by Patrick Zier | Dec 30, 2025 |
Texas Tech has the best team money can buy and now, it’s trying to prove it’s college football’s best team – period.
Texas Tech meets Oregon in one of the CFP’s quarterfinal games Thursday, and both are symbolic of the new model for team building as we move into a new era for college athletics.
In short, money talks. Take Texas Tech, the latest and best example. Once the courts threw out all the rules and regulations governing college sports, the best way to get the best players and build the best teams was to buy them.
And after years of being mired in mediocrity; Texas Tech had never won a Big 12 championship before this year despite being one of the league’s founding members in 1996, some big donors said “enough”.
Led by Cody Campbell, chairman of the Board of Regents and founder of Double Eagle Energy, Texas Tech boosters poured millions into the program this year. They spent $12 million on 21 transfer portal players and put another $28 million into NIL and roster building.
Armed with his new bank roll, Texas Tech’s veteran coach, Joey McGuire, totally reshaped his team. To go along with the new players, he brought in new offensive and defensive coordinators and made other changes in his coaching staff.
The model was Oregon, which, with backing from Phil Knight and Nike, has been at this for a while and transformed Oregon into a national power. It’s estimated that Oregon’s roster this year cost over $40 million.
“First, they’ve (Oregon) done a good job of hiring coaches,” McGuire commented at a press conference before Thursday’s game. “(Dan) Lanning was a slam dunk.
“Second, they’ve made it cool to be an Oregon Duck. I mean they’ve got every uniform known to man and players love that. With Adidas and Patrick Mahomes, We’re doing the same thing,” McGuire continued.
“We’re really fortunate with Adidas as our partner,” McGuire went on. “We’ve got some great looks.
“And then you know they’ve got a great booster in Phil Knight who said ‘Hey, we’re going to win at the highest level and there’s no excuses when it comes to finances.’
“And you know, you turn that around and I think we’ve shown that we’re doing that. I think we’re really comparable (to Oregon). We’ve got guys that have really stepped up and done a great job,” McGuire said.
“I kind of call them the big five,” McGuire said of the quintet, all of whom are worth millions and at least one of whom, Cody Campbell, is worth billions.
“Whenever you talk about Cody and John (Sellers) and Mike (Wallace) and Dusty (Womble) and Gary (Petersen), those guys and everybody else in Red Raider nation, we’re kind of comparable (to Oregon) on and off the field. They’ve just done it for a little longer,” McGuire said.
“He’s built a great roster,” Oregon’s Lanning said of McGuire, also at a press conference before their playoff game. “College football’s about adapting and this (Texas Tech) is obviously a program that’s done an unbelievable job adapting and saying ‘OK, let’s make our team the best it can possibly be’.
“They’ve done that this year,” Lanning said. “So they deserve credit for that because you have to evaluate; there’s a lot of teams that take people out of the portal, right?
“There’s not a lot of teams that necessarily have success,” Lanning continued. “It’s about evaluating that talent, getting them to play together and creating a team that does that. This is a team that’s done that.
“There’s just kind of an admiration and respect for teams that are doing it at a high level and Texas Tech’s certainly one of those teams.”
While some play down Texas Tech’s accomplishments because they don’t consider the Big 12 to be a very strong conference, Lanning is not one of them.
“Good football is good football and I’ve kind of always said that regardless of what conference you’re in,” Lanning remarked. “Are you playing a high level of ball? and these guys (Texas Tech) play a really high level of football, right?
“And they’ve not just beaten opponents, they’ve dominated them, right? And to dominate the way they’ve dominated speaks volumes about what kind of team this is. So we’ve got a ton of respect for them because they’ve got the winning formula.”
That may be true, and it is true that Texas Tech has turned things around and accomplished a lot this year. Beating Oregon, though, will require Tech’s best effort, because these Ducks aren’t quacks.
by Patrick Zier | Dec 6, 2025 |
For Brian Hartline, who will be officially announced as South Florida’s new coach Monday, the job isn’t about picking up the pieces, starting over. His job will be to build on the foundation Alex Golish has laid down.
Hartline appears to be a solid hire. He is highly regarded as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and considered an outstanding recruiter. He has an impressive pedigree as a player, first at Ohio State and then in the NFL.
His approach will no doubt be different from Golishes; it is likely to be less intense because Hartline appears more confident than Golish, who seemed to be driven, in large part, by a need to prove himself.
