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Alex Golesh did not beat around the bush when he took to the podium on Tuesday during SEC Media Days. The new Auburn Tigers head coach knows how tough the situation he is coming into is. Auburn has not won more than seven games in a season since 2019. They have run through head coaches at an alarming rate of late. He also seems to be well aware of how difficult it can be recruiting to Auburn.
Thankfully, this incredible self-own about the state of things has Alabama fans laughing hysterically.
"That's where it really hit me," Golesh said. "When I'm talking to a high school junior, the last time Auburn had a winning season, the kid was in sixth grade."
Auburn used to be in Alabama's neighborhood as an SEC program, but that was nearly 10 years ago.
"This was a top-5 program in the country for a long time -- like 10 years ago," Golesh continued. "We've got to get it back to that. And that's where all the time and energy has been getting kids around us. ... It's been changing a mindset even in our own state."
Then, Golesh said something that is going to make Alabama fans furious regarding their head coach.
"It helps right now that the guy that won a bunch of [titles] isn't there right now," Golesh finished. "It's there for the taking a little bit."
Golesh does not seem to be afraid of Alabama, now that Nick Saban is out of the building. Frankly, he might not have taken the job if Saban were still around. This will be year three for Kalen DeBoer at Tuscaloosa. While he has led Alabama to the College Football Playoff once in two seasons, DeBoer is not exactly breeding confidence into the Crimson Tide fan base of late. Golesh may have a point here.
However, Golesh must entice recruits to commit who could not shave the last time Auburn was good.
Alex Golesh puts a big target on his back after discrediting Kalen DeBoer
Let's be real. Golesh is a fine head coach. In time, he will probably do more good things for Auburn than his predecessors, Hugh Freeze or Bryan Harsin, could ever muster. If he is as good as Gus Malzahn was at times, the fanbase might even build him a statue on the corner of College and Magnolia. However, for him to be discounting DeBoer like this should not be sitting well with Alabama.
Unlike Golesh, DeBoer has led two different Power Five teams to the College Football Playoff. Each year he has guided a team into the playoffs, he has won at least one game. To date, Auburn has never qualified for the College Football Playoff. The last time the Tigers had a championship-caliber team was in 2013, the final season of the BCS. They fell in the final minutes to the Florida State Seminoles.
And that right there best encapsulates the situation at hand. Even during a time of tumult at Alabama, the Crimson Tide are still vying for the College Football Playoff annually. Auburn has struggled to get to bowl games in recent seasons. Golesh is trying to change that, but he is in the midst of the Tigers' worst decade in debatably a lifetime. DeBoer just needs to find ways to win big with his kind of guys.
ALSO READ: Alabama's defense has to be built for speed to survive 3 sneaky spots on its schedule
To wrap this up, just because Auburn is still struggling quite a bit as a program does not mean this will last forever. Now is not the time for DeBoer's program to get decadent, just because it made the playoffs a year ago. This year marks a new wrinkle in the Iron Bowl rivalry. It is paramount for Alabama to dictate terms in the first few years Golesh is at Auburn so it will not lose its vise-like stranglehold.
While this was not as cocky as what Will Stein said earlier in the week, be careful what you wish for.
Today's best reads
- Bad luck has finally caught up with Auburn, and Alabama fans could not be any happier
- Alabama's 3 best CFB rivals, 2 teams it needs to play more often, 1 it faces too much
- Kalen DeBoer flips the script on Alex Golesh with major in-state WR steal
- Will Stein's confidence could be the last thing Kalen DeBoer needs in year 3 at Alabama
- Alabama's defense has to be built for speed to survive 3 sneaky spots on its schedule
This article was originally published on bamahammer.com as Alex Golesh's unintended self-own shows how badly Auburn is behind Alabama in rivalry.
