If the last few months have taught USF fans nothing else, it's to not have blood pressure spikes every time a so-called insider tweets about one of the Bulls' coaches.
Remember the guy in Arkansas who said he had it down pat that Alex Golesh was going to be the next football coach of the Razorbacks?
Oops.
And earlier this week, there were reports out of Syracuse that men's basketball coach Bryan Hodgson was leaving USF to coach the Orange.
Oops.
In situations like this, only a handful of people really know what's going on. There are some national reporters with great sources who can and do break news.
However, there are many more trolls, parody accounts, and amateur sluths eager for attention who flood social media with EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!
So, is Hodgson leaving USF after one season to take the Providence job?
Maybe. It's certainly a plausible scenario.
Bryan Hodgson to Providence is not done, but it’s trending that way, per sources https://t.co/VbnkC4XDtZ
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 21, 2026
I have a good relationship with Hodgson but he didn't respond when I reached out to him a couple of days ago. The silence out of Rob Higgins, USF's CEO of Athletics, can be interpreted as him working hard to keep Hodgson.
Bulls fans will you, in Rob they trust.
But if he can't convince Hodgson to stay, there's no doubt he will bring in a high-level replacement. After all, Brian Hartline was one of the hottest coaching names in football when Higgins convinced him to come to USF.
Fund-raising is one of the primary duties of Higgins' job. It's why Derrick Brooks is his top lieutenant. Wallets just jump out of donor's pockets when Brooks walks in the room. In the NIL world of college athletics today, that's the type of clout USF needs to play at the level it wants to.
But who knows? Maybe Providence is ahead of USF in that arrea right now. After the Bulls lost to Louisville in the NCAA tourmanent, Hodgson noted how team mainstays Izaiyah Nelson and Joseph Pinion "left a lot of money on the table" to follow him to Tampa from Arkansas State.
Obviously., USF can't count on that to continue.
The fact that Hodgson apparently still is negotiating with Providence keeps hope alive for Bulls fans. But if that hope is dashed, there's always Rob Higgins. You know he had prepared for something like this.
And who knows, he may already be at work.