After Auburn lost to Florida at home last month, Alex Golesh checked his phone and scrolled through three texts.
Two told him he sucked. The third came from his wife, Alexis, who offered a softer judgment: "Maybe you don't suck as bad as everybody says, but we suck."
The feedback shifted Saturday after Auburn stunned No. 1 Georgia 27-24 in Athens as a three-touchdown underdog. The first-year coach returned to the locker room to discover roughly 500 unread text messages. This time, surely, his phone was filled with praise rather than criticism.
"Like, somewhere in the middle is probably the truth," Golesh told reporters Monday. "I don't suck, but probably not a genius either."
Auburn (4-2, 2-2 SEC) still hasn't arrived. The Tigers are 4-2 and still unranked after receiving 61 votes in the AP Top 25 following the sport's biggest upset this season. That can change this week when No. 18 LSU visits Jordan-Hare Stadium for a Noon ET kickoff Saturday.
Proof of concept, not proof of Auburn's arrival
What Golesh has now, and didn't after Florida, is the evidence he needs to lift the Tigers back on the national stage.
"I think it's always easier when there's proof of concept," Golesh said. "You can point to and say, man, look at the way this guy's playing. It's because of this, this and this."
Auburn erased a 14-0 first-quarter deficit by leaning on quarterback Byrum Brown, who ran a season-high 26 times for 115 yards and a touchdown. The Tigers scored 24 straight points, forced three turnovers, including a decisive late fumble by Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton, and won between the hedges for the first time since 2005 on Alex McPherson's 34-yard field goal as time expired.
Celebration ends in the film room
Auburn fans descended on Toomer's Corner and partied into the night, rolling the oak trees with toilet paper. Still, Golesh isn't satisfied, and he seems downright vigilant.
"We're in an end-result society. Everybody wants the right end result, and we're trying to unteach that piece of it," Golesh said. "We all want to win. I want to win. I want to win in the worst way, but I don't want to let the win then cover up everything that's going on."
That requires honesty and sometimes harsh criticism. So the staff spent Sunday reviewing the game, tearing the film apart.
"Literally, the entire two-and-a-half-hour staff meeting yesterday was, here's fundamentally where we suck," Golesh said. "Here's our pad level. Here's our misleverages. Here's our hat placement. Here's our hand placement."
Auburn committed 11 penalties and dropped five passes, two on the opening drive. Those three decisive turnovers they forced led to only one score: the game-winning field goal as time expired.
"I went back the other way because the easy thing, the human nature tells you, we're good," Golesh said. "And then you flip on this Louisiana State University team,e and you're like, get humbled really, really quickly by a dude running by you really quickly."
Lane Kiffin's first LSU team (5-2, 2-2) has been hard to read, though it's clear they're one of the more talented teams in the country. Both losses have come in the final minutes — 32-24 at Ole Miss and 35-34 in overtime at Kentucky two weeks ago.
"They have a unique style in terms of their tempo, and it definitely puts stress on a defense," defensive coordinator DJ Durkin said.
Durkin will have to solve it without linebacker Xavier Atkins. Auburn dismissed Atkins, a second-team Walter Camp All-American last season after transferring from LSU, late Monday night, according to multiple reports. He did not play against Georgia while serving a suspension that Golesh never explained. Atkins announced he will enter the transfer portal.
As good as Atkins has been for the Tigers, they didn't need him to beat the No. 1 team in the land. Elijah Melendez and Bryce Deas combined for 17 tackles in Athens. Melendez also picked off Stockton.
The schedule gives Auburn no break.
"There's no, like, all right, catch your breath," Golesh told CBS Sports by phone from Auburn's team bus Saturday night. "There is no catching your breath."
Auburn's harder challenge: Building consistency
The progress has come in fits. On Oct. 3 at Tennessee, the Tigers opened with four straight three-and-outs and lost 24-14. Two weeks later, they took the fight to Georgia and outrushed the Bulldogs 192-113.
The win was incredible, sure, but the film and the analytics tell a different story. Of all the FBS wins in Week 7, Auburn's performance had the worst net success rate, according to data scientist Parker Fleming of Dropback.
Golesh has been here before, experiencing the rollercoaster of a massive rebuild. He said every job he's had has brought inconsistent success, and the process doesn't end after the first season, let alone in the middle of the schedule.
"There's no shortcut to flipping a culture, man," Golesh said on the bus Saturday. "There's so much that goes into it. Like, it takes time. And nobody wants to hear that."
The SEC doesn't grant much of it. Golesh learned that as Josh Heupel's offensive coordinator at Tennessee in 2021 and 2022. The Vols went 7-6 in Year 1 before flipping into an 11-2 team that beat Clemson in the Orange Bowl the next season. That 11-win season included humbling moments, too. A 42-point win by No. 5 Tennessee against Missouri in mid-November was followed up by a 25-point loss to unranked South Carolina seven days later.
"If I've learned anything in this conference, you are just good enough to get your ass beat every Saturday if it ain't right," Golesh said.
It's a common saying in the SEC. Georgia's Kirby Smart has repeated the same message nearly every week this season, even as analysts crowned the Bulldogs one of the country's best teams. "Humility is a week away," the dean of SEC coaches says.
What Golesh wants now might be harder to achieve than beating the No. 1 team. Building a team that can do it week to week is complicated. Signs have appeared both on and off the field. Auburn players showed up to their football facility on Sunday, the team's off day, to watch film in individual sessions.
"Like, there's an intent to want to be good," Golesh said. "I'm trying to drive it to an intent to be elite in every aspect of their life so that on Saturdays, you see the best version of them, whatever that is. So I've said numerous times, we are truly in a race against ourselves to get as good as we can, as fast as we can."
Golesh has seen his phone at three texts and at 500. Neither number, he insists, tells the truth.
"I can humble myself," Golesh said. "Can we all humble ourselves on that?"
