FAU's Tom Herman is having a hard time shaking off Alex Golesh's postgame hand slap

Florida Atlantic football coach Tom Herman was asked at his media briefing about the now-infamous post-game hand slap USF’s Alex Golesh offered after the Bulls thrashed the Owls 45-21 Friday night.

Herman has had a hard time shaking it off, so to speak.

As the two men approached each other at midfield after the game, Herman extended his hand, and Golesh reacted like he was swatting a fly – or, I guess, an Owl – and kept on walking briskly. Herman turned to go after Golesh, and, well, the video of that exchange quickly went viral. It has since been examined more than the Zapruder film.

Anyway, here’s what Herman said when asked about what happened.

“I appreciate you giving me a brief opportunity to clarify because I heard kind of the same like I was mad about something or some two-point conversion. I  was worried about the next offensive drive. I thought that's just what the math of their two-point chart said,” Herman said.

“So I they kicked our butts, and, you know, especially in the second half, like we did to them (last year).”

Last year, the Owls clobbered USF 56-14 on homecoming and rubbed the Bulls’ face in the rout by successfully completing an onside kick late in the fourth while ahead by 42 points.

USF returned the favor by going for two while ahead by 23 points late in the fourth.

And no, I doubt seriously any two-point chart was involved in Golesh’s decision to go for two. It was payback, pure and simple.

Anyway, Herman kept talking.

“In all my years as a head coach, I’ve jogged in the middle of the field and actually got the words ‘good game’ out of my mouth and was about to compliment him, especially in the second half,” he said.

“And, you know, he slapped my hand down, and the way I was raised, you know, when you slap another man's hand down, you stick around and talk about it. And so I turned back to finish. You know, I was confused as to, you know …  I wasn't mad at anything, so I turned back and wanted to figure out what the confusion was about. He continued to walk away. And like I said, I moved on. I appreciate you giving me an opportunity to clarify. but, you know, we'll meet again someday, and we'll figure it out at that point.”

In my opinion, there’s nothing to figure.

While Golesh made only a passing reference to the onside kick from last year in the buildup to this game, it was obviously on his mind. After all, UAB beat the Bulls by a similar margin last season but didn’t pile on with anything designed to embarrass them.

And when the Bulls beat the Blazers by a large margin recently, Golesh likewise didn’t try to humiliate them. Winning the game was revenge enough.

This was different.

If that left Herman shaken, that’s his problem.