As spring football at USF heads into the home stretch, Bulls coach Alex Golesh was asked what it would take for him to call the spring a successful.
“I think number one and, and I have said it to the guys every single day, is that you want to build and set an identity on both sides of the ball,” he said.
“I think as you look at our first two years, it's been so up and down. When we're good, we're good, and when we're bad, we're bad. It's like there's virtually no in-between.”
Translation: Play consistently at a high level on both sides of the ball. Golesh correctly says the Bulls have struggled with that from week to week or, sometimes, from quarter to quarter.
The upgrades on defense since the end of last season should make that unit better than the one that surrendered 161 points during one four-game stretch.
OK, so three opponents during that run were Alabama, Miami, and Tulane. That don’t make no never mind, as the wise man says. The Bulls are in it to win it, and after hosting Boise State to start the 2025 season, they’ll be at Florida (DJ Lagway. maybe) and at Miami (Georgia transfer Carson Beck, also maybe).
There are X-factors in both of those situations.
USA Today reported that Lagway hasn’t thrown all spring while recovering from a shoulder injury. He may also have a lower-body injury related to his core muscles. The news service quoted anonymous sources as saying Lagway may need surgery.
Beck, meanwhile, also hasn’t thrown this spring while rehabbing the elbow injury he suffered in Georgia’s SEC championship game win over Texas. Saturday Blitz reported that the ‘Canes are optimistic.
Golesh’s aim as he heads into his third season remains the same as when he got to USF. Instead of just building a team, he wants a program that can compete with the likes of Alabama, Florida, and Miami and not just play for moral victories.
Establishing a consistent identity is a huge part of that.
Ohio State won a national title last year with a smashmouth defense.
Michigan did the same thing the season before, along with a road-grader running game.
Early last season, Nick Saban said Georgia “has established an identity as a team that can go out front on both sides of the ball. They can make explosive plays; they have a good quarterback.”
That’s what USF is striving for. It’s a work in progress.
“I feel like, at times, we had an identity, and then you look at it, and you're like, man, we're all over the place,” Golesh said.
“Now, you could blame that there was a quarterback change halfway through and injuries to our middle linebacker. There are a lot of things you could blame it on. My job is to build a program where, no matter who's in there, the identity of the program is the same.”