The Auburn football team is gearing up for their first season under Alex Golesh, and the first-year coach is taking fall camp extremely seriously this year.
Though Golesh will receive some grace this season due to his newness, he has acknowledged the harsh reality that Auburn fans are a lot less patient than they were several years ago. After five seasons of mediocre football and ridiculous losses under former head coaches Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze, Golesh knows that he is under a moderate amount of pressure to show an improved team, even in his first year.
Auburn's fall semester begins on Aug. 17, but before classes start the Tigers will be spending 13 days together with minimal outside distractions. Golesh and his team moved into the Marriott at Grand National on Tuesday. They will head to campus in the morning for practice and meetings and spend the day on campus before returning to the hotel at night for more meetings.
With so many newcomers on the team, from staff to players, the 13-day stay at the Marriott will provide important bonding time and the opportunity to truly lock in on the mission: winning football games.
"We'll take their car keys tonight, and they won't have them," Golesh said, per Auburn 247. "So, they would have to get really, really creative. It's totally eliminating distraction, one. Teaching what waking up and what a day and a structure should look like for an elite high-level athlete would be the second component of it."
Golesh and his staff carefully prepared the fall camp experience for the team, even down to the small details and the team-bonding activities. They are even encouraging development and growth through their system of pairing roommates.
"In terms of anything from a team building standpoint, we were strategic in the roommates for the most part," Golesh said. "It's an older guy that's played, that's done it, that's been there. He's got a young guy with him so he can teach him. The other component of it is that there's three built-in off days in there, mandated that way. We'll take them to Hey Day one day, grab lunch together and go to the movies. We've got some team dinners over there, but for the most part, outside of those three off days: Wake up to get on the bus, they're here. At the end of the day, get on the bus, go back. The team building, I think, happens in the fact that they're all together the entire time with absolutely nothing else pulling them from it."
It's an ambitious plan and a rigorous camp for the Auburn Tigers, but hopefully the preparation will pay off on the field this fall.
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