Everything Auburn: Alex Golesh Finds a Way

From Russian roots to rushing the passer, and from tasting his first Coke to tasting success as a head coach, Alex Golesh discusses his first impressions of America — and of Auburn — on the latest episode of the Everything Auburn Podcast.

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[music] Hello Auburn friends, Auburn fans, Auburn family. Thanks for tuning in to the Everything Auburn podcast where we talk about everything Auburn and we find the Auburn in everything. I'm your new host, Jeremy Henderson, Senior Manager of Editorial and Media Relations, joined to my left by a man who needs no introduction, but I'm I'm still going to do it. Marcus Kluttz, Assistant Director of Media Productions, pushing the buttons, lighting it up, chairman of the board, I call him. Uh, today's episode, it's an exciting one. It's an exciting one for me because I know there's a lot of excitement on the plains about what I'm going to be doing in terms of editorial and media relations. Uh, I know my mom's excited, but um, uh, the chairman and I here, we started talking just before the show and we realized that maybe uh, we should hit another seam, take another route, another direction because, uh, maybe there's a little more excitement about what the man across from me is going to be doing this fall on the plains. Uh, Alex Golesh, Head Football Coach of the Auburn Tigers, fresh back from Tampa Bay for SEC media days. Thanks so much for taking the time with us, coach. And War Eagle. War Eagle, we are. We're back from Tampa. We're back uh from Atlanta with uh with this AFLAC kickoff deal luncheon yesterday. And literally, when I tell you, I woke up this morning like like uh Christmas morning knowing that our whole staff is back in. Mhm. And we are on football. Got to sit in on an offensive staff meeting this morning and that's how I know, man, it's it's it's time. It starts here. I'm glad. And I and I actually made the comment yesterday that talking seasons over and we get to go coach football and here we are back to talking season. We're right back. Well, I mean this is the important stuff and everything. But speaking of I guess of all of that and I you know I've got to go into it. I know the answer but I'm going to go ahead and ask. So where are you from originally? Moscow, Russia. Now that just sounds intense. I mean that I mean it just and you came over here age seven. That's right. Story I read. That is right. I mean, did you when you when you did you speak English when you came over? Didn't speak any English. Um, but we we immigrated to Brooklyn and luckily there was other other kids like me at that time um that that whether they were from Russia or somewhere else, obviously a giant melting pot. Uh so I spent probably about a year year and a half of of sitting in a classroom trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Right. Uh, but I I figured out really quickly that if you just say bathroom, they let you go roam the halls for a while. I figured like it took me about three days to figure that out. Yeah. Know, I learned that early, too. The I mean, did you I mean, can you still speak do you still speak Russian? You know what I I when both sets of grandparents were alive, um, that's where where I was forced to. Um, and and now they're not. And so very very little do I get practice at it. Um, and even with my parents generally speak English, they'll at times speak in Russian and I'll have to translate it in my head and then speak English back. So, it it's kind of I've kind of lost it a little bit. And it's interesting as you meet meet people that are like fascinated by that and they know some Russian or have taken Russian to school, they'll start talking and you're like, "All right, man. If like now you got a different accent on this thing and this is slow it down for me a little bit." Sure. Well, the accent though when when did you lose it? Um, I I don't know. That's a great question. Um, if I knew I'd be sitting on the Everything Auburn podcast at 42 years old, I'd remember. Um, but you know, they say if if you're under the age of 10, it kind of goes away. Uh, when you move, my brother was 10 when we moved and you can still hear it a little bit every now and again, but well, what was the so, the your impression of America before even like coming over here? I mean, do you remember how you you know, like the just the vibe or something? I mean, when you when you found the news, do you I mean, I don't know. What was it? I do. I remember knowing that you can buy whatever you want in terms of food. I loved bananas. That was like my thing. Bananas. Bananas. And they were really hard to get. And so like they were at least at that time they were um like a delicacy almost. And uh and I remember thinking, man, like in in America, you can get all the bananas you want. They have them like readily available. Um, and so, uh, that's the biggest one I remember. I remember thinking this Coca-Cola thing like you like you see on TV like people drinking Coca-Cola. Had never tried it. I remember thinking how cool that was. Do you remember the first Coke? I do remember the first Coke in a can in in New York. We were in a hotel and it was a street vendor and you in in New York you got street vendors sell pretzels and and uh all sorts of stuff and I remember seeing a Coke. I'm like, can I just I want to try that. I thought it was like the greatest thing I've ever seen. Did you buy it? Did he give it to you? No, we I'm sure we bought