trouble. After all, quarterback Byrum Brown has been sacked 21 times this season so far.
“There are some decently bright spots, and then some of the negative has been, like, catastrophically negative,” Golesh said, of the position group. “I think a lot of it has to do with: Can we put those guys in situations where they can be successful -- because we’ve got who we’ve got. Can they continue to get better? You saw as that game went, we started to do some more outside zone stuff where those guys were able to get their footing and get going."
Heading into the bye week, Golesh said that the staff's focus will be determining what the Tigers are doing well and how they can build around that to make things easier for the offensive line and the rest of the offense. At the end of the day, though, Golesh was quick to take accountability for Auburn football's issues.
“Whatever deficiencies we have, it’s our job as coaches to overcome those deficiencies and put us in positions to win,” Golesh said. “And we didn’t do that, specifically through those early drives, the first really four drives in the second half.”
After the bye week, the Tigers will return to action with a trip to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs on October 17 with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. Central Time.
Add us as a preferred source on Google