By @jackward9
Tampa, Fla. – The University of South Florida football team held their tenth day of spring practice on Tuesday as the team continues to prepare for its spring game on Friday, April 14. Before the practice, head coach Alex Golesh spoke with local reporters. Here is a transcript of what he said and my take on what it means.
On how he envisions the spring game…
So as of last week, my thought was to go offense-defense, do some situational football, do some drives and then do something fun competition wise whether it’s one on ones or one on one pass rush or something fun that is uniquely different, and I think we’ll see next Monday into Tuesday where we are health wise and then come up with the best plan. I want to use it as a practice, I also understand it’s the first time anybody gets to see what we are, said I think a lot of it’ll have to do with health of where our guys are. Like anybody that’s like dinged up. I’m being really, really cautious of putting somebody out there knowing that now were four months out from the season, trying to protect our guys to a little bit.
And we don’t have to win a spring game. We gotta go win in September. So we’ll see.
We essentially played it out exactly like it would going into a game so guys had had breakfast, and then went into the locker room and worked a countdown clock like you normally would starting at 80 counting down, from how they stretch to then getting taped, to putting their equipment on to what the pregame routine looks like for skill guys, for returners for us as a team what a five minute individual period looks like on a game day to us throwing a little bit seven on seven team and then how we would bring it up and go into the locker room.
My take: As the Bulls are still thin at multiple positions due to injury, Golesh is going to be very particular about who is going to play next Friday. From the fans perspective, this will be the first time we get to see the 2023 version of the Bulls live. But for the coaches and players, the spring game will be more about testing and evaluating players on in-game football situations. The spring game also gives the team an opportunity to practice their gameday prep. Ultimately, the spring game doesn’t count for anything, so Golesh will look to take it easy on his guys.
On how he wants the defense to play…
Since I started calling offense you know, you know what, what gives you what gives you stress or what gives you problems offensively. Multiplicity is the first thing. A defense that can be multiple. And that doesn’t necessarily mean you blitz every play but can present different pictures.
Todd’s unique because I coached against Todd. And I remember those weeks, and this is specifically when he was at Texas and I was at Iowa State, I remember those weeks of this was three years of it of man, you have no idea what’s going to happen on any given play. Generally, you have an idea of how a defense is going to line up. And at the same time defenses that are so multiple that they, a lot of times they have no idea where they’re supposed to be either and you can create explosive that way like what was so unique about Todd’s defense is that they’re so multiple, but they’re so sound.
You inevitably force defenses to be either stagnant or out of alignment. And so defensively you want to force offense is to either be stagnant or leave people unblocked. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is, is A third down package where you can get, get the defense off the field. You got to create, create negatives and you got to create sacks and you got to create turnovers you got to get the ball back. So combination of multiplicity, a havoc defense as it would be called in terms of creating negatives, specifically on third down situation Football are the two things you’re looking for.
You know, I think really, really good defensive coordinators can put their best 11 out there and figure out how to use those best 11 To the best of their ability and so far I think they’re still in the process of figuring out who their best 11 are. But I think as it’s getting closer and closer to the end here, I think those guys, the players are starting to get comfortable in different packages, which again will allow us to play more than more than just 11 guys.
My take: Overall, Golesh wants his defense to be as flexible as possible. Having a defense that can be extremely flexible and multiple in what they can do creates chaos and confusion for opposing offenses, and this style can make up for different weaknesses that might exist on that side of the ball. If defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and him can involve as many players as possible in the defensive rotation, the Bulls could have a defense with depth and discipline that causes fits for offenses.
On defensive depth…
You know I don’t think any coach is ever gonna stand up here and say you’re as deep as you want to be. I think we’ve got to get much, much deeper on the D line.
You’d love to get deeper at linebacker we, we’ve got a bunch of DB bodies that have performed at a really, really high level. Um, I feel like we do we need to we need to get some young guys that will continue to grow up and continue to progress on the D line. I feel like linebacker we’re getting there where we can have a little bit of depth but no like, it’s all about having defense in third down defense, you’d love to be able to roll guys in there and get fresh bodies in. That’s going to be part of this finale of the evaluation of where we are. It’s going to be part of getting these freshmen here and that’s going to be obviously attacked in the portal for us to be able to get some more depth at those critical spots.
My take: The Bulls managed to bring in a few top transfers to fill holes on defense, with the likes of corner Kendall Dennis, Lloyd Summerall and Derrick Harris Jr. providing some interesting options for Golesh and Orlando. Every coach would love to have great depth at every position, and Golesh is confident that they can go out and get some guys to come in and join that rotation to create that flexible defense mentioned previously.
On continuing to build a culture…
I think so much of what happens in college football is people step into roles and then forget what got them there or forget what their identity is. I’m not a big like slogan. motto like wristbands I don’t have like pyramids of success like I think a lot of that stuff it works for some people it certainly worked for some great coaches I’ve been around for me it’s been really simple I what stuck with me at an early age is be who you say you are. And the way I was raised the way that I got coached and the coaches I was with as a young coach, I always, always thought man like all people want is to be told the truth and be held accountable. And at the end of the day if you tell people the truth, there’s a genuine respect, there’s a genuine love.
We’re going to demand a lot of them. We’re going to work extremely hard. We’re going to outwork everybody in college football, both as a team and as a staff. And we’re going to be who we say we are, which is treating guys the right way, loving them, respecting them, but demanding a lot of them and then holding them accountable. At the same time and these guys will tell you like as coaches they’re welcome to hold us accountable as they should.
My take: Coach Golesh has touched on the culture of the team and how he is building it many times throughout spring, and has been steadfast with his view of how to build that. He has simple, but honest expectations for his guys; just be yourself and who you say you are, and rise to the occasion when challenged or called upon.
