Alex Golesh Press Conference after Alabama | "The game was NOT lopsided.”

yeah be 100% real with our guys like we have been and I that's what I just told him in there and I literally I started off with I'm going to be real with you as I have for the 21 months I've been the head coach here for three and a half quarters it was really good we got to figure out what in the world happened the last six minutes of that game because what happened the last six minutes of that game was really really bad it was garbage so three and a half minutes really good ball last or three and a half quarters really good ball that second half of the fourth quarter really bad ball it ends up getting out of hand it goes from a one possession game to um whatever it ended up being looks really really lopsided and it wasn't so there if you're looking for a quote you can have it but like there are no moral victories like I told these guys I told our guys that we could play with anybody in the country I know we can got one of the best quarterbacks in the country there you got a running back room that's as good as anywhere our old line played their butts off that defense put their put that go gold helmet all over these cats we can play with anybody in the country I don't know you can ask ask them what they think I'm sure you will I would I would say we can play with anybody in the country the first three and a half quarters that's real there are no moral victories like that it just hopefully you guys have figured F out I'm just going to tell you the truth and that's the truth and that's real there no like we're one and one and tonight wasn't good enough and we came up here to win the football game I I don't know do you think that's what happened sure awesome well since I'm the head football coach I'm telling you that that's the smart thing to do is kick the field goal to not go down two possessions so it certainly felt that way right but I I couldn't tell you without watching the film and I'm not being a jerk I'm just telling you let down to be in a one possession game the fourth quarter against one of the top teams in the history of college football like is it a let down it shouldn't be if it is I got to coach it different I got to coach the situation better I got to have our team better prepared for that situation clearly I didn't but I will I'll get myself right so nobody nobody harder just so we're all on the same page there's nobody harder on our staff our kids and myself than me and we'll get it right we'll get it fixed and we'll be ready to roll I promise you and we'll work so hard that it won't happen like that again we we were able to contain the quarterback there for really the entire game you know I thought our front UPF front defensively a lot of the twist game stuff a lot of just the edge rushes were effective um the the point was to contain him and not let him get running around which is where he he's so good uh I thought for the most part we did a really good job with that um know three sacks um did a relatively good job on third down defensively um were able to contain him but I thought we played really hard up front I thought too did a great job mixing up the blitz packages mixing up the pictures um I thought planwise it was really really solid take us through the decision thei yeah um I thought you had to go get points there in the drive uh and make it a one possession game if you don't it's a two possession game and I thought it was going to be hard to chase it with just over I guess it was five minutes left there um so that's why I took the points with the thought that our defense has been playing lights out um I go back and I would still do the same thing defense is playing lights out you take the points you secure a one possession game you get a stop on defense and essentially set up a two-minute drive to go win the game um you get out of that without points and and we had strugg we struggled inside the 10 tonight like um you know a little bit of what we got defensively picture-wise a little bit of not executing but we struggled down there you could tell we couldn't run the ball at all and I didn't want a drop back pass down there tonight uh until we had to and that's why I just thought take the points and make it secure a one possession game defense been playing lights out like I said I would go back and do it over again you had two early drives got down there he got points he got points early but they weren't touchdowns and then they got down there twice and got yeah is there a question offense Fielding moved the football got points but was it was it a disappointment maybe not yeah I don't understand your question we want to score touchdowns in the Red Zone you score field goals you end up with six points instead of 14 yeah it's a terrible feeling as it should be expectations you score touchdowns esate yeah we you know we didn't execute the the three in a row um and I don't know that they did anything different we we didn't really go back to it um until we absolutely had to there at the end where we had to go push it vertically a little bit uh when kind of got into a two-minute drill there with five whatever it was 20 on the clock um but you know I thought we protected extremely well I knew as we got going towards the end there that it was going to start to not hold up like you wanted to um but I thought protected well we probably could have um I just felt like we were in a Groove there in the second half a little bit where felt like man you don't want to just shoot it where you're running the ball effectively you know we made some really good halftime adjustments in terms of running the football uh did some different things to get the ball out on the perimeter um it was a really tight game I didn't find the need to to Just erently Launch it down the field defens Alabama so trouble well Leo can you hear us [Music] yes it sure felt that way it felt like we wore down there at the very end um and that's why I said earlier I got to figure out exactly what happened uh got to figure out if it's the way we practice if it's the way we called it if it's the way our kids' mindset was I got to figure out what it was and I got to fix it um but I think you're absolutely right it certainly looked like we wore down there um I mean I thought for three and a half quarters we showed that we could play with anybody I we we did not prove at the very end that we could play with anybody we couldn't go finish thank you coach you're welcome tip awesome