it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I don't know. I'm just fascinated I I guess by by that and thinking about what the impressions would be and your first this, your first that, the meal, the banana thing. You talk about a banana republic. That's what I call America right now. That's good. Well, think about how crazy uh how crazy it really is that I'm coaching American football. I know. At the highest level. Well, so the first impression of football, I mean, did you did you have an idea that this was some American game over there? Like what were you what did you grow up playing? Grew up playing soccer. Grew up playing hockey. Hockey. Yeah. And that that in during the winter, the ice rinks which sit there and are kind of used as soccer fieldsish. Um, if you're willing to play on cement, which in the city you are, they become ice rinks in the winter and just throw your skates on, you go play. And uh, and I don't even know if I was any good or not, but I remember thinking you got to like hit people. Um, which I always enjoyed, but I I you know, that question comes up a lot. Um, it's come up a lot of like, man, when do you remember football? I remember watching we didn't have cable so you were watching network TV and I remember watching like Ohio State/Michigan. I remember watching Miami/Virginia Tech for some reason sticks out. I remember watching the Iron Bowl. You do? Uh oh my gosh. Do you remember which one? Man, I I could line this up. I don't remember. Let's go with Yes. It's a good one. All right. Let's go with Yes. It had to be somewhere around 91, 92, 93 in there. Let's hope it was 93. Yeah. No, you couldn't have. It was on it wasn't on tv. Dang it. All right, never mind. Cut. [laughter] But somewhere in there, I remember um I certainly don't remember like conferences being a big deal. I none of that. I remember watching Notre Dame. Uh Notre Dame felt like it was on NBC. Um, but but those are I I just remember thinking, man, like you literally these dudes are running around and hitting people and and it's encouraged. Like people are clapping [laughter] for people, smacking people. Uh, and I remember thinking how cool that was. We would play football in the schoolyard. I remember that. Uh, but in in in New York, they ship you off to summer camp. That's what that's what they did with you in the summer so you don't get in trouble. And I remember that's where like where I met a met a guy that was the defensive coordinator at US Merchant Marine Academy that had like the football segment of our camp for a couple days and and I thought it was just the coolest thing ever and he invited me over to be a ball boy and that's that was the first time I ever saw a college football game. Well, so at what point I mean I know you went to you moved to Ohio eventually and actually so Dublin, Dublin, Ohio, right? Dublin, Ohio. Dublin, Ohio. So my wife spent her senior year in uh at Pickerington. Okay. But I think y'all played I googled around maybe I don't know at least in the same general vicinity. Yep. And uh so I mean when you but you played in high school, right? Played in high school. Um and fell in love with it in high school. Uh really fell in love with it before uh New York wasn't a great place to to play football. It was at that time it's gotten drastically better, but at that time it was like private school or nothing. we certainly weren't going to afford private school and and um so moving to to Ohio gave uh gave us the opportunity to go play football and uh I immediately met my best friends to this day. Uh guys that kind of took me in and um and that's the greatest thing about football is like especially at that age it doesn't matter when you start like and it doesn't matter what size you are there's kind of a spot for everybody you know and um and turns out uh as soon as I learned how to put my pants on and how to put the pads on but you know like it was one of those things where I loved the weight room I loved I love the fact that you can go to school and and you had workouts before school. I love the fact that you would stay and have workouts after school and I love the the camaraderie of what it was like um you know and more than anything else to be honest with you and maybe I I don't know if I saw it that way at that time. We were just talking about Bear starting to play football this fall. He's played flag for a long time and part of the move to Auburn was we weren't going to let him play till 7th grade in in Tampa and um because that's when school ball starts. Well, here in Auburn, you can play in sixth grade. And uh and so he when he found that out, he was absolutely geeked. And we've had many like the number one question I get outside of um outside of just being the head coach at Auburn, but just as a football coach, and this has been forever, hey, what age should we let our kids start playing football? Right? Like that's always the number one question. And the answer is always the same. like whenever you feel comfortable that they can physically handle it. But um the thing I'm most excited about Bear playing is not like I don't even care how good he is. The lessons that the game teaches you and the camaraderie that it brings. It's it's the only team sport where you truly need 11 guys on the same page on every single play at the same exact time moving in the same direction with the same call. Right. Um, and it's it the lessons it teaches you and and not just even the adversity, but just like my my most memorable moments are sitting in the locker room after after a practice and the conversations that happen there and and then going and grabbing food after that. and just there's nothing tighter than a group of guys that that work together from 5:30 in the morning till the sun goes down. And and I just think that game brings the best out of people. And it's the one game where doesn't matter what size you are, doesn't matter how long you've played, there's guys in the National Football League that never played in college that were college basketball players that that end up figuring it out. Um, and that's what makes the game so unique. