By Brian Hartline Is Changing the Culture at USF — and Raising the Standard for What the Bulls Can Become
By Ken Filler | Tampa Bay Sports Journal
Brian Hartline didn’t arrive at USF believing he needed to rescue a broken football program.
The Bulls won nine games in 2025, made their third consecutive bowl appearance and spent five weeks ranked in the AP Top 25.
Hartline’s mission is different.
He wants to take a program that has learned how to win and teach it to expect more.
Since taking over at South Florida, the former Ohio State offensive coordinator has repeatedly delivered the same message: Good isn’t the goal.
Neither is simply competing for bowl games or producing an occasional nationally ranked team.
Hartline wants USF thinking much bigger.
“We want to be the best in the country,” Hartline said. “Both on and off the field, there is no tolerance for lack of effort.”
That may be the clearest description yet of the cultural change taking place inside the Bulls’ program.
Hartline Is Raising Expectations at USF
There is an important difference between changing a losing culture and raising the expectations of a winning one.
Hartline inherited momentum. What he’s attempting to change is the ceiling.
During the offseason, his emphasis has consistently centered on effort, accountability, competition and attention to detail.
Jobs aren’t supposed to be inherited. Reputations aren’t supposed to matter. Players are being asked to prove themselves daily.
Hartline has a philosophy where no one has earned a job and no one has a set role. Everyone is competing to earn their jobs and roles.
That philosophy has carried into virtually every part of the program.
Hartline has talked about measuring performance rather than relying solely on subjective evaluations.
He wants consistency in meetings, communication and practice habits.
He’s also challenged players to distinguish themselves through the way they work and interact with teammates.
That’s culture in Hartline’s world—not slogans painted on a wall, but habits repeated until they become normal.
“Culture is not logos,” Hartline said earlier this year.
“Culture is not buildings or pretty paint. Frankly, we haven’t done anything yet. We are establishing who we are.”
It’s difficult to find a better explanation of what Hartline is trying to accomplish.
Competition Has Become Part of the Message
Hartline’s first USF roster looks dramatically different from the one that finished the 2025 season.
The Bulls brought in 41 players through the transfer portal as part of a massive roster makeover, while only a handful of starters returned.
Hartline and his staff weren’t merely collecting talent. They were searching for players willing to compete.
“If you’re a guy coming in like, ‘Oh, I’m this, I’m that,’ or if they think it’s being handed to them, that’s not healthy,” Hartline said.
That approach can be seen in one of the most important competitions of fall camp—the battle between quarterbacks Michael Van Buren Jr. and Luke Kromenhoek.
Hartline has resisted the temptation to rush a decision, instead allowing performance and consistency to separate the quarterbacks.
The message extends beyond quarterback.
Earn it every day. day. Effort Is Non-Negotiable.
Perhaps nothing defines Hartline’s early tenure more than his view on effort. “We don’t coach effort,” Hartline said. “We can encourage and inspire. But showing effort is a necessity, a must. The expectations have been set, and they will not be lowered.”
It’s a demanding standard, but Hartline isn’t limiting it to the players.
He has specifically said the same accountability should extend to coaches, strength personnel, trainers, equipment staff and everyone else connected to the program.
That’s significant.
Culture becomes meaningless if the head coach demands one standard from players and another from everyone else.
Hartline’s approach is designed to make accountability an organizational expectation rather than a locker-room talking point.
Defensive coordinator Josh Aldridge has noticed that consistency.
“He has a belief system,” Aldridge said of Hartline.
“He’s very detailed. And he has a great plan for our young men and our staff.”
Building Trust Inside a New-Look Roster
The transfer portal makes Hartline’s challenge more complicated.
Talent can be acquired quickly. Chemistry can’t.
With so many players coming together from different programs, Hartline has spent considerable time emphasizing trust and accountability.
“The way to build trust on a football field is to be accountable,” Hartline said. “Whatever your job description is, do your job right and consistently over time.”
That’s especially important for a team with championship aspirations.
The encouraging early sign has been how players describe the locker room.
Linebacker Grayson Howard, one of USF’s key additions, recently pointed to the team’s closeness as one of the things that has impressed him most.
“I feel like everybody’s connected,” Howard said. “I hang out with everybody from my linebacker room to offensive players. And I feel like that just shows you how strong a team is.”
For a roster assembled with so many new pieces, that’s noteworthy.
Hartline Brought an Ohio State Standard to Tampa
Hartline spent nearly a decade coaching at Ohio State, where conference championships, College Football Playoff appearances, NFL Draft picks and national-title expectations were part of everyday life.
He saw what elite programs look like from the inside.
Now he’s trying to establish some of those expectations at USF without simply copying Ohio State.
Hartline’s reputation as a recruiter and developer preceded him to Tampa.
During his time coaching Ohio State’s receivers, he helped develop a remarkable collection of NFL talent, including Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka.
But his impact at USF can’t simply be about developing receivers.
As a head coach, Hartline must develop an entire program.
That means creating standards that remain in place regardless of who’s playing quarterback, which players arrive through the portal or how talented a particular recruiting class might be.
From Potential to Expectations
USF football has heard about its “potential” for decades.
The Tampa recruiting base. The university’s size. The media market. The facilities. The new on-campus stadium scheduled to open in 2027.
Hartline sees all of it.
But he isn’t particularly interested in celebrating potential.
“I wanted to move to a place where there’s literally no ceiling, and that’s how I feel about USF,” Hartline said.
That statement might explain his vision better than anything else.
Hartline isn’t trying to convince his players that USF could become something.
He’s trying to create an environment where they expect it to.
The Bulls haven’t played a game under Hartline yet, so there is an obvious limitation to evaluating the transformation.
Culture is validated on Saturdays. Effort, accountability and brotherhood sound good in August.
They become meaningful when a team faces a fourth-quarter deficit, a losing streak or adversity inside the locker room.
Hartline understands that.
USF’s new coach has repeatedly acknowledged that the Bulls haven’t accomplished anything under his leadership yet.
But something does feel different around the program. The expectations are different. The competition is different.
And perhaps most importantly, the language is different.
USF isn’t talking like a program hoping to become good. It’s beginning to talk like a program that believes being good isn’t enough.
Now Hartline and the Bulls have to prove it
