-
Andrea Edelson
Tampa, Fla. – USF coach Alex Golesh repeated the same thing after his team’s first two wins – a surprising blow against the season opener Boiz stateAnd another shocker against last weekend Florida – “This is not the same official language” South FloridaMy brother!”
2–0 bulls have been ranked for the first time since 2018, won the first win in school history on gates and are a initial favorite for winning a group of 5 automated berths in college football playoffs.
But more meaning behind those words, more than just one statement about Big Non -Cancer win. He is one of the close friends of nine words Golesh.
On the edge of his headset, Golesh has RAR RAR for USF basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim.
Golesh and Abdur-Rahim were hired within three months of each other, the same coach with similar beliefs, tasked with the same goal: the USF receives the USF to shed its underchiver position. Abdur-Rahim did the owl at his previous stage in the state of Kenesa, with an owl to reach the NCAA tournament to reach the tournament.
Golesh had inherited a one-win football program and saw Abdur-Rahim for advice. A few days after Abdur-Raham was hired, Golesh went to see him in his office.
Golesh said, “They were really done only in Kanesa as to what we were trying to do, made it correctly.”
Both of them immediately hit it. His children went to the same school. His wives became friends. In that first spring they were together, in 2023, Abdur-Rahim would come out to practice and quickly became a stability around the football program.
He will text Golesh after the Games in the first season and present his views on a four -year plan for success. Golesh and his son, Barrett, will go to the Basketball Games as Abdur-Rahim led the USF in his best season in 2023-24, winning his first conference title and a school-record 25 game. It was during that run that Abdur-Rahim went viral to say, “This is the same Ol ‘South Florida, not my brother!”
As the Bulls won their 34–7 win over the Bois State on August 28, Golesh felt an appearance around him. He thought that Abdur-Rahim told him from the beginning: The year 3 is when the players hope that they can win. Now, they begin to believe that they can win.
“Aamir always used to say,” he didn’t believe until he saw it, “Golesh told ESPN. “I felt so, ‘everything is fine. They believe.”
The belief is why the USF is 2–0. The question is, how did Golesh believe him?
When Golesh met the then USF athletic director Michael Kelly to discuss the open head coaching job in December 2022, he had questions. The USF had moments of success in its small football history-which included the back-to-back 10-win session in 2016 and 2017-but its recent record was Absmal. Bulls finished 2022 with 1–11 records and with total total win over a period of three years. And the program never won the title of conference.
Golesh immediately wanted to know – would the USF provide the necessary resources to win? Will they give him time to turn on the program? The answer of both was a great yes.
Kelly told ESPN, “His experience at other places showed what he felt,” Kelly told ESPN. “I never felt it was unfair. It was just,” This is the way we are going to win this league. “
Kelly said the size of the staff increased, and an additional $ 1.5 million added to the assistant coach pay pool. The recruitment budget increased. The entire nutrition, strength and conditioning programs and athletic training staff were re -prepared near Golesh.
Under previous employees, for example, players got breakfast and lunch but no dinner in convenience. But now, they get three meals in a day and have access to a nutrition bandage in the weight room. In addition, every team meeting room has fully stocked mini-fridge and snack baskets.
There was no major indication of football’s commitment compared to the approval of an on-campus $ 349 million football stadium, which was ready to open in 2027, an idea that was decades to create. Most of the days, the USF players practice to get into the ground, beyond the practice fields, the sound of steel pillars.
“It just goes together what we are doing on the football field, build a foundation,” Quarterback Bayram Brown They say. “We put the dirt down. We are putting poles. We are seeing what this program can actually be for the coming years.”
Resources are one thing. Buy and trust are another. Center Cole best One meeting remembers that Golesh returned the players during his second day on the job.
“He said,” I just want a little blind faith, “said Best. “And I said, ‘I am going to give him, and whatever I am going to buy. It was difficult many times, but I knew within the first few days,’ This is the man.”
Sixth year lineback Mac HarrisThose who were among the three USF teams who won a total of four games before the arrival of Golesh, said that those teams often found ways to cut corners, or who used to avoid hard and uncomfortable.
Golesh bulls do not find easy way.
“AG says all the time, no one leaves rock.” Some people call him Clich, but they have something, and they keep their weight. I think it is doing this every day, and makes his comrades accountable to it, and they held you accountable, expected to win. “
In its first season as a head coach, the USF moved from 7-6, the second best win between all FBS programs in 2023 improved. Then in the last season, the USF showed a glimpse of its ability, who played close to Alabama for three quarters before losing, and then played close to Miami for a half before losing. Brown recalled the last seven matches of the season with a low-legged injury and the USF still finished 7–6 and made it in another bowl game.
With a healthy brown and 15 other beginnings, Golesh and his team felt optimistic about the possibilities for this season.
Yes, the 2025 season started during his job interview, as Golesh was watching the future program with Kelly. He looked down and a three-game Nonconference Doji: In Bois State, Florida, in Miami. There was initial doubt. Not because Golesh wanted to cut those teams from playing. But in a row in a row in the same season, it looked good, “a little crazy.”
Golesh said, “There was an initial conversation,” We will handle that as soon as we reach there, but it will not happen. ” “We arrived in last January, and it still seemed like it, and I like it,” You know what? Let’s play them. “
In the last June, when Kelly was getting ready to leave the USF to take the job of athletic director in the Navy, Golesh said to her, “We are going to win those games, and you are going to tell me, ‘I told you so.”
If the victory over the bois state takes notice to the people across the country, the victory over Florida legalized the USF in a very way. For decades, the state of Florida has been “big three”: Miami, Florida State and Florida. UCF created it at the Power 4 conference when it joined Big 12, making it fighting for national relevance in the Group of USF 5.
This helps explain why Golesh had 500 text messages after the arrival of 18–16, which after winning the gates along with winning.
Best said that he used to call him after winning eight former team companions to congratulate him. “It brings tears to my eyes,” Best says. “I took one step back and let it all soaked. It’s not easy. It is the most difficult task in my life so far, and to pay it, it means just the world.”
The process is the process, so there was no time to celebrate the start of 2–0 for the USF this week. No number 5 on the deck with Miami’s visit. Golesh came to the office last Sunday and says that he “separated” the game tape with his employees.
“We have not arrived,” says Golesh. “We have really two good win. We have another really good game, and then we’ve been really average in this conference for the last two years. We have a lot to do.
“As Aamir used to say, ‘Headphone on. Listen to anything.”
His voice has a sadness because he remembers those conversations with Abdur-Rahim. They were about to do so together, celebrating each other as if they were their own. After the last decline, Abdur-Rahim, he stopped coming around to practice, but refused to tell Golesh to tell what was wrong.
Golesh then got a long text of Abdur-Rahim. He is still saving it in his phone. Abdur-Ramam wrote, in the part, he was ready to fight who was making him sick, but it seemed uncertain whether the doctors had any reply.
Abdur-Ramham died on October 24, 2024 at the age of 43, which occurred from complications arising during a medical process related to his undeclared disease. Disadvantages were felt throughout the USF community including the football team. As a permanent tribute to his friend, Golesh had a picture of Abdur-Raheem to talk to the team one day, which was one day to grow and was placed in the hallway of football facility.
Brown says, “Coach Golesh reminded us what a great person he was, and what a great coach he was, and lessons and advice that he instigated in us, it matters a lot,” says Brown.
Golesh may not have responded to each of the hundreds of text messages received in the last two weeks. But there are two whom he will never forget. Arian Abdur-Rahim, Aamir’s widow, recited Bolesh after winning the Boiz kingdom and after winning Florida again.
“Amir is looking out for you.”
