The Auburn football team is preparing to get off to a fresh start in the 2026 season with a new head coach, a new quarterback and a new philosophy leading the program. New head coach Alex Golesh has faced a lot of challenges since taking the reins at Auburn, from building comeraderie between a new team to rebuilding many position groups to recruiting at a program that has been stuck in mediocrity for several years.
Golesh is not worried about the level of talent he has on his team despite the youth or inexperience some may have, but he admitted to the media on Wednesday that there is one thing that keeps him up at night when it comes to Auburn football.
"You recruit your own problems," Golesh said in his Wednesday press conference. "But that's the hardest thing to figure out. Ultimately, does the young man love football more than he loves everything that football gives him? That's the challenge. I look at experience as, 'Has he gone through the shit, to get to the other side of it, to figure out what's actually important?'
"That's the maturity that, right now, I don't know that we actually are there yet... If I stay up at night about anything besides a two-minute drill … can we lead ourselves enough from within the locker room right now to go play a season the way we need to? And I don't know that we're there."Â
Golesh has put forth a lot of effort to try to build the type of work ethic and mindset that will cultivate success this fall. From intensive summer workouts with a new strength and conditioning coach to the sequestration of the team at a hotel for two weeks during fall camp, Golesh and his staff have continued to work hard to bring the team together.
Still, he maintains that talent isn't enough to win football games, and instead it comes down to the focus that his players put into their daily process from week to week and their determination to prioritize football over everything. Golesh wants the team to focus during the game, but also in the week leading up to each game.
With the modern-day era of college football that includes NIL, agents, money, the transfer portal and more, there are plenty of distractions for players. Golesh's goal is to have his team locked in on the mission at hand, and hopefully they can get to that place before the season starts.
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