Florida Atlantic football coach blows his stack at rival for refusing to talk to him after a game

In the ongoing rivalry between the Florida Atlantic Owls and the South Florida Bulls, the two coaches currently representing the two schools aren’t particularly fond of each other – which reared its ugly head again on Friday night.

FAU head coach Tom Herman and USF coach Alex Golesh met at midfield and briefly shook hands after the Bulls comfortably beat the Owls 44-21 on the road.

Golesh in particular had a very serious look on his face when he slapped hands with Herman, and then immediately bolted away from him.

But when Herman wanted to discuss a perceived slight – pursuing Golesh as the opposing coach continued to walk through the crowd after the win.

Herman appeared to jaw at Golesh, with the latter not responding as cooler heads seemed to prevail.

Now, there’s context to this situation that has to be explored – and for good reason.

Last year when these two teams met, FAU beat USF 56-14 – with a controversial ending to the contest, which was USF’s Homecoming game.

Up 42 points on South Florida, Herman decided to run up the score on the opponent by trotting his team out for an onside kick late in the contest.

Golesh appeared to take exception to that and his memory was long enough to exact revenge on Friday night. 

Bulls running back Ta’Ron Keith rushed for a 42 yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to take a 42-21 lead late in the game.

So Golesh decided to twist the knife – keeping his offense on the field to go for two, and converting it to go up 44-21, which served as the final score. Ironically, this was also FAU’s homecoming game. 

‘I said a year ago, we would be back to get it and we came back to get it,’ Golesh said after the game. ‘Whatever’s said is said, I’m good… I think it’s said we don’t like each other.’

He added, ‘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.’