There was a surprising moment after USF’s five-overtime victory in the Hawai`i Bowl on Christmas Eve. Head coach Alex Golesh bristled when asked about quarterback Byrum Brown, who got his first action since his injury on September 28.
In covering the USF football team this year for the Green, Gold, and Bold site we launched in June, I have found Golesh to be generally agreeable, available, and fiercely protective of his players.
That latter trait was fully displayed after he was asked about Brown, who played briefly after starter Bryce Archie was shaken up. Leading up to the game, Golesh said Brown was at his best since the injury.
In the absence of full information, people will make up their own. That’s what happened here.
Golesh said Brown was practicing, getting better? Why, he must be OK!
Except he wasn’t.
“Byrum tried all the way through warm-ups. You know, (that was) as much of a game-time decision as I've ever had in my career. He tried, and it was truly a pain tolerance deal for him where he knows he needs his legs to go," Golesh said.
Golesh then let loose, releasing some bottled-up emotion when a reporter asked about Brown – starting with the important revelation that Brown’s injury was a broken leg.
“I say this super humbly, with all due respect, I think the confusion comes from you at making it a thing where I've sat up here and been completely honest with you,” he said.
“Been honest with you when he's practiced, been honest with you when he's available. The young man broke a leg, broke a bone in his leg, and fought like crazy to come back. He's rehabbed five, six hours a day. He's continued to come in every day and prepare like the starter. Comes in and watches more film than anybody in our program, continues to work his tail off.”
He wasn’t finished.
“The transparency has been that he's practiced, and we have not pushed him further than where he can be pushed. If it were your son, you would want the same transparency, just like I would if it were my son. His parents trust me with making sure that the information is his information, so I don't really care that you or anybody on Twitter is unhappy with the disclosure of his injury.”
He added what for me was an important point: “Why would I give anybody an advantage to know when somebody is available?”
Having covered sports for most of my life, I get that. Football coaches, particularly those at Golesh’s level, are entitled to some secrecy about their programs. Golesh never lied and said Brown was going to play. He just correctly said that his condition was improving and that he was practicing.
It's a matter of degrees and it's a lesson in football-speak for fans.
A broken leg mends at its own pace. If you’ve never had one of those – and I haven’t – then trust that while a superior young man like Brown undoubtedly wanted to play, it wasn’t worth the risk to him or the team if he wasn’t at something close to full speed.
College football injuries aren’t covered under the HIPPA laws, so teams can disclose their severity if they wish. Not disclosing for weeks that Brown, while practicing, wasn’t likely to play was a competitive advantage for USF, but it also put backup QB Bryce Archie in a tough spot.
When Archie struggled, fans wondered why Brown wasn’t playing. And in today’s social media environment, that can become a problem. Some in the Twitter mob were lobbying for Golesh to be fired after the game for not playing Brown. Ridiculous.
Facts have a way of intruding on a good rant.
Golesh repeatedly has said he is building a program, not a team. A successful program must have a certain culture. Players must believe the coaches have their backs. If they don’t, it’s lights out.
He had Byrum Brown’s back throughout this, and other players see that. That’s why they want to play for him.
While winning the bowl game was huge, putting his players’ interests first was the larger victory.
As a reporter, I’d like to know every detail, but maybe I've mellowed some over the years. If I were a coach, I probably would have done exactly what Golesh did.