Auburn Tigers head coach Alex Golesh is about to ruffle every feather in the USF Bulls football community with his comments in a USA Today exclusive released on Monday. Golesh claimed about AU that “I felt like you could win a national title here."
As for USF and his three years in Tampa, Florida, though, Golesh said, "at South Florida, I think you and everybody else knows you never were going to get there.” Cue the social media freakouts from the Green and Gold fandom in 3...2...1....
Bulls fans have not taken Golesh's departure well. When Golesh talked with Josh Pate about the "feeling of guilt" he had last November in the USF locker room while interviewing with the Tigers and Arkansas Razorbacks, many Bulls fans took it as Golesh giving up on the team.
Golesh disapproved of the narrative getting misconstrued as him having given up on USF. He even messaged me on X about my framing of his quote from the Pate interview and the blowback from Bulls fans. In hindsight, it was understandable on his part. Golesh never gave up on the Bulls, but instead gave his all for a program that was always going to be outmanned in the CFP. And he knew that. While the Bulls felt they had the pieces to make a run had they won the American instead of the Tulane Green Wave in 2025, and they probably would've had a better showing than Jon Sumrall's squad in a 41-10 loss to the Ole Miss Rebels because of a much superior defense, USF getting past the Ohio State Buckeyes, Indiana Hoosiers, Oregon Ducks, or Miami Hurricanes last year would've been nothing short of a miracle.
Alex Golesh only would've stayed at USF for his family
Golesh revealed the extent of his love for his family, revealing he was willing to sacrifice his chance to reach his coaching ceiling by staying in Tampa if his family truly wanted to.
Per USA Today's Blake Toppmeyer, "Golesh, 41, agonized over whether to move his family — he and his wife have two kids — again. He considered his parents. In 1991, as turmoil bubbled up inside a collapsing Soviet Union, Golesh’s parents traded a middle-class lifestyle in Russia for a hardscrabble restart in the United States, so that their two sons could live in the land of opportunity ... Golesh knew he could provide plenty for his family in Tampa. USF was prepared to give him a significant raise to retain him. He genuinely enjoyed the job, and his family was settled."
Ultimately, Golesh revealed the chance to be "elite" at Auburn was too good to pass up. Now, his children get the chance to attend one of the top public high schools in the state of Alabama, Auburn High School, and he gets the chance to become an instant fan favorite by bringing back standards to the Tigers after the last two head coaches dropped them below the floor.
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