TAMPA, Fla. — USF head football coach Alex Golesh is making the most of his time management skills. The Bulls first-year head coach is living in the present while focusing on the future- but he's still staying in the present.
"We’re trying to build a program, not a team," Golesh said at his weekly press conference. "In the meantime, we have to build a team, but we have to build a program. You gotta have a foundation."
The Bulls used two dozen transfer players to help build that foundation this offseason. They joined a locker room of players who haven't had much success but are willing to dedicate themselves to a rebuild.
"You’re either running to something or running away from something. I tried to be in the portal very attentive to guys who are running to something," Golesh explained when describing how he approached the transfer portal. "I’m also self-aware enough to know that we were recruiting off a 1-11 record, and one of the worst teams in the country, and the worst defense in the country, and all this negative crap that’s going on. I was really up front about what the heck they were running to."
The players say team chemistry hasn't been an issue, and the proof is in the on-field results.
"At first, some of them might be quiet. They might not talk to everybody, at first," receiver Khafre Brown said went describing the dynamic between old and new players. "But the older people that have been here come up to them, they might have lunch with them or just talk to them in the locker room. They changed lockers so everybody sits beside somebody new now. So you get to know a lot of people. The locker room is way closer this year than it was last year."
Golesh was emotional during a postgame interview following the Bulls 44-30 win at Navy. He said it's been an emotional ride so far, but that's evidence that things are moving in the right direction.
"I feel like everybody’s had my back from the moment I got here. And nobody’s ever said no to anything," Golesh added. "They’ve just said 'Man, we believe in you. We trust you' and have let us do it our way, and I guess all of that humbles me."
USF (3-2, 2-0 AAC) travels to Birmingham to face UAB (1-4, 0-1 AAC) on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 4 P.M. on ESPN 2.
