As the clock runs down on 2025, it's time to look at moments that made this year unforgettable for USF fans. There was change, growth, a national spotlight, and some disappointment.
The football team was a serious contender for a College Football Playoff berth until a late-season 3-point loss at Navy. Several coaches moved on and new coaches took their place. On balance, 2025 was a very good year for the Bulls.
Let's take a look.
No. 5
Construction begins on the on-campus stadium -- Earth is being moved, pillars are going up, and the long-awaited centerpiece of the USF athletic complex is taking shape for the 2027 opening. The Bulls have just one season left at Raymond James Stadium.
Plans for the stadium were actually approved last year followed by a groundbreaking in late November. It was unquestionably the top USF story last year. Now, Bulls fans can look forward to tailgating on campus and attending games at a place USF can truly call its own.
It should have happened long ago, but better late than never.
No. 4
Women's lacrosse has an impressive debut -- Under head coach Mindy McCord, the Bulls' inaugural season couldn't have gone much better.
USF finished 13-5 and were runners-up in the American Conference, and the best is yet to come. McCord and her staff had 28 true or redshirt freshmen on the 40-player roster. The Bulls finished the season third in the NCAA in cumulative attendance with 10,127 fans for the 12 home games at Corbett Stadium.
In the program's debut game, 2,368 fans watched the Bulls defeat Kennesaw State 19-6. It was the eighth-highest single-game attendance in NCAA Women's Lacrosse on the 2025 season.
The new season begins February 7 against Niagara.
No. 3
Women's basketball wins the American and loses its coach -- After finishing third in the regular-season standings, USF won three games in three days to take the American Conference tournament championship for the second time in program history.
The win secured USF's 10th NCAA bid, but the Bulls were overmatched against fifth-seeded Tennessee in a 101-66 loss.
Then in late October, less than two weeks before the start of this regular-season, it was announced that head coach Jose Fernandez was leaving USF to become the head coach of the WNBA's Dallas Wings. Long-time assistant Michele Woods-Baxter was named the interim head coach.
His record after 25 seasons as USF's head coach was 485-317 and took the Bulls to nine of the past 12 NCAA Tournaments.
No. 2
Rob Higgins is named CEO of Athletics -- After the announcement in early June that athletic director Michael Kelly was leaving the Bulls for the same position at Navy, the USF trustee board decided to completely reshape the athletic department leadership model.
After a three-month search, USF alum Rob Higgins was named as the program's first CEO of Athletics. Higgins led the Tampa Bay Sports Commission since 2024 and attracted multiple high-profile events to the area -- two Super Bowls, Women's Final Fours, the College Football National Championship game, Frozen Fours, and many other events.
Trustee board chairman Will Weatherford explained it this way.
“As we embarked on this search, it became clear that this moment was different for the University of South Florida. Our next leader couldn’t just be an athletics director – we needed a CEO of USF Athletics," Weatherford said.
"In this new era of college athletics, not only is the role about providing a top-tier experience for our student-athletes across all sports, it now requires a business approach to build a competitive enterprise, grow revenue, embrace innovation, lead through change and position our university — and the Tampa Bay region — on the national stage.”
At his introductory news conference, Higgins laid out his battle plan: All gas, no brakes.
To prove it, Higgins named Hall of Fame linebacker and prominent Bay area sports executive Derrick Brookst the Chief Operating Officer for USF Athletics on October 28.
And he's just getting started.
No. 1
New leadership for football and men's basketball -- The two highest-profile sports at USF are under the direction of new coaches.
Bryan Hodgson, a widely respected coach and recruiter, took over the men's basketball program in late March after a traumatic 13-19 season following the shocking death of head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim shortly before the season started. Interim coach did his best to hold it together, but in the end that challenge proved to be too much.
Hodgson was one of the hottest commodies in the coaching ranks. His Arkansas State team last year won 25 games and he is regarded as a ferocious recruiter. So far, the Bulls are 7-5 under Hodgson in the non-conference portion of their schedule. They average 89.4 points per game, which ranks 24th in the country.
While all that was going on, the Bulls' football team put together a 9-3 regular season under third-year coach Alex Golesh. When he left for Auburn within hours after the final game against Rice, Higgins -- remember: all gas, no brakes -- landed Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline to replace him.
Hartline was one of the most sought-after young coaches in the country. The hiring drew widespread praise and surprise. It was like, how did little ol' South Florida pull this off?
"When you swing for the fences, every now and then, you hit the ball and you knock it out of the park with a grand slam, and that's what happened," Higgins said.
"I was really pretty picky. The most important thing to me, by far, is the ability to win consistently."@BrianHartline explains what attracted him to the @USFFootball head coach job. pic.twitter.com/ti2PxmRD4C
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) December 8, 2025
As Hartline has been filling out his staff, he is also helping prepare the Buckeyes to play Miami on December 31 in the College Football Playoff.