South Florida Bulls Football

The University of South Florida is finalizing a deal to make Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh its next head coach, per ESPN's Pete Thamel.

USF also pursued reportedly Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders for the vacancy before deciding to hire Golesh.

Golesh has spent the last two seasons as Tennessee's offensive coordinator under head coach Josh Heupel. He followed Heupel to Volunteer country from UCF, and also spent time as an assistant at Iowa State, Illinois, Toledo and Oklahoma State during his career.

As offensive coordinator of the Volunteers, Golesh led one of the most prolific offenses in the country this season, so it's no surprise USF pursued him for its head coaching vacancy.

Tennessee averaged 538.1 total yards and 47.3 points per game, which ranks first in the nation. The Vols had the country's third-best passing offense, averaging 332.3 yards per game, and they averaged 205.8 yards per game on the ground.

Because of his success running the Tennessee offense, Golesh is a finalist for the 2022 Broyles Award, which is given to the country's top assistant coach.

Golesh takes over a USF program that finished last in the American Athletic Conference this season with a 1-11 record. It was one of the worst seasons in team history, and Golesh will be tasked with rebuilding a Bulls program that hasn't posted a winning season since 2018.

USF fired Jeff Scott in November after he led the Bulls to a 4-26 record in his three seasons at the helm. He was replaced by Daniel Da Prato, who was named interim head coach for the remainder of the 2022 campaign.

As for Tennessee, Heupel will now have to replace Golesh in Rocky Top. It will be interesting to see how quickly he fills the position, with the early signing period for prospective student-athletes set to begin on Dec. 21.

The NCAA announced Friday that USF will be on three years probation and fined $10,000 for failing to monitor the football program under Charlie Strong, per Brett McMurphy of the Action Network. 

Strong, who is now an assistant for the Jacksonville Jaguars, will also face a one-game suspension if he returns to college football. 

The university was reported to have seven then-noncoaching football staff participate in on- and off-field instruction during practices over a period of three years. By doing so, USF was beyond the allowed number of countable coaches. 

"In one case, a then-noncoaching football staff member provided skills instruction to student-athletes and led film assessments and instruction," a press release stated. 

The NCAA also said the USF compliance department learned of the football violations and educated the football staff, including Strong, on the matter, but nothing changed.

The USF football program continued to allow the seven noncoaching football staff to instruct. They even had equipment managers use headsets to "alert noncoaching staff members when compliance staff were attending football practices, so the additional violations of countable coaches rules were not discovered."

The women's basketball program also exceeded the allowable number of coaches and is accused of exceeding the allowed number of hours per week for athletic activities. 

Here are all of the penalties the school is facing:

• Three years probation
• A $10,000 fine and 0.5 percent of both the football and women's basketball program's budgets
• Initial football scholarships for 2022-2023 will be reduced by two
• A one-game suspension for Strong if he should return to coaching at the collegiate level
• A one-year "show-cause" for the women's basketball coach that includes a 15-hour suspension from regular-season practices

Strong coached the football program from 2017 to '19, going 21-16 in that span. The Bulls' best season under Strong came in his first year as head coach when they finished 10-2 and won the Birmingham Bowl. 

Jeff Scott has been USF's head coach since 2020. He previously served as Clemson's co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach from 2015 to '19.  

South Florida has fired head coach Charlie Strong, the school announced Sunday.

"I would like to thank Coach Strong and his staff for their hard work and contributions to our program," USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly said in a statement. "I have tremendous respect for Coach Strong and his dedication to recruiting and developing young men of talent and character and leading them with integrity. He has represented USF with dignity and class and we wish Coach and his family the very best."

Strong wrapped up his third season as the Bulls' coach with a 34-7 loss to UCF on Friday. They went 21-16 under his watch but finished 4-8 in 2019.

The Strong era started off brightly as USF won 10 games, beat Texas Tech in the Birmingham Bowl and finished 21st in the AP Top 25 and Coaches polls.

Things quickly took a turn for the worse. Alabama transfer Blake Barnett struggled as the starting quarterback after succeeding Quinton Flowers. Barnett threw for 2,705 yards, 12 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2018 and then made four appearances in 2019 before undergoing season-ending ankle surgery.

The USF defense was also a mess despite Strong initially building his reputation as a defensive coordinator. The Bulls finished last year 80th in Football Outsiders' S&P+ defense rating. They entered Week 14 sitting in 51st in SP+ defense, per ESPN's Bill Connelly.

Hiring Strong appeared to be a smart move, but few can argue with USF's decision on Sunday.

Bringing Strong aboard was a signal of intent by the program. He had just come off stints at Louisville and Texas, and he was the 16th highest-paid coach in FBS ($5 million), per USA Today.

The Athletic's Bruce Feldman and Tampa Bay Times' Joey Knight speculated Willie Taggart might be a target:

Florida State fired Taggart midway through this year after he had compiled a 9-12 record.

Taggart was responsible for laying the groundwork that Strong would later benefit from, however. Taggart took over at USF in 2013. The team saw its record improve over each of the next three seasons, culminating in an 11-2 campaign in 2016.