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when you So, when you uh when you when you start telling Bear about the good old days, what what's the one game? What's the go-to story about high school? Like, you know, you just stood out. The one hit, the one score. What What position did you play? So, I played I played kind of all over the place. I played linebacker. I played played on an edge. Um, we we ran a triple option offense. So, and and my high school offensive coordinator, Jeff Jones, who uh is now our Director of Player Development here at Auburn, um was one of the most influential people in my life, but he was also he was also my down the street neighbor, also the same guy that took me to workouts every day and uh somehow convinced me that I was going to play quick tackle. Mhm. And um when you run when you run the veer, run the triple option, like your tackles are undersized guys that all they do is just run into linebackers as fast as they possibly all you do is down block. Uh there's no technique involved. He would tell you there was technique but all you do it's like playing linebacker except you play o-line. Uh and uh that's what I did uh my senior year. I I avoided it at all costs up until my senior year. So, um, ended up playing tackle on offense. So, played linebacker, played played some edge, and, um, and then ended up playing quick tackle. I I try to stay away from the I mean, is there a single game? I mean, like Oh, yeah. Yeah. I ignored your question. Um, man, I don't know if I've ever talked about a single game, but you know, it's one of these things as you get older, you get better. Like I was way better at 42 right now than I was at 25 in high school. Sure. So you you've talked about football, how unique it is and how special it is. And I mean so you've given I mean this is your life and everything. I mean the lessons that it gives. I mean when when did you decide like coaching all right this is it like this is what I want to do. Yeah. I I think as as I finished up high school, I thought, man, like uh more than anything, I I wanted to to do I wanted to give other guys the same experience I got. And that's why I say Coach Jones was one of the most influential people in my life because of what he he was the first person that showed me that if you give more of yourself than you ever expect back, it's as fulfilling as anything you could ever have. And by the time I graduated high school, I thought in the back of my mind, I was like, man, I want to give young people the same opportunity I got. I want to give young people the same experience I got. Um because it it truly changed my life. It gave me a purpose every single day. I knew what I wanted to do. I I wanted to be a really good football player, but I wanted to be a really good teammate. Um and to be honest with you, it kept me out of trouble in a lot of ways. And and I was um I I was kind of a knucklehead early. It was my sophomore year and and he was like, "Hey, listen, like you're you're a leader. You're really smart. you're you're you can add so much to to not just this program but this school and it was the first time anybody's ever said that to me and and I think it kind of changed my life in a lot of ways and um so by the time I graduated I thought man like this is what I want to do and so I end up end up going into education and and I always had a passion for special education and and I wanted to to help young people that that needed help and um so I started I got a degree in special ed and and I started out um started out as a high school coach and coach Jones actually hired me. He was a head coach and and a really good one at that. He was ended up being a state coach of the year and and he was phenomenal and uh he hired me and I coached coached the d-line for one year in high school and then I had an opportunity uh to get into college and but that was never like the goal. There was I get a lot of questions like that, but like even when I sit in the chair as the head coach at Auburn was no different at South Florida, it was Iowa State, Tennessee, doesn't matter. Every time I I like sit in a chair, I'm like, man, this was never the goal. This was never what I thought it was going to be. I wanted to teach special ed and coach high school football, but I I found out really early like all I ever looked forward to was three o'clock when I got to coach football. And um and so when I got had an opportunity to go into college and and the longer I I was in it, I was I realized that the same the same motivation I had for why I started doing it 20 years later now or a little bit more than that. It's still the same motivation. I I want to I want young people to have the same experience I had. And as people say, man, like college football's changed so much. And it has. It's drastically changed. But the one thing that hasn't changed is that young people want to be held accountable. Young people want to