Alex Golesh recaps Auburn’s narrow win over Baylor: ‘We found a way’
By Ethan Stone
Published:
Auburn was inches away from losing its first game of the Alex Golesh era Saturday night.
Tigers safety Eric Winters was the difference between 0-1 and 1-0. And while that sounds dramatic, it’s absolutely the truth. Winters stopped a Baylor receiver just shy of the goal line on a 2-point attempt that would have given the Bears an 18-17 win, instead finalizing a 17-16 win for Auburn.
Following the game, Tigers head coach Alex Golesh commented on the game-saving play. He reiterated his message to the team all game long: “Go finish. Just go finish,” Golesh said, via Justin Hokanson. “That’s all we’ve talked about. (Winters) finished. It wasn’t pretty. Man, it wasn’t pretty. We have so much to clean up. We found a way and that’s a good first step. I’m grateful. We have to get better.”
Golesh is right — it certainly was not a pretty game for the Tigers.
While he was talking about Winters, Golesh’s comments also apply to quarterback Byrum Brown, who struggled for most of the game but came up huge when Auburn needed him. Brown drove the field and scored what ended up as the game-winning touchdown with under 4 minutes to go.
Brown threw 3 interceptions on Saturday, but Golesh took responsibility for those miscues. He insisted postgame that the Auburn staff put Brown into bad situations and tried to force the issue much more than necessary.
Something to keep in mind when evaluating Auburn’s first game of the Alex Golesh era: The Tigers simply did not win these types of games under Hugh Freeze. Auburn was consistently in games last season and years prior but always found new and spectacular ways to lose. As Golesh said Saturday, it wasn’t pretty — but a win is better than a loss 10 times out of 10.
The Tigers will look to continue their winning ways in Week 2 as Southern Miss comes to The Plains.
Ethan Stone is a Saturday Down South News Editor and an advocate for the return of the Seattle Supersonics.
