Alex Golesh has made all the right moves and said all the right things about the Iron Bowl, the rivalry between Auburn and Alabama, considered one of the biggest in college athletics.
The first-year Auburn coach has installed an “Iron Bowl” portion of every practice while banning any form of red Gatorade from the Tigers’ football facility. When asked about Auburn’s recent struggles against the Crimson Tide, he even had a bullish answer:
“I don’t super care about what the success has been or hasn’t been, to be totally honest with you,” he said. “This team hasn’t played Bama. We’ll be prepared to go play Week 12 when it’s time to go play.”
This is the best way to handle it, especially as a coach looking to rebuild the Auburn program and get the Tigers back on level ground with the Tide, whom they have lost six straight games to. The Iron Bowl is the biggest game of the season for both teams, and the winner enjoys 365 days of bragging rights.
Iron Bowl is big, but so is getting the Georgia rivalry back on track
But it’s something that Golesh hasn’t discussed yet, or at least discussed at length, and that’s another bitter rival that Auburn has failed at making competitive over the past 20 years: against Georgia.
It’s been since Jarrett Stidham, Darius Slayton and Kerryon Johnson were wearing an Auburn uniform that the Tigers have walked off the field after defeating the Bulldogs. That’s nine straight losses to Kirby Smart’s squad, and many of them have not been even close.
While the Iron Bowl is on top of the priority list, beating Georgia is, for many, right next to it. Not only have the Bulldogs controlled the rivalry, winning 12 of the last 14 matchups, but they have made it feel like a homecoming game when the two meet in Athens. George W. Bush was the President the last time Auburn won in Sanford Stadium, which came in 2005. Since then, it's been a bunch of failed trips that usually ended in humiliation.
So while it’s fine that Golesh has Auburn focused on taking back control of the Iron Bowl, for him to become a successful coach on the Plains, beating Georgia is a must.
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