be told what to do. Young people want to know somebody cares about them. Young people need people to instill confidence in them and 20 whatever years later, it's still exactly the same in that regard. Now, you get outside of the scope of the actual football. There's a lot more that goes into the job now, but but that part has not changed. Like I had I had our defense was over at my house last night and there's still kids that want to be want to be loved, want to be want to be talked to, want to be held accountable. They want to break bread, have fun, like they're still kids. And I think that's the reason why I've stayed in college all these years and have have never never wanted to go to the NFL is because the fact that you can still influence these guys. And as much as there's a business element to what this job has become, our job is to make it feel like there's not a business element to it. And I know that's a long-winded answer question, but but it's the truth of what this is. Yeah. So, what real quick though, I was I was curious. So, what inspired the passion for special ed? I don't know. I always felt like the the young young guys and and gals that couldn't couldn't stand up for themselves or couldn't couldn't do for themselves needed somebody to help them. And like I said, like Coach Jones, who was a science teacher, not a special ed teacher. Matter of fact, I hated his class. Um, we still joke to this day that I actually cheated my way through it. Well, I got an A. You got an Oh, yeah. Yeah. From Coach Jones. Yep. Was this was it like a wink wink situation or like I found a way. You found a way. Which is which is a great lesson to our young guys in our program. Find a way. Please. Put the Yeah. Don't listen to this. I I found a way. That's a great lesson. It's It's actually one of the best lessons. Like find a way. Like literally, I tell our players all the time. I didn't say I didn't say cheat. I just said you find a way. And um and at the end of the day, I had an A. But but ultimately I I always felt like um like you need to you need to give young people help that need help. And and um there's there's not many people that want to do it. To be honest with you, the one thing that that Coach Jones told me at the time too is like, man, listen, if you if you teach special ed, you can get a job anywhere in the country. and uh they always need male special ed teachers and and that was kind of it all kind of made sense to me. Awesome. But like over the years, Auburn on your radar like what I mean did you was there a you know how did you how did you view like the team and everything like I you know the the the university I mean did you uh I don't know was there a a sense of it? What was your what was your feeling if if there was one you know like when you're you're at Ohio State I mean was you know Auburn I mean well 2004 that was a that would have been your first year there. You better have had a good impression. Yeah. You you know what's interesting? We talk all the time about about how you view jobs. It It's so different than how you view it um from the outside looking in. It it talk all the time about things get frozen in time, meaning you view programs different than a a high school kid views a program. Meaning from from my perspective, it's it's moments in time that get frozen is how you see like like for me when I think about Auburn um like I thought about Auburn zero in in the sense of like man I'm I'm going to coach at Auburn. I you know like I was at the University of Tennessee with we had um I guess three guys that had been at Auburn. So, a as you sit in casual conversation or you're out recruiting and you have time to just sit and talk, you pick guys brains about, man, how was it here? How was it here? Um, so, so you you have an impression of Auburn through Kodi Burns, through Rodney Garner, um, uh, through, uh, Chop Harbin, like guys that had been here. Um, and but you don't you don't know truly the inside of it, but moments get frozen in time. I remember '04. I remember Jason Campbell. I remember Cadillac and and Ronnie Brown. And you're like, man, like how many draft picks can you have on one offense? Like, it was a good year. It It was a great year. And so, you remember that. Then you remember the run in 2010. Um, you know, inevitably everybody watches the national championship game. You remember 13. I remember 17. But but those moments get frozen in time. So you think you're what you know of Auburn is those moments in time and then what what your buddies tell you. Um the one thing that always res resonated about Auburn is that you're like why do all these former coaches live there? And why does everybody that leaves Auburn keep their house out? I know. I know. And so those are the things that stick out especially as you get older and you have a family and and jobs are more than just a school and a salary and a situation. They are man like what is it like to live there? What is it like to live there? And uh more importantly, what is it like for your family to live there? And so, but the first time I ever thought about coaching at Auburn is when my agent called and said, "Auburn wants to talk to you." What's that feeling like? Um, I would have been excited. Really surprised. Um, man, um, that's deep. What's the feeling like? The feeling is like, hey, I don't have time to talk to anybody to be honest with you. Um and and you you as as you get into this get into the profession and you you know it's like you you know as you have success as a coordinator