The Auburn football team is currently undergoing its worst five-year stretch since the 1940s. With half a decade's worth of losing seasons and a rotating door at the head coaching position, it's safe to say patience is hard to come by with Tiger fans.
Last weekend, Head Coach Alex Golesh's first-year team snapped a 671-day streak of not winning a conference game at home with the victory over Vanderbilt, but the loss to Florida the weekend before stung. Still, the forward progression so far this season has been vastly different from the past several seasons.
Auburn legend Charles Barkley sounded off on Tiger fans earlier this week for their lack of patience in the new head coach.
"I'm very happy with our football coach," Barkley said. "People who know football tell me we got us a winner, that we can just be patient and give an opportunity to put his footprint on it... Guys have no patience anymore, and that's unfortunate. But I got patience with him, and I'm excited for him."
For Golesh, though, it's a different story. The former USF head coach knows the pressure that he is under to rebuild Auburn football and take the program back to the top. Golesh was asked about Barkley's comment on Tiger Talk.
"I don't know if I've ever used that word," Golesh said. "My job is to build a program as fast as we possibly can. ... The expectation is you win now. I'm fully aware of the job I took."
Golesh's response harkens back to something he said during his press conference ahead of the Vanderbilt game, too. Following the loss to Florida, Golesh was asked if the Vanderbilt matchup was a must-win game, and the he applied the same philosophy.
"I would say that they all feel like it, the next game," Golesh said. "I would say, when you take a job like Auburn, they all feel like must-wins, because they are all games that you expect to win."
It is clear that the Tigers' new head coach has a strong understanding of expectations when it comes to Auburn football, but now it will be up to him to execute the rebuild. While Barkley's advice is sound, and fans should have patience when it's a new coach in his first year, Golesh's attitude is the right one to have for a head coach on the Plains.
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