Tom Herman and Alex Golesh do not like each other. The head college football coaches at FAU and USF, respectively, have an outstanding beef that dates back to last season and it has not calmed down.
Golesh snubbed Herman after a blowout win in Boca Raton, which led Herman to throw a temper tantrum that Golesh completely ignored.
Florida Atlantic beat South Florida 56-14 during the 2023 season. The Owls called an onside kick late in the game despite a 42-point lead over the Bulls on their Homecoming. That decision by Herman did not sit well with Golesh.
Fast forward one year later to Friday night.
USF running back Ta’Ron Keith scored a 42-yard touchdown during the fourth quarter to go up 42-21 after a sleepy first half. Golesh decided to get payback for last season’s disrespect. He decided to go forgo the extra point and go for two. The Bulls were successful on their conversion and ultimately went on to win 44-21. Ironically enough, it was also FAU’s Homecoming this year.
Tom Herman and Alex Golesh walked swiftly toward each other after the final kneel down. They met at midfield for a postgame handshake that was not friendly. The former extended his hand to the latter. The latter made brief eye contact with the former and slapped down on his hand while refusing to break stride.
That did not help to deescalate the tension between the two coaches. Rather, the opposite.
Golesh kept moving forward. Herman circled back to give him a piece of his mind and threw a tantrum that fell on deaf ears. They chirped back and forth for a brief moment but Golesh never slowed down. Herman’s wife, Michelle, had to run out onto the field to tell him to calm down.
I'm so glad we're past this crap, Tom Herman got into it with the USF coach after a loss pic.twitter.com/5180TAZGzd
— Nash (@NashTalksTexas) November 2, 2024
Tom Herman’s tenure at FAU has not gone well thus far. The Owls won only four games last year. They dropped to 2-6 with the blowout loss on Friday night. He spoke about his side of the frosty exchange.
I wish it was a conversation, but no.
— Tom Herman
On the flip side of this new (old?) rivalry, Alex Golesh won seven games during the 2023 college football season. The Bulls moved to 4-4 with their win in Boca Raton. He also broke down what happened.
Not a whole lot of back and forth. Nothing really, I said a year ago, we would be back to get it and we came back to get it. Whatever’s said is said, I’m good. I think it was said that we recruit against each other, I think it’s said we don’t like each other. I got a lot of respect for the staff. I think they do a really good job. I don’t specifically think we recruit against each other, at least I can’t think of a guy that we had to go beat them on.
We certainly run into them, I got a lot of respect for a lot of those guys, but I said we were coming back to get it. Last year at the end of the game, we got embarrassed at home. We came and got it, and we’ll continue to do so.
— Alex Golesh
Assuming both coaches survive to coach another season, next year’s matchup will be SPICY!