Alex Golesh provided an early scouting report on Baylor ahead of the Tigers facing the Bears in the Aflac Kickoff Classic.
Golesh was asked Monday about his early thoughts on Baylor after he reveled Auburn had already turned its attention to its week one opponent.
“Week one is always unique, especially if there are coaching changes,” Golesh said. “Obviously, drastically unique for them. They played Auburn a year ago defensively so, there is some familiarity there. Unique offensively for us, simply because of a coordinator change on defense. So week one is always an interesting chess match because you have got multiple things you are looking at and you are trying to guess a lot, so that is what makes it kind of unique. You take this extra week, which sometimes can be detrimental, because now you are just digging deeper and deeper. Which could either mean you are going to be more detailed, or it can mean that you are just going down rabbit holes that do not exist. We have looked at every bit of information you can to try to narrow down exactly what it is going to look like.”
Baylor adding transfer quarterback DJ Lagway from Florida was also highlighted by Golesh.
“The challenges these guys present, a new quarterback, was in this league,” said Golesh. “At his best, he is as good of a quarterback as there is in the country. That is what we are preparing for defensively. An offense that a year ago, once they got going, could tempo you, which we are at least prepared in that regard, the explosive throughout the year.”
The Auburn head coach also highlighted the defensive mind of Dave Aranda among the things the Tigers’ offense has to prepare for.
“Defensively, a coaching change with the defensive coordinator coming in from Kansas State, obviously Coach (Dave) Aranda has made a name as a defensive guy for a really long time in this league and around the country,” Golesh said. LSo we are trying to work through what that is going to look like and that will present some challenges in itself. There are a ton of new guys and so you are watching film of schools all over the place that try to get a true personnel report on both sides of the ball. So very much some unknowns and that is probably the biggest challenge. You are trying to do what you do while still being prepared for the unknown and that is challenge number one.”
Auburn takes on Baylor on Sept. 5 in Atlanta.
