AUBURN, AL – Do you want the censored version of this story, or do you want the unfiltered truth?
That’s the question you must consider before asking Auburn coach Alex Golesh why a framed print that reads “Fe,” the symbol for iron on the periodic table of elements, sits on a shelf behind his desk.
The uninitiated would think the symbol might have something to do with Golesh coaching a team that plays in the Iron Bowl, or that it’s a play on the “iron sharpens iron” cliché.
Here’s the G-rated version of the story. Golesh received the print a few years ago as a gift from Jeff Jones, his high school chemistry teacher and an instrumental mentor in Golesh’s early rise in coaching. Jones is now Golesh’s director of player development at Auburn.
That doesn’t explain, though, why he gave Golesh the “Fe” print or why it sits behind Golesh’s desk.
It’s not about the element. It’s about the letters.
“F*** everybody,” Golesh says, as he surrenders the truth.
Golesh embraced that “Fe” mentality five years ago, after becoming Tennessee’s offensive coordinator. Those Vols faced a cavalcade of doubters, operating amid the stench of an NCAA scandal left behind by ex-coach Jeremy Pruitt.
Fed up with the outside noise and negativity, Golesh one day wrote F-everybody, with the four-letter word spelled out, on the board in Tennessee’s offensive staff room.
Vols coach Josh Heupel put the kibosh on that. Too profane.
“Heup said we can’t put it on the board,” Golesh told me, as we sat inside his Auburn office in February, “because everyone would see it. So, I just wrote, ‘Fe.’”
A two-letter mantra was born. It followed Golesh from Tennessee to South Florida to the loveliest village on the Plains.
It’s here where you begin to understand the personality of Auburn’s personable but passionate coach.
“He’s fiery,” said Cole Best, Auburn’s veteran center who followed Golesh from USF to the SEC. “To play for him, there’s kind of a chip on your shoulder.”
Auburn would benefit from some fire, some "Fe" swagger, some attitude that it’s done with being a doormat, and it’s coming to break down the door, to reclaim a place of prominence.
On a night in February, the TVs inside Auburn’s Melton Student Center showed the 2013 Iron Bowl. That says it all. Auburn’s heyday resides on VHS.
It’s been five long seasons since Auburn last tasted a winning record in 2020.
Auburn’s first attempt at replacing Gus Malzahn soured from the start. Calling Bryan Harsin a total-system failure would be to understate it. Its second hire after Malzahn? Another whiff.
Hugh Freeze, Golesh’s predecessor, had some “Fe” in him, too.
It stood for friggin’ excuses. Freeze was full of them.