South Florida’s Brian Hartline is walking a tightrope and the question is whether or not he can get to the other side. Halfway through the season, two straight conference losses have effectively eliminated the Bulls from any shot at an American Conference championship and dampened the enthusiasm Hartline did nothing to discourage when he was hired to replace Alex Golesh.
“There’s been some success here over the last couple years, but nowhere near where it should be,” Hartline told On3’s Pete Nakos prior to the season. “The expectation should be to win – the floor here should be a constant chase for the American Conference championship.” It was a clear shot at Golesh, who earlier had said there was no way USF could ever win a national title.
So if there were high expectations for this program, Hartline put them out there. And there was no reason not to believe. Hartline, who had been the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, was considered an outstanding hire. He brought in what was generally considered the top transfer class in the Group of 6. His quarterback, Michael Van Buren, had been a starter in the SEC and ranked among the best signal callers in the portal.
With a new stadium set to open in 2027, new facilities springing up left and right and Hartline expected to take the football program to new heights, the USF community was almost giddy. Change was in the wind and USF would – finally – take its rightful place in the world of college athletics.
Lost in all of this was the fact that this was not a rebuild. Golesh had already brought the Bulls back to respectability. In the three years prior to Golesh’s arrival, USF compiled records of 1-8 in 2020, 2-10 in 2021 and 1-11 in 2022. In 2023 and ’24 they were 7-6 and they were 9-4 in 2025. They made bowl games all three years.
It was the largest turnaround in USF history and Golesh’s winning percentage, 59 percent, was the second best ever at the school, topped only by USF’s first coach, Jim Leavitt, who won 63 percent of his games over a 10-year span. Golesh’s offenses were particularly effective. In 2025, USF ranked third in the country in total offense, averaging 488.7 yards per game, and fifth in scoring with a 40.8 points per game average.
Hartline installed a more traditional system that slowed the offensive pace and has struggled to maintain consistency, so USF is starting over again. Currently, USF is 88th in the country in scoring at 26.2 points per game and 111th in total offense, averaging 334.8 yards per game.
And Hartline has backed away from his earlier comments about competing for a conference championship every year and is now urging patience. His main concern is developing a new culture and process, which, he says, will eventually make the Bulls competitive.
“We’ve got to understand that you win with fundamentals, not play calls, and so we’ve got to make sure we’re spending enough time on that as a team,” Hartline said after the UTSA loss according to USF’s football website. “In the end, we are building. As much as I hate saying that. We are getting better, it’s just not good enough,” Hartline declared.
“And so as a group, we have to make sure we are continuing to put in the work to give ourselves a chance. I’m looking forward to the day when the coin turns,” Hartline continued. “I don’t think it’s necessarily guys can or can’t do things, but, you know, we have routine plays we have to make. We have to hit them.
“The pass game’s got to continue to improve, be more consistent instead of so flashy. But we’ll keep putting the work in. Again, the work’s been put in throughout the week, ” Hartline emphasized. “That’s the biggest thing I’m most pleased with. I just wish the guys could reap the benefits of what that feels like consistently on game day.
“That being said, the season’s halfway over and I’m looking forward to what we can do the second half. It’s pretty black and white,” Hartline said. “Ultimately we still have goals we’re chasing and if we have a bunch of guys that are willing to cash in after six games, then we have the wrong guys.
“We need to keep putting in the work. We know the work doesn’t guarantee us anything, but that increases the odds of reaching our goal. Without it, we have no shot,” Hartline declared. “These guys have a lot of goals, both personally and as a team, and it all starts with how we practice on Sunday and how we practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. You rarely get better on game day, you get better throughout the week.
“So we have to get better,” Hartline stressed. “And we don’t have time to worry about past results. They stink, don’t get me wrong, but the focus is on getting better.” And the Bulls do indeed have to get better. The meat of their schedule is still ahead, starting with a much improved UAB team after Kent State.
Although it’s not likely, if the Bulls don’t solidify their offense and stop the defensive lapses in critical situations, they might lose every game after Kent State. Wins over Kent State and UAB would give them confidence, because they need proof of concept. It’s all well and good to talk about improvement, but if you don’t see it on the scoreboard, you begin to wonder if what you’re doing will really work. And if that happens, Hartline could slip off that tightrope before he gets to the other side.
