Since USF hired Brian Hartline, college football Is looking differently at the Bulls

It has been nearly six months since Brian Hartline surprised the college football world by accepting the head coaching job at USF. While the surprise has worn off, questions still remain about why he chose this job when he was linked to places like Penn State and Florida.

During a recent appearance on the "See Ball Get Ball" podcast with David Pollack, Hartline helped spread the word about what's happening at USF to the more than 36,000 subscribers to the podcast.

"I just think sometimes in the South, there's a big time love for football and sports and just the way (universities) spend their resources, the way they allocate time in Texas and Florida for athletic periods," he said.

"There's a whole different vibe sometimes that was always intriguing to me. ultimately it came down to (his wife) I mean, when she gave me the thumbs up, that she said it was the time to go do this, that's ultimately when I knew I wanted to leave a lot of things and go somewhere. So USF was the right fit. We checked a lot of our boxes. And since being here, it definitely reconfirmed that."

Hartline, who grew up in North Canton, Ohio, earned a justified reputation as an elite developer of wide receivers. He had six players taken in the first round of the NFL draft since 2022, including former Buckeyes' wideout Carnell Tate this year.

Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith will likely run that streak to seven in next year's draft.

It remains to be seen how Hartline can keep that streak going at USF. But he has something to work with, given receivers like holdover Mudia Reuben and transers like former Buckeye Bryson Rodgers, Kenny Odom (UTEP), Armani Winfield (Baylor/Colorado State), Arhmad Branch (Purdue) and others.

They'll be coached just as well and hard as the elite receivers Hartline had at Ohio State.

"I was trying to train these guys the art of like keeping your route a secret, using what you've used in the past already to manipulate DBs, and that was the conversation," he said.

"Here we have already a lot of built-in mentality. with what else is wrong with the path, it's not really bad. That's where it starts. But then obviously the learning of why things are good, why they're working, so you can increase the odds of doing that, was part of the learning process."

Notice, we haven't talked about quarterbacks yet. That subject didn't come in the podcast, either. The starting spot will likely go to either junior Michael Van Buren Jr. (LSU transfer) or Luke Kromenhoek (Mississippi State.

Van Buren seems to be the leader in the clubhouse, but let's not get ahead of things. A lot can change between now and September 3, when the Bulls open against FIU.

Between now and then there is ongoing recruiting and preparation for the upcoming season. What traits does Hartline look for in a player?

It starts with a player's mentality.

"Athletically, you've got to check boxes, but your makeup is your best correlation with the success or not making it. So I just wanted to suggest that the more you have these certain traits, your odds of success go up," he said.

"And I just think the mentality is the most correlating odds than anything else."

Honestly, a lot of coaches would echo those statements. Golesh used to talk all the time about the closeness of his players and how well they took to coaching and correction. But finding those players -- and assistant coaches with right skills and temperment -- is a consuming process.

And with a large number of players leaving USF via the Transfer Portal, Hartline and his newly hired staff worked quickly to replenish the roster. They brought in 41 new players via the portal.

"it was crazy. I mean, we had 10 or 12 guys walking in, had our own visit. As they were walking out, 10 or 12 more were walking in as well. So we had taken them out in the portal class," Hartline said.

"We had 41 guys, which is a lot. Speed dating, for sure. And then we had 16 freshmen come in, so 56 new guys. And frankly, I'm very happy with where we're at right now."

If Hartline has the success here that most people expect, his name will pop up for just every Power-4 opening in the country. We saw how that worked with Golesh and basketball coach Bryan Hodgson. It's inevitable.

Even in that scenario, though, Hartline brought USF something it lacked even under Golesh. While Golesh deserves credit for rebuilding a program in tatters when he arrived, he wasn't a particularly big name when he arrived at USF. He was just another assisstant coach at a prestigious program taking a step back so that one day he could step forward.

Hartline was, different even if he had never been a head coach. As the right hand man for one of the nation's iconic programs, the idea that Hartline would leave the Buckeye cocoon and some to USF forces many top people around college football to look at this prograjm and university diffently.

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