Auburn football has spent the offseason telling the world that they are becoming this tough program, and everyone in the sport has heard them. But it seems like they’ve stopped listening now.
Then the first scrimmage looked bad, but even for as ugly as it looked to some, it was actually a good thing to hear Auburn's defense struggling. Not that the defense was the problem last year. But the media likes to take any chance it can get to kick Auburn when it's down.
This is where I have had the thought that Alex Golesh needs to add a second part to his “be who you say you are” slogan he currently runs with, or just change it altogether.
Three simple words may be the key to unlocking Auburn on Saturdays:
“Now prove it."
Use something such as this as a fuel source to help change the narrative. Especially with how much the media has been piling on them lately. Not saying the current slogan is bad, but the football world has now gazed upon The Plains and kind of needs the Tigers to "prove it."
Auburn football must turn the media doubting them into fuel
It is almost as if someone calling Auburn soft started this trickle effect. Even On3’s Brett McMurphy named Auburn No. 1 overall in the most overrated poll. But this is to be expected. Change is a good thing, and sometimes other people simply can’t accept change.
It is really easy to doubt Auburn because the best prediction of future behavior is the past, but Golesh and company are at the now-prove-it stage. Some would say that Auburn has been in a prove-it stage, but there is a difference. Hugh Freeze couldn’t win the moments that mattered most last season, losing a whopping total of six games by one score. The final blow was the loss to Kentucky, where it looked like the team just quit on Freeze, which was understandable because he was fired the next day.
Golesh has come in with a much bigger fire and determination than Freeze ever showed, and that tailwind has sped up the expectations. When September 5 comes and all eyes are on him, he has to win the moments no Auburn coach besides Gene Chizik, and maybe Gus Malzahn, has won in years.
With the season opener against Baylor just a few weeks away, maybe an extra jolt of motivation might be exactly what Auburn needs. To use the garbage other media outlets might say about you and the program as fuel to change the narrative.
Nobody believed the internet would ever overtake the Yellow Pages phone book, but here we are, and Golesh has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do the very same after a long Nick Saban Crimson Tide reign in this state.
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