After eight days of fall camp, the Auburn Tigers played their first scrimmage last Friday, and head coach Alex Golesh confirmed to the media that major change does not happen overnight and the Tigers are still not quite where they want to be heading into the 2026 season.
While the defense was certainly the strongest unit of last year's team, and they are expected to be just as formidable this year with DJ Durkin still in the driver's seat, questions remain after the first scrimmage.
"I would tell you I'm leaving the scrimmage today and telling you that I'm all in. And I'll take some ownership there. We've tackled once so far leading up to this in a limited way, practice 7-on7, and I thought we tackled just OK then. I thought Friday we tackled just OK at best," Golesh said, per AL.com.
Several of the offensive players who were previously out or limited due to injury were able to return for Friday's scrimmage, but on the other side of the ball, several defensive players missed out. Safeties Kaleb Harris, AnQuan Fegans and Sylvester Smith-Reed were all held out of the scrimmage.
Golesh went on to say that tackling has been and will continue to be a major focus for the Tigers' defense as he prepares for his first season on the Plains.
"My thought is you've got to tackle as much as you have to, to make sure, one, the offensive guys feel it and are able to work through getting through tackles and going plus-two pad under pad," Golesh said. "I think defensively we work tackling daily. We have all summer. But the hardest thing to do in football is tackle in open space. That truly is. That's the entirety of our offense, is getting people in space one-on-one, and it's the hardest thing to do defensively. So, we need so much more work at it. You can rep it without taking bodies to the ground, but no matter how you rep it, you still need to do it. I would tell you we need as much work as imaginably possible there."
The Tigers are just under three weeks away from their 2026 debut with a new head coach and new quarterback Byrum Brown. They will face off against the Baylor Bears on September 5 in the Aflac Kickoff Game in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium at 2:30 p.m.
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