TAMPA, Fla. — The University of South Florida has officially welcomed the sixth head coach in USF football history.
The school held an event on Monday to welcome Coach Alex Golesh and share some goals for the future of the program.
"We have a very hungry fanbase here. They deserve to have a competitive and winning football program," USF Board of Trustees Chair Will Weatherford said. "I want all the Bull fans to know we got our guy, we got the right guy and the right leader for this university."
Golesh replaces Jeff Scott, who had a 4-28 record as USF's head coach throughout his three seasons with the team and 1-26 against Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Scott was fired on Sunday, Nov. 6, a day after the Bulls' 54-28 loss against Temple.
Golesh began by thanking his family and the USF Athletics staff for giving him the chance to make an impact as a head college football coach. The 38-year-old most recently worked as the offensive coordinator for the University of Tennessee, where his offense ranked No. 1 in scoring and total offense in the Football Bowl Subdivision, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
"We’re gonna create a positive, positive football program and a positive culture where young men can grow, develop on and off the field," Golesh said. "At the end of the day, we’re going to have a program where we enable player-driven leadership and allow the players to enrich the culture. We’ll guide ‘em, we’ll give ‘em the blueprint. We’re gonna set the standard in every single phase of what we do."
Golesh has spent 20 seasons coaching at the college level and, according to USF, has helped lead to program turnarounds at Tennessee, Iowa State, Illinois and Toledo.
He said his goal for the team is to "be as good as we can, as fast as we can" through recruiting, retaining and developing.
“This will never be about me," Golesh said. "It’ll be about the young men in the locker room. It’ll be about the alums. It’ll be about our community. It'll be about the City of Tampa and we’ll let the work show on the field.”