you get phone calls as you have success as a head coach you you get phone calls. And I was in a situation at South Florida where like we were in the middle of of rebuilding and the only thing I ever thought about and to be honest with you I think that's what why I've been able to have success. I've never worried about the next thing um ever. And I learned that early and Jim Tressel put me in my place there really really early in my career of you want to know how you get a job by doing an elite job at your job and putting your head down and not actually ever worrying about another job. And that always stuck with me and I've never bounced around jobs. The first time I ever left a place um willingly in the sense that like it was like like hey here's my decision choice to leave a place was when I left Tennessee to go to South Florida. Everything else happened because it had to happen. And so very few times in this profession do you get to pick a job. Um and this happened to be one of those times where where we had options. And to be honest with you, we were incredibly happy in Tampa. Uh we, like I said, we were still in the middle, very much in the middle of a rebuild, a monumental rebuild that all my energy and focus was on that. And so when you get that call, you're like, "All right, great." Like,"We'll figure out later when that has to happen." But um it it it wasn't the only one. So you were like, "Great. We'll figure it out." Sure. And I learned also early in my marriage like don't bring anything up until it's time to bring it up because all it does is causes stress. Oh man. Yeah. I'm still learning that one. That was a good one. It's it's a good lesson to learn. If you're still learning it 27 years on, I'm still like, okay, do not say that. Yes. Good. um you get to Auburn and everything and everybody we we ask people and every every school thinks that their you know Auburn's got you know their their place has a special vibe and it's you know unique and everything but um I really kind of think that there it it is here and everything. I mean have you have you picked up on that? What was the first impression showing up and like how has it changed so far? Yeah, for years that's what you've heard is it's unique. It's different. It's unique. It's different and you have heard that. Oh my goodness. Um, I've heard it forever. And most of the time you discount that as man that's that's his alma mater or her alma they're gonna think it's different. I I learned really really quickly here that what makes it different is the people, the pride that Auburn grads have. And it starts honestly with this Auburn family deal that it's it's not Auburn Nation or Tiger Nation, it's the Auburn family and and I've never been at a place and this is what I guess my eighth job. Uh I've never been at a place where people take so much pride in knowing that you love Auburn as much as they do. That you're comfortable as much as they want you to be comfortable. The question from every single person is, has Auburn treated you right? Do you love Auburn? Like, it's important to people that care about Auburn that you like, let me change that, that you love Auburn as much as they do. That's what makes it unique. Um, you know, it's it's Bruce Pearl told me right when I got here, he said, "Coach, like I yeah, it's a small town. It's a college town. Um, it's kind of off the grid a little bit. He's like, "Just get the kid and his family here. If you get the kid and his family here, you'll have a shot to get him." And boy is he right. The the more we've gotten kids and families around, the the town does sell itself. Everybody leaves here with the same impression. Even kids that we don't get, they get the same impression. It's a safe, clean community community that takes so much pride in the community, right? Uh and that's from the random store owner downtown to to the guy that drives the bus to to certainly the people that work here. Um and ultimately our players uh those are going to be your best salespeople that the pride that they have in it. Um, and that's why Jordan-Hare looks like what it looks like on Saturdays because the pride in there is genuine. It's real. Um, it's not uh it's not doesn't feel corporate in any way. Uh, it's very much what it has been for a hundred years. It's it's they rally around Auburn. And when they say, man, Auburn Auburn people love Auburn, it's everything Auburn. I think that first Wednesday I got introduced at the basketball game, I felt it. Go to the baseball games, you feel it. Get get on campus, you feel it. There's a pride about being in Auburn and and so yes, you feel it really really quickly. And um it's it's very very genuine. Right. Well, I know you got to get back to work uh because I'm excited. So, I'm going to I'm going to go ahead and kick you out here, but I do want to leave you with this. You were not the first Auburn football coach to be born abroad. Did you know that? Mike Donahue, County Kerry, Ireland, his first year, 1904, 5-0. So, go on out, get to work. [laughter] Thanks. No pressure. Zero pressure. You can't be president, but there's good precedent for, you know, someone, you know, like like in your position, 5-0. That's pretty good. I think we need to put a hang in the banner. [music] That's just me. Anyway, let's get to week one. Yeah, we'll do week one. Can't thank you enough for taking the time for intro introducing us to Bear. Excited to see what he's going to be doing on the diamond and War Eagle. War Damn Eagle. I appreciate it.[music]