by Patrick Zier | Apr 29, 2025 |
All’s well that ends well and for USF, it ended well this spring.
“I was a solid day because our trainer wasn’t out on the field a lot,” South Florida Coach Alex Golesh said after his Bulls finished up practice with their annual spring game Saturday.
“I know it sounds really crazy to evaluate a day like that, but you really just want to get out of it healthy,” he added.
For USF, it was a chance to give their young players some exposure under game conditions. The Bulls have gone through the spring kind of banged up with a number of key players, including both potential starting cornerbacks and a couple veteran offensive linemen, sitting out.
And while Saturday’s game was about the here and now, from a program standpoint Golesh remains firmly focused on USF’s future and instilling that in his players.
He wants them to understand that the things they are doing now will not only make them better when they come back in the fall but are also necessary steps to make the program competitive at a higher level down the road.
After the game, Golesh said “I told our guys really the same thing I told them at the beginning of spring practice. There’s this gap that we’ve got to close and we have to keep working on that as we go into the summer.
“You know back-to-back bowl wins; I think it’s easy to forget what we walked into when we got here,” Golesh continued.
“I’m not justifying any part of what we’ve done but walking in and starting from scratch in every imaginable way and winning back-to-back bowl games, there’s this next step we have to take and the gap is not huge. but it’s the hardest gap to close,” Golesh said.
“And in my time, I’ve been part of four, five other programs trying to close that gap, that’s the hardest part,” Golesh remarked. “It’s going from winning bowl games and being competitive to winning championships and playing meaningful games into January.”
And Golesh believes he and his players are on the right track. “We’ll get there when we get there, but I think this is as close as we’ve ever been,” Golesh said.
While Golesh has a lot of confidence, it will be difficult for USF to get where he wants to take it and even more difficult to stay there because he’s not talking about being competitive in the AAC, or even the Group of 5.
He’s talking about building a program that can compete with the big boys, the Alabamas and Georgias and Ohio States of the world.
And USF has already tasted that kind of success, albeit very briefly, under its very first coach, Jim Leavitt, but couldn’t maintain it. In 2007, the Bulls came out of nowhere to soar to No.2 in the AP poll.
It was, to this point, the most exciting season in South Florida football history. Suddenly, the Bulls were relevant. Not just in Tampa, not just in Florida, but nationally,
With Lakeland native and Lake Gibson grad Matt Grothe leading the way at quarterback, the Bulls went on a six-game run to start the season that they have never come close to matching.
First they beat Elon. Then they beat 13th ranked Auburn in overtime at Auburn, their first win ever over an SEC team. Then they beat North Carolina. Then they beat fifth-ranked West Virginia. Then they beat Florida Atlantic. And then they capped off the six-game run by slaughtering Central Florida, 64-12. That shot them from fifth to second in the AP poll. And then it was over.
Grothe would say later that USF didn’t have the depth to stand up to the pounding it took playing some of the country’s best teams and simply got beat down physically.
And as Golesh looks to the future now, that remains a huge hurdle. It’s what separates Group of 5 teams from the Power 4 conferences and what separates the Alabamas and Georgias and Ohio States and other elite teams from the rest of the Power 4.
But Golesh believes he can get there. First, with the best team in the Group of 5 now guaranteed a place in the College Football Playoff, Golesh doesn’t have to be as good as the country’s elite teams to get a shot at a national championship.
And second, if he can start putting together double digit win seasons, USF will become more attractive to portal players and high school recruits.
They say where there’s a will there’s a way, and Golesh certainly has the will. Now, all he has to do is find a way.
by Patrick Zier | Apr 25, 2025 |
TAMPA-It has been a good spring. There have been ups and downs, there always are, but overall, South Florida Coach Alex Golesh says, it has been a good spring.
“I’m really proud of how far we’ve come so far,” Golesh said after one of his team’s final practices before Saturday’s spring game at Corbett Field here. The game starts at 6 p.m. with a fan fest beginning at four o’clock.
“Our message to the guys after practice was man, we’ve got to go finish and every single day matters,” Golesh said. “Every single day that we get an opportunity to go we’ve got to compete, get better as a program and for us to take the next step its gotta come from within the locker room.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done so far up to this point and our program so far,” Golesh added.
“Our confidence level, you know, I continue to talk about earning confidence,” Golesh remarked. “I think you earn confidence as you continue to perfect the process, continue to improve day-to-day.
“It’s a really confident bunch,” Golesh said of his team. “I think as the leadership continues to grow and you continue to go through hard situations you build confidence. I think it’s really high.
