USF’s new head football coach brings in former mentor to help turn Bulls around
TAMPA, Fla. - In Jeff Jones' bottom desk drawer sits a picture of a football player that brings back a flood of memories each time he looks at it.
"This was his senior year," Jones explained.
It's a picture that dominates a newspaper clipping yellowed by age and features that football player with a wide smile embracing his coach. It's an embrace that that has lasted through the decades.
RELATED: Alex Golesh named USF football head coach
"I remember him jumping on me that's for sure," said Jones.
The coach in the picture is Jones, and the football player was Alex Golesh, 21 years before he was hired as the head football coach at the University of South Florida.
"He will always be Alex to me," said Jones.
The two first met at Dublin Scioto High School in Columbus, Ohio – more than 20 years ago.
PREVIOUS: Bulls sign 16 in Golesh's first recruiting class
"His parents owned a house in the same subdivision, on the same street basically," Jones remembered.
At Scioto, Golesh was on the offensive line and Jones was his offensive coordinator and would routinely drive Golesh to and from practices.
After Golesh graduated, Jones even gave the future Bulls head coach his first ever coaching job and promised to return the favor to Jones once Golesh made it big, of course.
Jones, however, has been out of coaching for nearly 15 years and has been a school administrator ever since. But, that all changed when Jones got a phone call in December.
"'Oh you're serious this time?'" Jones remembered answering.
READ: USF names intended design, build team for on-campus football stadium
On the other end of the line was Golesh, freshly hired as the Bulls new head coach, calling to finally return the favor to the man who gave him his first coaching job.
"In the back of my mind, he was always going to be a guy that, when I got the right opportunity and was ready to take an opportunity like this, he was going to be a guy that I would hope would want to be by my side," said Golesh.
Maybe Jones missed coaching more than he let on, or maybe he just couldn't turn down a request from a former player.
Regardless, Jones left his job as a middle school principal in Ohio and took a job as Golesh's director of player development. Bascially, Jones was to be a pillar for any and all USF football players.
"He's one of those guys that I lean on heavy in that regard," said Golesh.
Because he wouldn't necessarily be coaching, Jones was still unsure of what his new position would entail. Golesh had an easy explanation to that question.
MORE: Boston University hockey team brings biggest fan to Frozen Four
"One of the things he said to me, when we had that conversation on the phone, was 'Coach, I just want you to give our players the same experience you gave me,'" Jones recalls.
That was all Jones needed to hear.
"My eyes got a little sweaty, that's for sure," said Jones. "It is validating. It makes you feel good that that's what he wants for these guys, and I wouldn't have come if it was for other reasons."
It's a partnership that lasted more than two decades apart.
"He's thought this out for a long time," said Jones.
Only now the student has become the master.