We're just a couple of days away from South Florida's 30th opening football game, and this one just feels different.
Nothing will top the euphoria 49,212 residents of Bulls Nation felt when the football team -- their football team -- ran onto the field on September 6, 1997 to play the inaugural game in school history. Seeing the program launch that night was the fulfillment of a dream and all the work by so many people.
It was a fabulous goosebumpy moment.
But this year just feels different. It feels like the stage is being set for something bigger. Brian Hartline is about to coach his first game as the head man after many years as an assistant, and he strikes me as someone who can lead the Bulls to their first conference in program history.
You know in those moments before a heavyweight bout when the two fighters stare each other down in the center of the ring? Hartline gives off that vibe.
Maybe it's a byproduct of all those years at Ohio State, both as a player and an assistant coach. Maybe his upbringing in North Canton, Ohio also has something to do with it. Northeast Ohio is not a place for the faint of heart. The same goes for Columbus when you play for the Buckeyes.
Places like that either toughen you up or eat you up.
Football coaches often script their first dozen plays or so, just to get a feel for what can work. But I believe Hartline scripts each day down to the second, and if you're going to work or play for him, you'll probably find yourself doing that too.
Successful football coaches are driven to the extreme, and USF's first coach, Jim Leavitt, certainly fit that mold. Alex Golesh did too.
But Leavitt's relentless push of his staff and players eventually wore them as the season went along. fast starts often faded when the games mattered most.
During the eight years Leavitt coaches while USF was in a league, the Bulls were a perpetual middle of the pack team.
In two seasons as a football member of Conference USA, they finished fifth and eight. During's Leavitt's six-year run as a member of the Big East, the Bulls finished fourth three times, fifth once, and sixth two times.
During Golesh's three-year run in the American, USF finished fifth, sixth, and fourth.
Yes, Golesh inherited a dumpster fire, but what was the excuse in 2025? The Bulls were in and out of the AP Top 25 poll all season. They beat Boise State and Florida when they were ranked. Yet, when it was time to close the deal late in the season, they couldn't do it.
The Golesh era was marked by an offense that felt gimmicky too many times. I think this USF team will be looking to run over opponents instead of around them.
There is something about the way Hartline operates that I don't think the pundits have picked up on yet. That's why they're picking the Bulls to finish somewhere in the upper middle of the American this season.
Take his approach to Saturday's opening game with an FIU team that could be sneaky good. After all those years as one of the most highly regarded assistant coaches in the country, he's now in charge for the first time.
"Coach (Urban) Meyer gave me a little bit advice because he got this at one point. Someone pulled him aside and told him, hey, suggestions versus decisions," Hartline said. "Your entire life you've been giving suggestions. Now you make the decisions. And I was like, that's good. So I made sure to write that down.
"We will prepare and look forward to the opportunity. I think I find my confidence in the people around me, and that's really how the players should feel about the coaching staff and their teammates. I feel empowered by the coaches around me, the players around me, and the process that we put together the last eight months. So nerves? We'll see."
He wouldn't be human if there weren't at least a few flutters as kickoff neared. But in terms of preparation to meet the moment, no detail was too insignificant to ignore.
They practiced a game day at Raymond James Stadium, including a walk-through the traditional stampede. Players were taped up like a they will be Saturday night. They warmed up on the field like they will for the game.
So, like Hartline said, we'll see.
College football followers were surprised last December when CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins pulled off the headline-grabbing hire of Hartline. Was this the last piece of the puzzle 30 years in the making?
No one can say that for certain at this point.
But I've watched and reported on this team from the beginning.
All I know for sure is that this just feels different in a good way.
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