The unexpected end of the Golish era was a sharp contrast from its beginnings. At least publicly, it was somewhat messy and tumultuous, a bit out of control. And that was totally different from the way Golish ran his program, where everything seemed precisely planned and well thought out with definite goals in mind.
It appears that Golish was more open with the USF administration, which seemed to know he had gotten some offers and was considering them, than he was with the media and the USF fan base.
Even as more and more reports linking him to other jobs surfaced, Golish continued to insist he wasn’t seeking other opportunities, that he was happy at USF and that he hadn’t completed his rebuild yet. All of that was undoubtedly true.
It was what he didn’t say that was troubling. While he said he wasn’t seeking other jobs, he didn’t say he wouldn’t consider other offers. And all the talk about being happy in Tampa and having all the resources he needed to build a nationally relevant program at USF, which gave the impression he wasn’t going to leave, was misleading at best and dishonest at worst.
And so Golesh has packed up and headed to Auburn, a step up from USF but a gamble on his part. In many ways, Auburn is much like Tennessee, where Golesh was before he came to USF. Both schools have a rich SEC history and are trying to reclaim it. This is particularly true of Auburn, which has struggled to reach the .500 mark over the last several seasons.
At USF, Golesh pretty much had a straight line to football success. The Bulls have made and are making sizable investments in new facilities and a stadium. They plan to spend the full $20.5 million allotted to schools in recent court settlements on players, the only Group of 5 school to do so.
If all goes well, meaning primarily if it can bring in enough money to pay for the stadium, USF will have an advantage virtually every year as far as being the Group of 5 representative in the College Football Playoffs.
In contrast, Auburn has some huge hurdles to overcome just to be competitive in the SEC, and even being competitive is no guarantee you will get to the championship game or the playoffs.
So Hartline takes over USF at a time when the school seems ready to break out of the American, to establish itself as a mid-major, not quite up to Power 4 standards but a notch above everybody in the Group of 5. And that’s a very advantageous position to be in.
“Brian Hartline was our clear-cut first choice to lead our football program into the most exciting era in program history and I am fired up to have him leading the Bulls,” Rob Higgins, CEO of Athletics, said in a USF press release.
“A relentless recruiter, outstanding developer of talent and a gritty competitor, he comes from a championship background and is obsessed with instilling championship excellence in his players and teams. He is ready to lead our program to the next level,” Higgins said.
And Hartline is off to a good start. Even with Golesh gone, USF’s recruiting class pretty much held together on early signing day. According to rivals.com, the Bulls signed the 10th best class among all Group of 5 teams and the third best in the American. And as yet, we have not heard anything about a mass exodus of players via the transfer portal.
“Coach Brian Hartline is a proven winner who has experienced success at the highest level,” Will Weatherford, USF Board of Trustees chair, commented, also in the press release. Weatherford was the driving force behind getting a stadium built and most of the other infrastructure improvements in USF’s athletic facilities.
“He (Hartline) shares our vision for winning championships, developing student-athletes and providing them with a world-class experience and positioning our university on the national stage,” Weatherford added.
So USF is ready to roll. Let the games begin.
by Patrick Zier | Nov 26, 2025 |
Alex Golesh had apparently dealt with it. With his name popping up in connection with coaching vacancies across the country, the South Florida coach attempted to put everyone at ease.
“I have not,” Golesh stated before this week’s game against Rice when asked if he had engaged in talks with Oklahoma State about the opening there. “I addressed this a couple weeks ago,” the South Florida coach continued.
“I’m so focused and locked in on this program, this team; we’ve got so much work to do, but I have not,” Golesh emphasized. “For me, and I said it a couple weeks ago, it’s humbling that people bring your name up.
“But it’s because these guys (his players) have done an elite job of building this place to where people are taking notice. It’s a credit to our kids, a credit to our staff. But I have not,” Golish insisted in regard to any talks with Oklahoma State.
It’s doubtful that Golesh ever was directly involved with Oklahoma State, since the Cowboys just announced that North Texas’ Eric Morris has accepted the job.
Still, it was always difficult to ascertain just where Golesh stood in relation to USF, although he seemed to be committed to rebuilding the program.
“I came here to build something really special,” Golesh said before all the rumors started circulating. “I see this place as a really cool spot where you can build it the way you want to build it.
“They’ve (USF) invested greatly as they promised they would,” Golesh continued. “They’ve kept every promise that they’ve ever made to us. I’ve never in my career, outside of coming here, chased a job and I don’t intend to.