“There’s a bunch of guys out there that are guys we know will contribute and have contributed so I think where we are, you’re seeing a lot of young guys start to gain confidence as they’re making plays,” Golesh went on.
“I think we do a really good job of not looking forward too much. We don’t focus on anything other than what we’re doing today and like I said, that was the message to the team,” Golesh concluded.
Two areas where younger players have had a chance to step up are the offensive line and the secondary. That’s because 12 players missed all of spring practice including some returning veterans in the line and defensive backfield.
“You know I think there have been bright spots at a lot of places,” Golesh said as he continued to assess his team. “I think the offensive line, there’s a handful of guys who are not going through spring practice that have played a ton of snaps for us.
“And seeing the depth and the young guys step up there and develop, that’s been really exciting,” Golesh said. “I think when offensive linemen are out you start to panic; man, can we operate? I think we’ve operated really well.”
The Bulls’ offensive line holds the key to how far this team will go in 2025. “This could be the deepest offensive line room I’ve ever been a part of,” veteran offensive line coach Tyler Hudanick commented on the USF football website.
USF has some solid starters returning including guard Zane Herring, who, along with veterans center Cole best, has missed all of spring practice; tackle Derek Bowman and center Mike Lofton. Cole Skinner and Deonte Bowie are seasoned reserves.
In college football, or football at any level, it’s what’s up front that counts. It doesn’t matter how good your quarterback is, he can’t throw on his back or if he’s constantly got hands in his face or if he’s forced to run for his life.
Running backs can’t explode through the hole and break tackles if there’s no hole to explode through.
So, for USF, having quarterback Byrum Brown back is great because he puts some pop in the offense, but having a veteran offensive line to protect him might be even better.
At any rate, this will all come to an end, or should we say be put on hold until the fall, with Saturday’s spring game.
“It’ll be good for our kids to come out and compete in front of a crowd,” Golesh said. “It’ll be offense versus defense. There are not enough players to split the squad into teams, but we’ll go offense versus defense for four quarters and make it as much like a game as we can.”
And just like this spring has been, it will be good preparation for the real thing. This team will have a lot of hurdles to jump if it is to reach its goals once September rolls around, but it will be ready. It’s prepared to take its best shot.
In the past, that hasn’t been good enough. This year, it might be.
by Patrick Zier | Apr 19, 2025 |
All things being equal, and in NASCAR now all things are equal, tires will tell the tale. Especially on short tracks. Get your tire pressure just right, maybe a little bit on the soft side so they grip better at the start, get the right balance, where the weight of the car on the left front and right rear equals the weight of the car on the right front and left rear, get out front early and you’re off to the races.
Because nobody will be able to pass you unless they can beat you in the pits. Since all the teams get their parts and pieces from single source suppliers, and since NASCAR does not allow you to modify those parts and pieces the least little bit, all the cars come to the track pretty much the same. So getting near perfect tire pressure and near perfect balance is about the only thing that gets you any separation.
And if you get out front and can set the pace, keep your car running smoothly in the same lane around the bottom of the track at say 80 percent of maximum speed, those behind you will use up their tires trying to catch up and you can pretty much lead the way the whole day.
That’s what Kyle Larson did at Bristol last Sunday, leading an astounding 411 of 500 laps. That’s what William Byron did the week before at Darlington, leading 243 of 297 laps but losing the race and finishing second to Denny Hamlin after he got behind on a green flag pit stop.
Darlington, by the way, is not a short track. It’s generally thought of as an intermediate track but it’s really kind of an outlier, too long to really be a short track and not quite a mile-and-a-half that defines the lower end of NASCAR’s intermediate ovals.
The week before he snuck across the finish line to beat Bryon at Darlington, Hamlin himself had a dominant car at Martinsville, where he led 274 of 400 laps.
So this is not your father’s short track racing. Used to be there was more separation between the cars, and if you came up on a slower car you’d put the bumper to him and send him up the track and sometimes into the fence which led to a lot of beatin’ and bangin’ after he got straightened out and came around looking for you.
In fact Bristol was the scene of perhaps the most iconic spin-out in NASCAR history. It happened at the night race in 1999 and featured two of the sport’s all-time greats, Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte.
As the two came to the white flag, Labonte edged in front and looked like he was on his way to a hard fought win. But Earnhardt would have none of that, and as they went into the first turn he clipped Labonte and sent him into the wall.
Earnhardt never denied he hit Labonte intentionally, he said he just intended to move him out of the way and never meant to wreck him. Earnhardt may have been the most popular driver in NASCAR history, but when he got out of his car to be acknowledged by the crowd, instead of the raucous roar that usually accompanied his wins he was greeted by a thunderous cascade of boos. It was probably the only time in his illustrious career that the fans in the stands turned on him.
