Following the Auburn football team's first fall camp scrimmage last weekend, new head coach Alex Golesh didn't give fans much to get fired up about. Golesh encouraged his players to humble themselves and emphasized how unhappy he was with the team's tackling, even going so far as to say that it was something the team clearly needs to focus on more.
Of course, you can only expect so much from the team when it is their first time scrimmaging in full pads since the spring, and it was also noted that several defensive players were held out of the scrimmage due to injury.
The team ran their second scrimmage of fall camp on Wednesday, and the Tigers came with a mission to improve after their coach's blunt criticism. Golesh told the media that he was much happier with the results from Wednesday's scrimmage.
"Some really, really good stuff came out of today on both sides," Golesh said, per Auburn 247. "Tackled so much better. Man, I was really proud of the way we tackled. There was some violent, violent intent. Defensively, some really good situations came up."
Golesh went on to say that the Tigers got a lot of good practice in more game-like, long plays, and he noted that it was important for the players to experience actually playing in the fast tempo that offensive coordinator Joel Gordon wants to run this season. He also pointed out that it was an opportunity to get used to the heat.
"Some long, long drives — which was good for both sides to work," Golesh said. "Especially with the heat the way it was — and I'm talking offensive football here — with coaches off the field and truly long drives. And what does that really feel like to go eight, 10, 12, 14, 15 plays in a drive at the tempo that we play? There's nothing like actually doing it. You can try to replicate it all you want, but there's nothing like actually doing it. I thought there was some really, really positive there."
The Tigers will practice again on Friday and Saturday before heading into the final week of fall camp, which Golesh has described as being a mock game week.
In two weeks, the Alex Golesh Era will officially begin at the Aflac Kickoff Game in Atlanta when the Tigers take on the Baylor Bears at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Add us as a preferred source on Google