South Florida Coach Makes Bold Statement, Calls Out Alabama, Miami

With all the talk for this upcoming season coming from the Power Four conferences, many tend to forget about the Group of Five.

Over the past couple of weeks, Power Four conferences like the Big 12, SEC, and now ACC and Big Ten have been holding their media days prior to the 2024 season. The AAC is also holding its media days this week, and USF head coach Alex Golesh didn't hold back on his thoughts about two opponents on the Bulls' schedule.

Besides their eight conference opponents this season, the Bulls will have four out-of-conference games. One will be the season opener against Bethune-Cookman, an FCS school, and another will be against Conference USA member Southern Miss in Week 4. The other two are set to be much greater challenges against the SEC's Alabama and ACC's Miami.

However, South Florida head coach Alex Golesh hinted that it's the Bulls that will be a challenge to the Crimson Tide and Hurricanes, not the other way around.

"Bama and Miami have to play South Florida,” Golesh told Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times.

Golesh, who was Tennessee's offensive coordinator under Josh Heupel, will be entering his second season as the Bulls' head coach this season. Before he got there, the program had fallen on hard times under previous head coach Jeff Scott. The Bulls had won just four games combined in the four seasons prior. Last season, South Florida went 7-6, 4-4 in the AAC, and finished fifth in the conference.

What makes Golesh's comments intriguing is the fact that USF only lost to Alabama 17-3 last year and was down by seven with under nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Alabama scored their final touchdown on a Ty Simpson one-yard run with 33 seconds remaining.

This was a much better outing than the Bulls' first matchup with the Crimson Tide back in 2003 when they lost 40-17.

As for Miami, the Bulls are 1-5 lifetime against the Hurricanes, with their last matchup all the way back in 2013, a 49-21 loss in Tampa.

"I think going to Alabama is absolutely huge for us," Golesh said. "They came to our place. We had every opportunity to go be successful in that game. We couldn't finish it. Now we get to go redeem ourselves.

“That's what college football is, man. To me, you don't want to go play in Tuscaloosa? You don't want to host Miami at home? I think it's awesome. I think that's what college football is. Our guys will be more than ready to go play those games. That's what we're recruiting to, is opportunities to go play big-time college football on national TV, as you should, represent this conference and go give yourself a chance.”

USF will go to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama on Saturday, Sept. 7. They'll host Miami on Saturday, Sept. 21.