Now, it’s get your guy out front and let everybody else try to catch him. And even if you do catch him you’re probably not going to get by him, at least not on the track.
“We were just trying to set ourselves up for the best opportunity for longevity, for pace, for Kyle to be able to manage the runs with the tire degradation in mind,” Cliff Daniels, Larson’s crew chief, said after the race.
In Earnhardt’s day, it was much simpler. See car in front. Hit car in front. Knock car in front out of the way. Worked for him.
NASCAR NOTES: No race this week.
OGS Bristol picks: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Kyle Larson. Bristol winner: Larson. OGS season record: 4-3.
OGS Competition Index top 10: 1-Hamlin 218 points, 2-Bell 187, 3-Larson 179, 4-William Byron 139, 5-Josh Berry 77, 6-Bubba Wallace 73, 7-Tyler Reddick 67, 8-Alex Bowman 52, 9-Ryan Blaney 47, 10-Chase Elliott 45.
OGS Competition Index top 10 on short tracks: 1-Hamlin 155, 2-Larson 115, 3-Bell 103, 4-Wallace, Ty Gibbs 30, 6-Elliott 25, 7-Berry 24, 8-Chase Briscoe 20, 9-Blaney 15, 10-Joey Logano 12.
by Patrick Zier | Apr 16, 2025 |
South Florida may not have had the worst defense in the country last year, but it was close to it. Some numbers: The Bulls ranked 118th out of 133 teams in total defense. They were 100th out of 133 teams in scoring defense, 127th out of 133 in pass defense and 81st out of 133 in rushing defense.
If the Bulls are going to get where they want to go this year, which ideally would be the College Football Playoffs or, more realistically, their first ever AAC championship, then the defense has to make major improvement.
The question is whether or not it will be able to do that. Going into the new season, there are a lot of returning pieces and some new additions from the transfer portal as well, and Todd Orlando, the team’s defensive coordinator, is counting on being able to blend them all together to make a more formidable unit.
When you look at USF’s defense and break it down, a number of things stand out. The secondary is experienced. Tavon Ward made 13 starts at one safety spot. DeShawn Rucker had 11 starts at cornerback and Brent Austin started all 13 games at the other.
There are two all-conference type linebackers in Mac Harris, who started all 13 games, and Jalen Shuler, who started 10 games and did not play in the other three. The linebackers are easily the strength of this defense.
But it’s what’s up front the counts, and frankly, the Bulls didn’t have much up front last year and don’t look like they’ll be a lot better this year. And if there isn’t drastic improvement at the line of scrimmage, the whole defense has a problem.
This is especially true for South Florida because the offense plays at such a fast pace. Last year, the Bulls ranked 46th in the country on offense and 33rd in scoring, averaging 32.2 points per game. That’s extremely impressive when you consider USF lost its starting quarterback, Byrum Brown, about halfway through the season.
Normally, when an offense plays that well it means the defense is not on the field very much and stays strong throughout the game. But that wasn’t true for USF. Because the offense averaged 74.8 plays per game, eighth highest in the country, South Florida’s defense was on the field almost constantly.
So, while the offense scored a lot of points, it didn’t take very long to do it and that meant that the defense barely had a chance to sit down before it was back on the field again. In fact, USF’s time of possession ranked an astounding 133rd out of 133 teams, the worst in college football.
This made it particularly hard on the defensive line. The offensive and defensive lines have the toughest job on the team. They are the only position groups that engage in strenuous physical activity on every play.
On defense, linebackers and defensive backs get a break but the linemen never do. And if they don’t overpower the guy in front of them, if they don’t disrupt the offense more than the offense contains them, then their team will likely lose.
Because line play is so physically demanding, good teams rotate players in and out frequently. And when you have a team that plays as fast as USF, that becomes increasingly important because the defense is on the field so much. And last year, USF wasn’t good enough to win with its starters up front let alone its backups, and that problem must be fixed this year or the Bulls will be in trouble again.
The defensive line lost an 11 game starter at end and a 10 game starter at nose although how much that will hurt is debatable. The top returning lineman is tackle Bernard Gooden, who made 11 starts last year.
Gooden had 10 tackles for a loss and two fumble recoveries among other things and is a solid player and the one known commodity up front. But he can’t do this by himself and Orlando knows he has a big job to bring this defense up to a truly competitive level.
