Is Auburn football in must-win scenario vs Vanderbilt? What Alex Golesh said – Montgomery Advertiser

AUBURN — It’s a new week, and Alex Golesh was expectedly thorough in breaking down his first loss as Auburn football‘s head coach.
The Tigers’ SEC-opener, a 44-39 loss to Florida this past weekend at Jordan-Hare Stadium, saw freshly familiar problems persist and new ones arise. The offensive line struggled to protect its quarterback and establish tempo offensively, but the biggest shock was its reputably stout defense having no answers for the Gators.
“The synopsis would be not good enough in any way,” Golesh said Monday, Sept. 21, summarizing the contest. His first words at the podium put it into another perspective: “The sun did come up.”
This week, the sun at the center of Auburn‘s galaxy is black and gold. The Tigers host Vanderbilt on Saturday, Sept. 26 (3:15 p.m. CT, SECN), before a six-game stretch with five ranked opponents and four road trips. Does that make this week’s game a must-win, especially with Auburn’s recent record in SEC home games?
Golesh’s answered that question with a question of his own.
“If you look at it as a must-win, what changes?” Golesh asked. “Do we prepare harder? Do we practice longer? Do we practice differently? We’re in a foundational part of our program, where the process piece of it is so critical to how we do every single little thing.”
Auburn opened as an 8.5-point favorite against Vanderbilt, which will be playing its first SEC contest since longtime quarterback Diego Pavia saw his eligibility expire after last season.
The Commodores, like Auburn, still appear to be searching for firm footing, needing a botched play with seconds remaining to beat NC State last weekend. Whether or not Vanderbilt presents a tough matchup, what follows certainly will.
The first half of Auburn’s next six games start with road trips to Tennessee and Georgia before returning to Jordan-Hare and getting a chance at Lane Kiffin’s LSU squad. Road trips to Ole Miss and Mississippi State will bookend the back half of that stretch, with Auburn getting to face Arkansas at home between them.
According to ESPN’s FPI, Auburn’s favored to beat only the Razorbacks in that stretch. Its odds are no better than 40% to win any other matchup, according to FPI. That’s not something Golesh is necessarily assessing, at least not yet.
“The biggest piece of why I’ve lived this way for a really long time and have worked really hard to get this team to live this way — where all you worry about is right now, today,” Golesh said. “When you start thinking like that (must-win), that’s when you press or get overly emotional.”
Golesh gave a direct answer to the question more than once.
“They all feel like it,” he said in reference to the next game, and he later added that Auburn’s recent history wasn’t a reflection of his players. Then came his last words on it: “When you take a job like Auburn, they all feel like must-wins, because they are all games that you expect to win.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at[email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter,@colereporter. To support Adam’s work, pleasesubscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.

source