Tampa, Fla. – The University of South Florida football team held their tenth day of spring practice on Tuesday as the team continues to prepare for its spring game on Friday, April 14. Before the practice, head coach Alex Golesh spoke with local reporters. Here is a transcript of what he said and my take on what it means.
On how he envisions the spring game…
So as of last week, my thought was to go offense-defense, do some situational football, do some drives and then do something fun competition wise whether it’s one on ones or one on one pass rush or something fun that is uniquely different, and I think we’ll see next Monday into Tuesday where we are health wise and then come up with the best plan. I want to use it as a practice, I also understand it’s the first time anybody gets to see what we are, said I think a lot of it’ll have to do with health of where our guys are. Like anybody that’s like dinged up. I’m being really, really cautious of putting somebody out there knowing that now were four months out from the season, trying to protect our guys to a little bit.
And we don’t have to win a spring game. We gotta go win in September. So we’ll see.
We essentially played it out exactly like it would going into a game so guys had had breakfast, and then went into the locker room and worked a countdown clock like you normally would starting at 80 counting down, from how they stretch to then getting taped, to putting their equipment on to what the pregame routine looks like for skill guys, for returners for us as a team what a five minute individual period looks like on a game day to us throwing a little bit seven on seven team and then how we would bring it up and go into the locker room.
My take: As the Bulls are still thin at multiple positions due to injury, Golesh is going to be very particular about who is going to play next Friday. From the fans perspective, this will be the first time we get to see the 2023 version of the Bulls live. But for the coaches and players, the spring game will be more about testing and evaluating players on in-game football situations. The spring game also gives the team an opportunity to practice their gameday prep. Ultimately, the spring game doesn’t count for anything, so Golesh will look to take it easy on his guys.
On how he wants the defense to play…
Since I started calling offense you know, you know what, what gives you what gives you stress or what gives you problems offensively. Multiplicity is the first thing. A defense that can be multiple. And that doesn’t necessarily mean you blitz every play but can present different pictures.
Todd’s unique because I coached against Todd. And I remember those weeks, and this is specifically when he was at Texas and I was at Iowa State, I remember those weeks of this was three years of it of man, you have no idea what’s going to happen on any given play. Generally, you have an idea of how a defense is going to line up. And at the same time defenses that are so multiple that they, a lot of times they have no idea where they’re supposed to be either and you can create explosive that way like what was so unique about Todd’s defense is that they’re so multiple, but they’re so sound.
You inevitably force defenses to be either stagnant or out of alignment. And so defensively you want to force offense is to either be stagnant or leave people unblocked. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is, is A third down package where you can get, get the defense off the field. You got to create, create negatives and you got to create sacks and you got to create turnovers you got to get the ball back. So combination of multiplicity, a havoc defense as it would be called in terms of creating negatives, specifically on third down situation Football are the two things you’re looking for.
You know, I think really, really good defensive coordinators can put their best 11 out there and figure out how to use those best 11 To the best of their ability and so far I think they’re still in the process of figuring out who their best 11 are. But I think as it’s getting closer and closer to the end here, I think those guys, the players are starting to get comfortable in different packages, which again will allow us to play more than more than just 11 guys.
My take: Overall, Golesh wants his defense to be as flexible as possible. Having a defense that can be extremely flexible and multiple in what they can do creates chaos and confusion for opposing offenses, and this style can make up for different weaknesses that might exist on that side of the ball. If defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and him can involve as many players as possible in the defensive rotation, the Bulls could have a defense with depth and discipline that causes fits for offenses.
On defensive depth…
You know I don’t think any coach is ever gonna stand up here and say you’re as deep as you want to be. I think we’ve got to get much, much deeper on the D line.
You’d love to get deeper at linebacker we, we’ve got a bunch of DB bodies that have performed at a really, really high level. Um, I feel like we do we need to we need to get some young guys that will continue to grow up and continue to progress on the D line. I feel like linebacker we’re getting there where we can have a little bit of depth but no like, it’s all about having defense in third down defense, you’d love to be able to roll guys in there and get fresh bodies in. That’s going to be part of this finale of the evaluation of where we are. It’s going to be part of getting these freshmen here and that’s going to be obviously attacked in the portal for us to be able to get some more depth at those critical spots.
My take: The Bulls managed to bring in a few top transfers to fill holes on defense, with the likes of corner Kendall Dennis, Lloyd Summerall and Derrick Harris Jr. providing some interesting options for Golesh and Orlando. Every coach would love to have great depth at every position, and Golesh is confident that they can go out and get some guys to come in and join that rotation to create that flexible defense mentioned previously.
On continuing to build a culture…
I think so much of what happens in college football is people step into roles and then forget what got them there or forget what their identity is. I’m not a big like slogan. motto like wristbands I don’t have like pyramids of success like I think a lot of that stuff it works for some people it certainly worked for some great coaches I’ve been around for me it’s been really simple I what stuck with me at an early age is be who you say you are. And the way I was raised the way that I got coached and the coaches I was with as a young coach, I always, always thought man like all people want is to be told the truth and be held accountable. And at the end of the day if you tell people the truth, there’s a genuine respect, there’s a genuine love.
We’re going to demand a lot of them. We’re going to work extremely hard. We’re going to outwork everybody in college football, both as a team and as a staff. And we’re going to be who we say we are, which is treating guys the right way, loving them, respecting them, but demanding a lot of them and then holding them accountable. At the same time and these guys will tell you like as coaches they’re welcome to hold us accountable as they should.
My take: Coach Golesh has touched on the culture of the team and how he is building it many times throughout spring, and has been steadfast with his view of how to build that. He has simple, but honest expectations for his guys; just be yourself and who you say you are, and rise to the occasion when challenged or called upon.
