Alex Golesh’s first A-Day at Auburn brought plenty of expectations, but his quarterback room provided an immediate reality check. Instead of sugarcoating Byrum Brown’s sloppy debut, the new head coach chose to publicly challenge his hand-picked transfer.

Byrum Brown did not have a strong game in the A-Day spring game. He threw for 85 yards, completed only half of his passes, and had two interceptions. He did not score any touchdowns. Even though his performance was not very good, he used the game to learn and adjust to Auburn’s system. It was also part of getting used to real game-like action after practice.

Even head coach Alex Golesh doubled down on the same lines, giving a reality check to Brown. That sweeping team warning made it clear that nobody is exempt from criticism, not even his former USF standout. Following the scrimmage, Golesh didn’t hold back when dissecting Brown’s poor field vision.

“To be honest, I don’t think Byrum saw it great today; he missed two deep balls early,” Golesh said after A-Day in a media conference. “Mentally, he was fine, composure-wise he was fine, he just didn’t see it.”

Those two interceptions happened right in the middle of the field. On the first one, Jared Smith read a screen pass and jumped in front of it. He likely would have scored a touchdown, but the play was stopped. Then the second interception also happened in the middle. Brown was throwing to Chas Nimrod, but linebacker Bryce Deas made a good play and caught the ball instead.

Before these mistakes, Brown also missed a few long passes early in the game. This may have broken his rhythm and affected his passing. Even Brown explained how it was hard for him to find a rhythm during the scrimmage because many plays were stopped early. He explained that all quarterbacks wore non-contact jerseys, so the play was blown dead whenever a defender got close or touched him.

 

This affected him a lot because his playing style depends on running the ball and making plays outside the pocket. He could not play in his normal way during the scrimmage.

“Hard to get in a rhythm when you’re not fully alive,” Brown said. “So that’s a part of it, but I’ll be fine. Looking forward to the first game, to be honest.”

But despite all the concerns, it’s not like Brown didn’t have any great moments in Auburn’s A-Day. Brown’s best plays in the scrimmage came when he passed to Keshaun Singleton on the outside parts of the field. Singleton was also his main receiver at USF last season. He led the Bulls with 877 receiving yards. Now, this chemistry can help Alex Golesh here in Auburn, too.

Alex Golesh got Singleton into the team with a lot of expectations, and his last year’s performance shows why he has so many high hopes for him. He passed for 3,158 yards, threw 28 touchdowns, and had only 7 interceptions. He also ran for 1,008 yards and scored 14 rushing touchdowns. So, now it will be interesting to see how well he performs at Auburn this year. Because Golesh isn’t taking any chances, he launches a tough warning to his team.

Alex Golesh’s tough warning for Auburn players

After taking South Florida to a 9-4 season last year, Alex Golesh came in with a lot of expectations in Auburn. The team struggled under Hugh Freeze, and their only goal is to make the playoffs. Now, if Golesh fails to deliver a solid playoff season, it might raise serious questions about his tenure. That’s exactly why he doesn’t want to take any chances with his team, and he is making that pretty clear.

‘Guys, make sure I take care of what I’ve got to take care of,” Golesh said. “You guys with me? With your family, with your girl, with each other. That’s it. Nothing crazy.  Is everybody with me?  I’m really sure that if we stick together, if we can stick together and continue to buy into the process of what it takes to be elite, we’ll get to where we want to go. We’ve got a long way to go. No time to waste. Come on with me. Stick together. Buy into the process of being elite.”

To make sure his team shows up, Golesh made a lot of changes. He worked on leadership and team culture. Golesh pushed players to become leaders and take responsibility. He wanted a player-driven team where everyone worked hard and supported each other.

On top of it, he also improved the defense by bringing in former Mississippi State defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler. Hutzler had over ten years of experience with SEC defenses, and Golesh liked how the edge rushers were developing under him. Now, with those changes, it will be interesting to see how things work out for Auburn under him.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR