Former Tennessee Vols offensive coordinator Alex Golesh, who is entering his second season as the head coach at USF, recently joined " Inside the Headset with the AFCA " to discuss various aspects of his coaching journey.
At one point during the podcast, Golesh was asked if any of his coaching stops stood out from the others.
The former Tennessee offensive coordinator noted that his stop with the Vols "profoundly" stood out in large part because of the situation that he and the rest of Josh Heupel's staff walked into in early 2021.
Tennessee was coming off a disastrous 3-7 season that ended with a massive recruiting scandal (which cost then-UT head coach Jeremy Pruitt his job) when Heupel took over as the program's head coach.
Golesh, who left Tennessee after the 2022 season to take over at USF, experienced a lot during his two seasons on Rocky Top -- navigating scholarship reductions, rebuilding a broken culture, and then delivering the best season at Tennessee in two decades.
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“The place that really, I think profoundly for me, stands out is — and not so much because it was recent — but the first year at Tennessee,” said Golesh, who previously coached under Heupel at UCF in 2020. “We took over a really crazy situation. We got there at the end of January, right towards the tail end of the COVID restrictions. But we got the job so late. Again, a program that traditionally is as historic as there is in the country but had been complete garbage for about 10 years on and off. And what the expectations were and what the standard was, what the funding was like, and walking into that situation super late, getting NCAA restrictions dropped on us. And playing a season with 60-some scholarships players and watching Heup lead through a lens.
"It was so different than UCF. Watching him (Heupel) lead, watching him delegate more than he ever has before. And then honestly just having the confidence to run an offense in a room of coaches, a room players that were different than anywhere I’ve ever been, in terms of managing egos. And then throw in the transfer portal. And throw in the NIL component to all of it. And figuring out…the pressure is real as can be. How do we stay on this straight and narrow path and make it about the players? Make everything about the players. And Josh did an incredible job of that. But I think, me personally, the growth there [was big]."
Golesh noted that he and Heupel stayed true to their offensive philosophy after taking over at Tennessee, but they also continued to evolve and adapt to SEC defenses.
“I think we did a really good job of adjusting,” explained Golesh. “The core foundation never changed. But we also had SEC players. You had SEC o-lineman, you had SEC wideouts, you had SEC backs, you had an SEC quarterback. And Heup, coming from Missouri to UCF and being in that league for two years. There were conversations of we’re going to see a lot more man, a lot more people are going to trust that they can just play what they play against you. We’re going to have to evolve. And I think even from year one to year two at Tennessee we evolved greatly. So much more formation variations. Different things in the run game. A lot of different things in the pass game.
"Where we were able to stay ahead of the curve there we were still able to present different pictures to defenses. The foundation never changed in terms of we were going to play faster than everyone in the country. And we were going to push like crazy with formation variations. And changing split pictures. But even from year one to year two, how much we evolved I think changed -- in the screen game, just different things we were able do. At the end of the day what never changed is we were able to get our best players on your worst players really really fast, whether that be run game or pass game."
Heupel, Golesh and the rest of the UT staff that arrived in Knoxville in early 2021 knew they were taking over a less-than-ideal situation. They knew that it was an undesirable job at the time.
But they had confidence that their plan would work. And it did (quite quickly).
Golesh was a huge reason why Tennessee found success so quickly after Heupel took over. His confidence, swagger, and competitiveness were a perfect match for Heupel's personality. The presence of Golesh, who called plays at Tennessee, allowed Heupel during those first two years to focus some time/energy on other important aspects of building the program. Without Golesh, Heupel probably would've been stretched too thin.
Heupel's first two seasons at Tennessee built the foundation for the program moving forward. Regardless of where Golesh's coaching journey goes from here, he'll always be one of the main ingredients to the Vols' big turnaround in the 2020s.
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