On Wednesday, the USF Bulls hired Ohio State Buckeyes offensive coordinator Brian Hartline to be their next head coach after Alex Golesh took the Auburn Tigers' job over the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday.
And immediately, On3's Brett McMurphy played cover for USF by sharing a quote from an unnamed source that makes it seem like retaining Golesh wasn't the Bulls' No. 1 option.
“Hartline was USF’s No. 1 choice even before Alex Golesh left for Auburn,” the source allegedly told McMurphy.
As if USF had a chance in hell of retaining Golesh.
Golesh was a goner from Tampa after the Bulls upset the Florida Gators at the "Swamp" in September. The idea the Bulls had a chance of keeping him from a return to the SEC, where he once ran a dominant attack in a collaborative effort with Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel, is laughable.
Of course, the Bulls wanted Hartline more than Golesh. That's like saying Auburn wanted Jon Sumrall more than Nick Saban this hiring cycle. That's a fact, but only because Saban was an unrealistic option to begin with.
Auburn has head coach that's hard to hit at in media
Did anyone notice how quiet the Golesh hiring was in places where you used to see daily attacks on Hugh Freeze and Bryan Harsin? Golesh is a non-controversial, quiet hiring who doesn't bring baggage from a previous school, and doesn't seem like the kind of guy to collect a paycheck and not hit the recruiting trail to hit the links or the weights.
It's a breath of fresh air for a fanbase that has been split on the prior two Cult of Personalities. Golesh is more Gus Malzahn than either of them, but he has an edge that Malzahn didn't. It comes out in his cusses.
AU had settled into an infamy of hiring seemingly bad actors, but has completely reversed course with the Golesh hiring.