“I’ve got more than I’ve ever dreamed of. We’re super happy here, my family is incredibly happy here,” Golesh said. “To me, that’s more important than any conference affiliation.
“I’ve never, just never thought of it in the sense of ‘I’ve got to go chase a job,’ just never have and certainly this profession is getting crazier by the minute,” Golesh remarked.
“But when you have good people working for you and you feel like there’s a ceiling that you’re nowhere near achieving; I’m just not ready to say ‘well, what else is out there?’ That’s just me,” Golesh said.
“I’m sure some people will call BS on it but hopefully, when you look at my career, however long it is, when you look at what I’ve done in terms of I’ve never ever chased a job and I’m not intending to do so, if people are talking about us that’s a huge credit to our players, to our staff and to our university,” Golesh declared.
With the early signing date approaching, high school recruits can sign on Dec. 3rd, USF and Golesh needed to get his status settled as soon as possible.
“I tell guys the same exact thing I said here at the podium a few weeks ago,” Golesh commented. “We’re working incredibly hard to go finish the season the right way.
“We have chased nothing. We’ve had no conversations. All we care about right now is building on today. And as guys ask, as they should, they’re coming here to play for our staff, I get that, I’ve been as honest with them as I have with you guys (the media),” Golesh remarked. “I understand the concern.”
Off his remarks, Golesh seems to be a guy motivated more by making the College Football Playoff than making more money. But the way he has approached this always left you uneasy.
That’s because he really didn’t commit himself to anything beyond this year. He never said definitively that he wouldn’t listen to offers after this season.
And USF seemed to think he was on board. “Coach Golesh’s representatives and I continue to have a lot of great conversations and both they and Coach Golesh know how fully invested we are in his long term future at USF,” South Florida Athletic Director Rob Higgins said a few days ago.
“We won’t discuss the details of those conversations publicly and we appreciate how totally locked in Coach Golesh has stayed to our program and student athletes throughout the season despite what a lot of false reports that continue to circulate on line suggest,” Higgins concluded.
P.S. – Unconfirmed report: Alex Golesh has accepted an offer to become the next coach at Arkansas.
by Patrick Zier | Nov 14, 2025 |
TAMPA – Before he and his team headed for Annapolis, MD. and Saturday’s showdown against Navy, South Florida Coach Alex Golesh was asked what it was like for his team to be playing a “meaningful game” in November.
Were the players aware of the impact the outcome could have on their season? That a win here might be the stepping stone to the College Football Playoffs?
Was there more intensity in their preparation, more focus on getting the job done?
“My hope is that if we’re truly process driven, there’s not,” Golesh replied. “You don’t ever want to make one game bigger than the next, you don’t want to make it bigger than another one.
“Obviously, these guys know they’re playing for something,” Golesh continued. “They know that. I talked about it after our sixth win (which made the Bulls bowl eligible for the third straight year).
“The feeling in the locker room was different. There was no conversation about a sixth win. There were no bowl bound t-shirts given out. That’s not our standard.
“I said it the last two years when we got to our sixth win, that that was never the standard. And so I think they know that they’re playing meaningful football obviously. they know that this game is important, but they all are for us,” Golesh said.
“It’s about us being the best version of ourselves on Saturday, which is our process. Being elite throughout the week. I’ve not classified it as an extremely meaningful game or an extremely important anything.
“I think when you do that you’re diminishing anything you do after that. They’re all really important, but more important than the game on Saturday is us taking advantage of today,” Golesh declared.
“I know you get sick of hearing me say that but it’s truly the case, because if you live that roller coaster lifestyle, up and down based on who you’re playing, then it’s going to look like that. And that’s what we’ve tried to eliminate in this program, the inconsistency week-to-week.”
That culture, that attitude of being the best you can be at whatever you do, trying to improve each and every day, has clearly taken hold at USF. That has become this team’s goal, not whether it wins or loses. And it’s probably the main reason the Bulls have been getting better.
Mac Harris, a standout linebacker for USF, put it this way. “We’ve just got to focus each and every week on just being the best version of ourselves,” Harris commented.
“When you are process driven the results don’t matter. So as long as we continue to prepare the right way and try to perfect our process I can go to sleep at night with whatever the results are,” Harris said. “That’s how we operate.”
“I think we’ve really done a phenomenal job this year, and the past couple years, of building a culture of taking it one day at a time, one play at a time, one game at a time” starting center Cole Best, another team leader, commented.
“One thing I’m really proud of as a team is I don’t sense anybody really looking too far into the future or worrying about all the stuff you hear in the media,” Best said.
