It's OK for USF to feel good for Auburn's Alex Golesh after his team beat Georgia

I'm sure there were some residents of Bulls Nation who wanted top-ranked Georgia to stomp Auburn's guts out last Saturday, but Green, Gold and Bold wasn't among them.

After Auburn's 27-24 upset in Athens, I felt good for Byrum Brown, Chas Nimrod, Keshaun Singleton, Jeremiah Koger and, yes, head coach Alex Golesh.

The players were all contributors to the win, and it was a career-defining moment for Golesh. Good for him, good for them all. They kept their poise after fallng behind 14-0 and ruled the day.

Honestly, I am surprised that a head coach taking over a storied program in the SEC has his team playing as tough as the Tigers are -- especially given the massive player turnover the team experienced after last season. That speaks volumes to the system Golesh has put together.

Golesh was generally easy to deal with at South Florida (current coach Brian Hartline is too), but what always struck me is how much his players bought in and loved him. Thirteen of them developed such a bond with him that they transferred to Auburn shortly after Golesh took the job.

That, friends, is one mark of a good coach.

Golesh did get ticked at me after I wrote about his messy and rapid departure from USF, but that's how it goes sometimes. I've been chewed out (or cussed out) by some of the best over the years, including late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner who told my boss, "Tell that (SOB) Joe Henderson never to call me again!"

It goes with the turf.

But Alex later validated reasons why USF might have some hard feelings about the waning days of his tenure and departure. Talk was rampant about P-4 programs interested in hiring him, and Alex repeatedly said it wasn't a distraction.

Well, it was.

“(November was as) interesting a month as I’ve been a part of ... Nothing prepares you for it. I told my wife after it was all over, ‘It’s crazy if anything you go through because there’s nobody you can talk to about it. There’s nobody that can actually relate in the sense that you’re coaching your football team and all you preach is, ‘Block out the noise,'" Golesh said before the season on the Josh Pate speaker series.

“The entire college football world is trying to keep guys focused, week in, week out and then you’re sitting there and there’s this feeling of guilt. Thinking, ‘I am the distraction. And the only reason I am the distraction is because we’re having success.’ That part for me was tough because the last thing I wanted to do was cause any distraction.”

Losses to Memphis and Navy during that time torpedoed USF's chance to make the College Football Playoff. It was legitimate for Bulls' fans to question if the speculation contributed to the pair of close losses.

And after the Bulls routed Rice in the regular season finale, hours later, he was gone. Golesh disputed my discription of how long it took for him to decide, but the fact is that he had accepted the Auburn offer before the sun came up after the Bulls finished off Rice.

Then, while trying to talk about the potential at Auburn to win a national title, he made a clumsy remark that at South Florida "it was never going to happen."

Never is a long time.

Just saying.

Golesh deserves credit for rebuilding USF in three short years from the ashes Jeff Scott and Charlie Strong left behind. I didn't blame him for going to Auburn, and I hope he wins big there. I believe he is genuinely a good man and coach.

Those in Bulls Nation who will forever hold a grudge against him are free to do so, but don't include me in that group. Life's too short for that kind of stuff.

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