College football analyst Josh Pate predicts Alex Golesh will be 'universally adored' at Auburn within a year

Auburn concluded its coaching search on Sunday by tapping USF‘s Alex Golesh as its next coach. It ended a somewhat chaotic search that included a few different names.

But for college football analyst Josh Pate, the Tigers did a heck of a job. In fact, he offered some lofty praise for the hire on Sunday’s edition of Josh Pate’s College Football Show.

“Alex Golesh to Auburn. This news got me more excited than Lane Kiffin to LSU today,” Pate said. “It’s not a bigger hire, at least on the surface. But we kind of had a pretty good feeling Lane was going to LSU. I didn’t think last night Alex Golesh was going to Auburn. I thought it was going to be DJ Durkin.

“Auburn totally botched their coaching search this week at the 11th hour, and I was so confident and I was so complimentary that Auburn had gotten the job done and they had gotten it to the finish line because they had. And then they tripped all over themselves and I really, really thought they’d screwed themselves. I was very disappointed in Auburn. And then they picked themselves up and they got over the finish line and it’s like watching Armageddon.”

The college football analyst would open up on his metaphor for the Auburn coaching search, letting fans know why the Alex Golesh hire was such a big deal for the Tigers. It salvaged a potentially sloppy process.

“You’ve got to land the shuttle on the asteroid and there was way more tail debris than you ever thought and the other shuttle gets blown to bits and it’s just you and the glass is cracking and everything,” Pate said, outlining his Armageddon metaphor. “And we landed it. Somehow. And you’ve still got to drill the hole and plant the nuclear weapons and get out and blow it up, so there’s still a lot of work to be done. But at least you landed on the asteroid. At least Auburn got a really good head coach that most of you don’t even know.”

So what is the situation for Golesh at Auburn? Well, he’ll have some work to do selling himself.

“Most Auburn fans did not wake up this morning intimately familiar with Alex Golesh,” Pate said. “Will he win a national championship at Auburn? Guarantee he will. Nope. Nope. I don’t think legally I can do that. Will he win an SEC Championship? 100%. Nope. Nope, I’m told I can’t do that either. I’ve got no clue if he’s going to win there.

“I am irrationally excited, though, about Alex Golesh at Auburn. I know what works at Auburn. I grew up around Auburn. We’ve seen a whole lot of what doesn’t work at Auburn, haven’t we, ladies and gentlemen? Yes we have, you don’t even have to be an Auburn fan to shake your head. The difference is Auburn people a re shaking their heads frowning, whereas LSU and ‘Bama and Georgia folks are shaking their heads laughing. Boy, rival fans have enjoyed this stretch of Auburn football. So any time you make a new hire they get a little bit nervous. Because the last thing that the league wants is for Auburn to figure itself out. That’s not fun for anyone.”

Pate made a prediction for Alex Golesh at Auburn. A big one.

“This guy will be so universally adored there within a year that I can’t really put into words how good a fit he will be,” Pate said. “The ultimate fit is winning games. So it doesn’t matter how much you’re liked, if you don’t win games you will be hated. That is the nature of this business. You’re paid seven to eight figures per year in exchange for you having some thick skin. We all understand that. I don’t even have to say that. But not a lot is known about him.

“I think you will come to know him very quickly. He’ll be the kind of guy that every couple of weeks you hear a soundbite from him and you go, ‘Man, dude, I kind of wish that was my head coach. I wish my head coach sounded a little bit more like that.’ I’m going to say it like I’ve already said two times, I’m going to say it a third time: Got to win. Got to win. But I will tell you, one of the things I’ll guarantee you: quarterback’s not going to be a problem at Auburn much longer.”