To help Gooden and the other returnees, USF brought in three defensive linemen to plug the gaps, Winter Haven high grad Josh Celliscar came over from Texas A&M. He spent most of his career at UCF and got less playing time every year. He didn’t play at Texas A&M. Dre Butler (Charlotte) and Jacob Merrifield (Florid Atlantic) are the other two.
Butler was at Auburn, Liberty and Michigan State before winding up at Charlotte where he made six starts with five tackles for a loss. Merrifield never started at FAU and only played in seven games. What’s worse, Butler wasn’t good enough to be a regular on a Charlotte team that ranked 116th in the country and Merrifield couldn’t start for an FAU team that ranked 111th, so how much they’ll improve the defensive line is questionable.
But good or bad, they’re going to have to play. “You’ve got to roll those guys in because eventually guys are going to get tired,” Orlando said. “So, if you run 70 plays, even the backups will need to go for 30, 35 plays sometime.”
Still, Orlando thinks the newcomers are up to it. “We feel like we’ve got much more depth than we’ve ever had,” he said. “Especially up front.” We’ll see.
by Patrick Zier | Apr 12, 2025 |
It was 2004, and Joe Gibbs Racing was thinking about adding a developmental driver to its roster, someone who eventually might be able to move up and take over one of its Cup cars, and Denny Hamlin was under consideration.
Gibbs and his son J.D. had been observing Hamlin and they liked what they saw.
“I go all the way back to Denny when we first got him,” Gibbs recalled on NASCAR’s website after Hamlin won at Darlington last Sunday, his second straight victory this season.
“Our final test for him before we signed him; J.D., who found him, my son, said let’s put him in a car at Darlington,” Gibbs related. “He’d never been there. Let’s put him in an Xfinity car and see what he does” Hamlin started 27th and raced his way to a top 10 finish.
“He finished eighth,” Gibbs said. “J.D. told me, he said, I think we need to sign this guy. I said I agree.”
In late 2006, Hamlin replaced a struggling Jason Lefler at the Cup level and he hasn’t looked back. With wins at Darlington last week and Martinsville the week before, Hamlin has now won 56 races, more than any driver in the history of JGR.
Hamlin, who is closing in on 45 and is NASCAR’s oldest regularly competing Cup driver, has been through many changes over the years and his ability to adapt has kept him viable where many others would have long since retired.
The NextGen car, introduced in 2022 and very different from anything else NASCAR has ever raced, is the latest example. Hamlin has worked diligently to figure it out and his willingness to pay attention to detail, to be able to tell his crew exactly what he needs to be competitive, gives him an edge over the majority of drivers who rely more on pure physical skill.
Darlington is a perfect example. Hamlin led just 10 of the 297 laps, but he protected his tires throughout the race, crucial at Darlington, which put him in position to win when the opportunity arose.
“We’re all just running so equal, I don’t know how else to say it, but we’re just so close,” Hamlin commented. “It makes it really, really difficult to pass.
“It was very similar to last week (Martinsville, where Hamlin had a dominating car and led 274 laps). We’re all kind of falling off at the same rate through the runs, right?
“We’ve got a two second drop off here, and that’s good, but we’re all dropping off at the same rate because the cars are all so similar,” Hamlin said.
“Once the tires wear out, we pit. That’s where you’ll typically see a huge disparity in speed between the cars,” Hamlin said. “It’s very similar to last week where right when you’re starting to see some comers and goers, everyone kind of pits to save themselves.”
So a driver who can manage his tires, who doesn’t burn them up trying to get the lead, will have an edge at the end of a run which puts him in position to get the best finish possible. And after Kyle Larson’s crash near the end of the race, that driver was Hamlin.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Bristol: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winners at Bristol: First race-Hamlin. Second race-Larson. Top five in first race last year: 1-Hamlin, 2-Martin Truex, 3-Brad Keselowski, 4-Alex Bowman, 5-Larson.
Last week’s OGS Darlington picks: 1-Larson, 2-Bubba Wallace, 3-William Byron. Darlington winner: Hamlin. OGS season record: 3-3.
OGS Competition Index top 10: 1-Bell 187 points, 2-Hamlin 180, 3-Byron 146, 4-Larson 104, 5-Josh Berry 77, 6-Wallace 73, 7-Tyler Reddick 67, 8-Bowman 48, 9-Chase Elliott 45, 10-Daniel Suarez 41.
OGS Competition Index top 10 on intermediate tracks: 1-Byron 95, 2-Larson 64,3-Hamlin 63, 4-Berry 53, 5-Bowman 48, 6-Suarez, Wallace 41, 8-Ryan Blaney, Reddick 32, 10-Bell, Ryan Preece 30.
