Alex Golesh doesn’t have much reason to spend time on Brian Hartline’s shot at his old USF tenure.
Hartline, who has taken over as USF’s head coach, made his feelings clear when he said, "There was some success here the last couple of years, but nowhere near where it should be."
That comment lands against a messy backdrop in Tampa. USF entered 2025 with real hope of representing the American in the CFP, only for the season to fade badly and end with Tulane getting that spot instead. Golesh’s interviews with Auburn and Arkansas may have played a part in that unraveling, at least in the way the source frames it.
Still, Hartline’s jab skips over the bigger picture. Golesh and his staff pulled the Bulls out of a stretch that produced just four wins across three seasons.
That doesn’t mean every USF fan is ready to hand out a standing ovation, though. Plenty of them are still angry that Golesh left just as the rebuild was starting to look real.
And that’s the key point: Hartline has his own job to do now. He has to sell USF on what comes next, and if he can recruit skill talent anywhere close to the level he brought in at Ohio State, he has a chance to back up that message.
For Golesh, none of it really matters anymore. He moved on to Auburn, and that’s where his attention belongs.
There’s a much bigger opportunity waiting there. Golesh could become the first coach to take Auburn to the dance, and the setting is far more favorable than what he had at USF. Jimmy Rane has promised institutional support, Auburn has stronger pull with regional recruits, and the program has a real opening as Alabama’s grip on the state loosens under Kalen DeBoer, who is wasting the momentum Nick Saban built.
That puts Golesh in a far different fight. In the SEC, especially in East Central Alabama, the worries are Alabama, Georgia, and any other program with the money to keep up. Not what his replacement at USF thinks of his résumé.
Golesh changed what the Bulls could be, even if he never gets full credit for it. But arguing with a fan base that has already made up its mind is a dead end. He has bigger battles ahead than Brian Hartline’s comments and the reaction they sparked in Tampa.
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