“It’s definitely exciting and guys are really juiced up. There’s a lot on the line this week and every week, but I think the overall vibe has been great. Guys are just ready to come in and work every day,” Best remarked.
So the Navy game is important to this team, but only because it’s the next game up, not because of what it could mean in the long term. And when it’s over, getting ready for UAB will be the most important, because that’s the next game on the schedule.
That’s the way you win championships, and winning championships is the way you get to the College Football Playoffs, and while Golesh hasn’t articulated it in so many words, that’s the standard at USF now.
by Patrick Zier | Nov 9, 2025 |
It was a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with NASCAR. A point system that rewards finishing and actually punishes racing.
A playoff patterned after those in pro football, baseball and basketball that doesn’t work because NASCAR isn’t pro football, baseball or basketball.
A championship race where you don’t have to win anything to win everything. That’s how Kyle Larson, who never led a lap and finished third in the race, ended up with the title.
But don’t blame Larson. He just did what he needed to do under the current format. Blame NASCAR, which refuses to recognize that stock car racing is not like any stick-and-ball sport and needs to do its own thing in its own way.
By all odds Denny Hamlin, the best driver in the sport right now and one of the best all-time, should have won Sunday’s last race at Phoenix and the championship.
But he didn’t, and it’s time for NASCAR to realize that because of the nature of the sport, it can’t have a playoff. The champion has to be determined by a body of work over a full season.
A quarterback can throw a costly interception in the first quarter of the Super Bowl and come back and throw the winning touchdown pass in the fourth.
A baseball player can strike out in the first inning of the final game of the World Series and get the winning hit in the ninth.
A basketball player can miss every shot in the first half and win the game with a basket at the buzzer in the second.
But in NASCAR, if you blow a tire or hit the wall or if a caution falls at the wrong time, unlike other sports, you can’t recover from that. You’re done.
And the final race at Phoenix is an example. Hamlin and William Bryon dominated the day, but got almost no credit for it because of the way the point system is structured.
Between the two of them, they led 223 of the 254 green flag laps, this according to lapraptor.com. Until Byron blew a right front and wrecked on lap 309, neither one of them had ever run out of the top 10 and most of the time they ran in the top three or four.
But because NASCAR awards points based on where you finish, not how you compete, Byron got four points for finishing 33rd, meaning 32 drivers got more despite the fact virtually none of them deserved more.
One was Justin Haley, who finished 14th and got 23 points. Again according to lapraptor.com, Haley never led a single lap, never ran a lap in the top 10 and spent the vast majority of the race running in the 20s or 30s. He managed to get to 14th at the end of the race.
Then there’s the matter of how drivers make the playoffs. All you have to do is win one race and you’re in. Austin Cindric, who has been an anchor around the neck of Penske Motorsports and virtually non-competitive for years, won at Talladega.
So he got in despite the fact anybody can win a superspeedway race and he did
absolutely nothing the rest of the season, recording just two top fives. On the Old Guy Sport competition index, a better judge of who’s running well and who isn’t than the NASCAR points system, Cindric scored just 43 points.
For comparison Hamlin, the OGS champion, had 677 and Larson, second in the OGS rankings, had 530. Ryan Blaney was third with 516 and Chase Briscoe fourth with 507.
Three others who used the ‘win and you’re in’ crutch to make the playoffs were Austin Dillon, whose lone victory was at Richmond and who didn’t have another top five finish; Ross Chastain, who won at Charlotte and had four other top fives; and Shane van Gisbergen.
Van Gisbergen had an impressive five wins, all of them on road courses where he established himself as one of the best ever in NASCAR at that discipline, but he didn’t have a single top five on ovals, the bread-and-butter of NASCAR racing.
Commenting after the Phoenix race, Hamlin summed up his disappointment. “I did the best I could,” he said dejectedly according to NASCAR’s website. “Everything I prepared for happened. I felt like we responded. Even losing track position at one point, just battling back.
“I did really well on restarts and I hadn’t been good on restarts for the bulk of the year,” he said. “This team brought a great championship car and I felt like I drove it just right up until two laps to go (actually, Hamlin was pretty much trapped at the bottom of the track for the last two laps so there really wasn’t much he could do).
“I don’t know. It’s just so unfortunate. Gosh, you work so hard. This sport can drive you absolutely crazy,” Hamlin continued, “because sometimes speed, talent, all that stuff, just does not matter.”
He’s right. And NASCAR needs to change that.
