USF’s Football Future

Alex Golesh knows where he wants to go, knows where he wants to take South Florida’s football program. He is very clear on that. The question is can he – and South Florida – actually get there.
College football is presently going through a very rough period. It is in a constant state of flux with virtually no rules, except those that govern actual play on the field.
Building a program under these circumstances, especially at a Group of 5 level, is becoming more and more difficult with NIL money being thrown around like never before and the transfer portal essentially insuring free agency for all players.
In some ways, Golesh and USF officials seem almost oblivious to this. There are a lot of positive vibes reverberating around campus and the USF community right now with the upgrading of facilities including a new on-campus stadium that is expected to be ready in a few years.
Although they don’t talk openly about it, as USF has gained it’s football footing those in charge of the athletic department and others who provide financial support are working to shed USF’s Group of 5 identity in favor of joining a Power 4 conference.
That will center around the improved facilities and, hopefully, a consistently competitive football team. “We want to get this going in the direction everyone wants it to be going,” Golesh said recently on his coaches show posted on USF’s football website.
He added there were two ways to go about the rebuilding process. “You can try and put your very best team together in year one, but it’s really hard to sustain that.
“We came in here with the approach we’re going to build it from the ground up,” Golesh continued. “Yes, we’re going to use the transfer portal and fill holes as we need to, but more than anything, we’re going to recruit young guys that grew up in the Florida-Georgia region.
“We’re going to build with local guys and we’re going to bring them in and give them all the resources that we can possibly give them to develop on the field, in the weight room, socially and academically,” Golesh said, “and we’re going to build a sustainable program that’s got four classes that as you go you actually have sustainable success for years to come.”
But can you do that looking at today’s college landscape, especially at a Group of 5 level?
Already, Group of 5 teams are becoming a feeder system for the Power 4 schools, and this will likely become more pronounced in the future. Will quarterback Byrum Brown really stay at USF his entire career? And could anybody blame him if he left to maximize his potential, and how do you keep replacing players like that?
And if your best players continue to leave, how can you build or sustain anything? In his first two years at USF, Golesh has never beaten an FBS team with a winning record, and this includes teams in the AAC.
In theory, he has a good plan. Whether he can actually pull it off, though, is another question.