TAMPA, Fla. — A new era of football for the University of South Florida gets underway this fall.
The Bulls officially named Alex Golesh as its sixth head coach in program football history back in December following the firing of Jeff Scott, who had a 4-28 record as USF's head coach throughout his three seasons with the team.
Since earning the job, Golesh has been busy getting to know the current roster, recruiting future players and leading USF's training camp
It has been a tedious adjustment for Golesh, who'd been a college assistant coach from 2009-2022. Now the head of the Bulls program, Golesh is getting used to having the spotlight on him.
"Everybody's looking at you. You don't know what that's like until you're sitting there," he said. "You get out to the field and...every move you're making is evaluated looked at [and] judged."
Golesh believes his experience as an assistant coach has prepared him for this role. In his offensive coordinator role at Tennessee from 2021-2022, head coach Josh Heupel allowed Golesh to instill his style of football on offense. Tennessee broke eight single-season records in his first season before leading the country in scoring and yards per game in 2022.
Whether USF produces similar stats remains to be seen, but the style of play will be similar to what fans saw from Tennessee under Golesh.
And that style of play can be seen on Sept. 2 against Western Kentucky for the Bulls' first game of the regular season. That game is scheduled at 3:30 p.m. and can be watched on the CBS Sports Network.
USF's home opener is scheduled for the following weekend at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9 against in-state rival Florida A&M at Raymond James Stadium. It will be televised on ESPN+.
The most prestigious matchup for Golesh and his team will be against NCAA powerhouse Alabama, which will also be played at home on Saturday, Sept. 16. Fans who are not able to attend or get tickets can catch the game on ABC.
USF will play its first conference game on Sept. 23 at Raymond James Stadium against Rice University. It has yet to be announced where that game will be televised.
The full schedule can be seen below:
- USF at Western Kentucky – 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2
- USF vs Florida A&M – 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9
- USF vs Alabama – 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16
- USF vs Rice University – Saturday, Sept. 23
- USF at Navy – 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30
- USF at UAB – Saturday, Oct. 7
- USF vs FAU – Saturday, Oct. 14
- USF at Connecticut – 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21
- USF at Memphis – Saturday, Nov. 4
- USF vs Temple – Saturday, Nov. 11
- USF at UTSA – 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17
- USF vs Charlotte – Saturday, Nov. 25
To learn more details about each game, click here.
According to the league's media members, USF is predicted to finish in the bottom two of the American Athletic Conference.
10 Tampa Bay's Andrea Chu and David Schiele contributed to this report.