Alex Golesh explains Auburn football's fourth-down miss vs Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Facing fourth down, needing a yard to convert and trailing by just three points, Auburn football went for it.

The only thing? Auburn was on its own 24-yard line, and there were nearly seven minutes remaining in what'd eventually be a 24-14 loss to No. 17 Tennessee on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Neyland Stadium.

It looked a lot like the same play Auburn used to ice its win against Vanderbilt a week prior, pitching to Jeremiah Cobb as he hit the edge. Against the Commodores , it was a 21-yard gain. The Vols, however, snuffed it out and went on to score a game-sealing touchdown.

Head coach Alex Golesh explained the decision postgame.

"The thought is, the pictures they had shown, that they would chase it off the backside edge," he said. "We thought we could go hat for hat with Sig (Cody Sigler) and then put Cobb in space. It sucked a little bit being on the left hash there, being tucked up against the sideline, but that was the thought process there."

Asked if there was any concern about running quarterback Byrum Brown up the middle in that instance, Golesh said "that thought didn't necessarily cross my mind," in large part because Auburn talks through those circumstances throughout the week.

"That was our plan on fourth-and-1 in a got-to-have-it-type situation to go to the play we went to," Golesh said, "and I felt good calling it, to be honest with you."

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter . To support Adam's work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser .