How USF football coach Alex Golesh affects the Hendon Hookers’ NFL draft stock

If Hendon Hooker isn’t selected in the first round of the NFL draft tonight, blame new USF football coach Alex Golesh. The offense he coordinated at Tennessee was simply too good.

Read between the lines of some draft analysts long enough, and it doesn’t take much of a stretch to reach that ridiculous-sounding conclusion.

(Hooker) survived a quarterback-friendly offense, ESPN analyst Mel Kiper said recently. By that I mean get the ball out quickly with a shotgun. Great receivers to throw to. Nice offensive line.

Add in a couple of quality backs and you can see why the Volunteers broke through last year under former UCF coach Josh Heupel. That’s obviously a knock on Hooker because he didn’t have to move much in the pocket or show scouts he can go through his progressions.

Kiper also noted that Hookers backup Joe Milton torched Clemson in the Orange Bowl despite the Volunteers being down their top two receivers.

Thanks to the system, he had great success, Kiper said.

The system was installed by Heupel and Golesh, who recruited good players and put them in systems that gave them a good chance to succeed. And now it sounds like a negative for their former quarterback.

However, it is not negative for the program taken over by Golesh. If the Bulls’ biggest problem two years from now is that Byrum Brown’s draft stock is lower than it should be because USF’s offense was too efficient, Golesh is in line for a massive new contract.

Keep those ideas in mind for now as talking heads discuss Hooker (a potential Bucs option at No. 19) tonight.

As Hooker told reporters at the Scout Band: It’s not my fault that my first chapter is starting to unfold.

It’s the fault of the old coach at UCF and the new coach at USF.

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