By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

The suffering is real, and at times exaggerated.

As is the impatience, frustration, confusion, and wishful thinking.

But it’s there.

Alex Golesh has heard plenty about it since he was hired as Auburn’s 33rd head football coach – and sixth just this century alone – back in late November.

Why, his arrival has inspired hopes that he could serve as the Tigers’ version of Moses and lead Auburn to a promised land.

Or at least a better land than this decade.

“I’m fascinated by the people that absolutely adore Auburn University,” said Golesh, the featured speaker Monday night at the Macon Touchdown Club’s year-end jamboree at the Methodist Home for Children and Youth. “I’m invigorated by the people that, every time, walk up to you and just say, ‘Coach, just bring us back home, man.”

A crowd of nearly 400 filled the Home’s gym to hear somebody other than Kirby Smart for the first time since 2018 deliver the keynote jamboree speech. And that last non-Bulldog speaker? Why, then-Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn.

The fifth-year head coach was off a 10-4 season, an SEC West Division title, and loss in the Peach Bowl. He was in pretty good spirits during that talk, with a few reminders of the pressure at Auburn.

Golesh has more on his shoulders than Malzahn did at the time, since Malzahn was 45-22 when he visited, from 2013-2017.

The good ol’ days, though Auburn fans didn’t necessarily treat it as such a lot. Since then, the Tigers have gone 8-5, 9-4, 6-5, 6-7, 5-7, 6-7, 5-7, and 5-7. Brian Harsin was an odd hire who wasn’t a good fit while getting little help from Tiger Nation, and Hugh Freeze followed him with a reputation of good offenses that took a major hit on the Plains.

For a guy with a lot on his shoulders, Golesh was loose, honest, and personable during his talk of nearly 30 minutes, a half-hour of WDE joy on a night where the War Eagles dominated the crowd, enthusiastically rising upon Golesh’s introduction to soak in the fight song.

Auburn fans got a bonus at the end of the night, a rarity in recent years: Golesh hung around for some small talk and pictures, something Georgia fans haven’t experienced when their favorite head coach visited.

In fact, Golesh was one of the last people to leave the gym, stopping in the parking lot on the way to his car to chat with Pud Mosteller, a Georgia offensive lineman in the 1950s who eventually became a college football official for 25 years.

He was comfortable in a room usually loaded with red and black.

“I'm humbled to be here,” he said. “I appreciate the invite and (am) grateful to Kirby for being busy tonight, so I get to get to do this.”

The club honored its state-wide seven-player list of all-stars and top coach, as well as local players and scholarship recipients.

Golesh’s talk addressed several aspects of the future that the high schoolers will deal with while explaining what he brings to Auburn in an era of college football that changes drastically about every six months.

Club member and Auburn booster King Kemper noted during his introduction that Golesh was born in Russia, and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Dublin, Ohio, and thus brought a pretty diverse background to Auburn.

That’s in addition to graduating from Ohio State before embarking on a spectrum-covering coaching career in high school, at Ohio State Northern Illinois, Oklahoma State, Toledo, Illinois, Iowa State, Central Florida, and Tennessee before his first head-coaching job, at South Florida.

Success at USF has given Golesh confidence that he can get Auburn going again.

“Listen, I spent two years in the SEC and I had an opportunity to go to South Florida and take over a program that everybody said that you couldn't win at, worst program in the country,” he said of the Bulls, who chewed up and spit out Skip Holtz, Willie Taggert, Charlie Strong, and Jeff Scott in the 13 seasons preceding Golesh.

In that span, USF had eight losing seasons, an 11-2 mark in Taggert’s final season in 2016 the highlight. Taggert made the mistake of leaving after that one good season, and the program stagnated.

Golesh has three of USF’s 18 winning seasons since it started in 1997, and two of the Bulls’ eight bowl wins. But college football is drastically different now than when Golesh took over USF in 2023.

“I haven't lost touch with how I got (to Auburn),” he said. “I started off (the night) with saying, ‘Man, everybody says college football's crazy right now.’

“And in a lot of ways, it probably is, but the one thing that hasn't changed since the day that I was a high school coach and a special ed teacher in Columbus, Ohio is that young people still want to be held accountable, young people still want to be taught and young people want to be cared about and loved.”

Golesh obviously knows that winning is the bar, but he operates under a bigger-picture philosophy.

“That's the peace that I keep going back to every morning when I come into the building, is that we're there because of the young people, for the young people,” the 41-year-old who donated the night’s speaking check to the Methodist Home said. “Ultimately I get a value in winning football games, but my end-all perspective on the whole thing is, is my job is to do what my high school coach, my college coach did for me, which is help me realize what it is to actually be a man, what it is to give more of yourself than ever take from the whole, and what it is to be a really really good teammate.”

Golesh hopes to improve that off-the-field culture at Auburn to one of accountability, treating people right, and being a good teammate, among other things, and improve on-the-field results. All of that leads to a level of trust that tends to lead to a level of success.

He talked of six core values he has based his process on. A walk-on inquired about those core values and executing them.

" ‘Coach, what's the difference?" How do you know when things are up on a wall, like that that's actually your core values or if that's just (bleep) on a wall?”

That brought a laugh, as did the ensuing references to excrement on a wall.

“I've never been a big wrist-bands with different sayings week to week,” he said. “I think I think young people, I think people my age, they need a central focus of what the heck you're doing. And ours is really simple. It's being who you say you are.”

There was a spring practice during which Golesh said he was losing his mind.

“Like, blackout losing my mind,” he said. “Two players run by and tap me on the butt. ‘Hey, Coach, be who you say you are.’ I never said I wasn't going to lose my mind, so …”

Auburn has one Central Georgian on the roster, wideout Kory Pettigrew of Perry, a USF transfer who helped the Panthers to the GHSA Class 4A state title in 2023.

“Incredible program,” Golesh said. “One of my favorite high school coaches in the country (Kevin Smith) was his high school coach. Winner, tough, smart.”

He joked about one of the current issues in the game.

“Kory’s one of the 13 guys that got in the portal and chose to come to Auburn,” he said wryly. “That’s always misconstrued as, ‘Man, 13 guys followed you.’”

The Tigers have a few spring practices under their belt, and their new head coach isn’t spouting a bunch of negatives in hopes of scaring and inspiring.

“Through four months, it's been really kind of amazing how these guys have jelled together, how they've meshed together, this trust piece they've worked on really hard, this connection piece they've worked on really hard,” the father of two said. “I've been really, really impressed. I think they want to be really really good.

“They are totally bought into the coaching, they're totally bought into what it takes. We're not perfect by any means, but I would tell you that three practices in, we're probably ahead of where I thought we would be in terms of our intent, our effort, how we practice.

“I would never tell the guys that. Don’t tell them. I’m just going to keep ripping their a--. In a positive way, yes, sir.”