Alex Golesh makes not so subtle suggestion to Danny White that unfortunately won't help Tennessee Vols' current predicament
It's probably not too tough to figure out what Tennessee athletic director Danny White is doing at the moment – looking for a replacement for the holes in his school's 2026 and 2027 football schedules after the Nebraska Cornhuskers pulled out of the agreement on Friday. Someone that White and the Tennessee Vols knows very […]
It's probably not too tough to figure out what Tennessee athletic director Danny White is doing at the moment – looking for a replacement for the holes in his school's 2026 and 2027 football schedules after the Nebraska Cornhuskers pulled out of the agreement on Friday.
Someone that White and the Tennessee Vols knows very well sent out a feeler shortly after the news dropped that will have UT fans intrigued.
Current South Florida head coach and former Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh thumbed out a post to White on Twitter/X on Friday afternoon; a simple message: "sup @AD_DannyWhite" followed by #ComeToTheBay.
USF is a program who doesn't shy away from facing big-time schools. They had a home and home with Alabama the previous two seasons and also hosted the Miami Hurricanes in 2024.
While it would give the Vols a non-conference opponent for the future, Golesh's suggestion unfortunately doesn't fix the immediate problem that Tennessee faces in a sufficient manner. SEC rules mandate that the Vols must face at least one Power Four non-conference opponent (or Notre Dame) each season. Nebraska's unceremonious exit leaves White searching for just that.
USF is a member of the American Athletic Conference, which sits outside of the Power Four. As such, adding USF to the schedule would mean having to still find a Power Four school for the next two years under the current rules.
Oh, yeah, and Golesh's Bulls aren't exactly a pushover anymore. Since taking over the program in January 2023, the Vols' former OC has done a nice job turning them around, as evidenced by their back-to-back bowl game wins and winning seasons in Tampa after years of futility.
With reports of a possible 9-game SEC schedule and a Big Ten/SEC non-conference scheduling agreement in the very near future, the Bulls are an added challenge for Tennessee that might not be needed with a particularly brutal schedule coming for the schools of the sports' two biggest conferences.
So, while it's a nice gesture by Golesh, it's simply one that doesn't make sense for Tennessee, at least not right now.
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