Alex Golesh: "It breaks my soul" after USF football collapsed late against Alabama

USF football coach Alex Golesh is famous for making “the process” a core principle of his program. Without going too deep into the weeds, the process covers all aspects of daily preparation to be the best a person can be.

Eat right. Sleep right. Prepare right. Rinse, repeat.

Every. Single. Day.

It’s natural to assume Golesh means his players have to follow the process, and they do. He and his coaching staff make sure of that, and that can be hard at times.

What isn’t so obvious, though, is that Golesh drives himself just as hard on the process as his players. That much became clear during his frank and open session with the local press in the days following the Alabama game.

“I say with complete humility that coaching that last six minutes and 40 seconds is also absolutely critical. And there are a couple of things from my side that I didn't do well,” he said.

“And so we went back. We coached the heck out of it. We were incredibly real with our guys. The guys were incredibly receptive and incredibly coachable.”

Those last six minutes turned a potential program-defining win into a deceiving 42-16 loss. Alabama pushed across three long touchdowns during that time after leading by just five points as the home crowd watched in disbelief.

Golesh was quick to say he didn't fault his team's effort in the last six minutes. It was more about little things going wrong, allowing the Crimson Tide to take full advantage.

“I'm always going to be honest with y'all, like, yeah. It hurts me. The whole thing hurts me, right? It Yeah? Like, I couldn't sleep,” he said. “I literally couldn’t. It breaks my soul, because we couldn't go finish that game.

Many coaches would have lashed out at the players in that situation. They would have made excuses or even accused ‘Bama of running up the score.

Golesh, instead, examined his process and what collectively the Bulls can do better the next time they’re in that position.

“So we went back like, I'm like, Man, am I screwing this up in terms of what our process is at the end. So today (in practice) fourth quarter, we work the fourth quarter every single day,” he said. “It wasn’t just man, break him down. Everybody grab a knee.

“Got six minutes, 40 seconds right now. How will I finish? Literally challenge the coaches, the trainers, freaking water people -- you are laser-focused right now. Myself, laser-focused. Players, laser-focused.”

Players see that and understand what Golesh demands of himself. He’s not an autocrat like some football coaches tend to be. Coaches everywhere talk about building top programs, but this cat believes USF will be elite, and players believe that, too. That’s why they’re here.

There’s a right way and a wrong way.

The right way can be harder, but it’s much more rewarding on the field and later in life.

“You could be playing sisters of the poor. You could be playing Alabama. If your approach is the same, your work is the same, how you sleep is the same, and how you eat is the same,” he said. “Is it right?

“And then when you show up at the stadium, whether there's 100,000 or there's 20,000, you go attack it the same way.”

He admits the Bulls aren’t there yet because building an elite program takes time. Some things can’t be rushed.