ARLINGTON, Texas — USF football coach Alex Goresh visited a different kind of facility and learned a lesson about the Bulls' on-campus stadium and operations center.
Women's restroom.
The incident came as he and other Bulls officials were mulling over what they wanted and needed from a proposed $340 million project north of the organization's current football practice facility this offseason.
Goresh had been tinkering with details since January 2023, a few weeks after he was hired. Some were easy ideas, like a back entrance to the team's conference room. Why? So that if players were late for class or had to leave early for a doctor's appointment, they could get in and out unhindered.
“It may sound like a small thing, but it's actually incredibly important every day,” Goresh said.
Other parts, such as the locker rooms, were difficult to identify.
Rosters typically have 115 or more players (including walk-ons) during camp, but that number is expected to drop to 105. Assuming the NCAA changes are finalized, the Bulls will need less space for lockers and equipment than originally thought, meaning they can allocate space differently, perhaps expanding the weight room (initially planned for 12,000 square feet, but likely to 17,000 square feet). Groundbreaking for the stadium is scheduled for Oct. 18, so the decision has to be made quickly.
“We're going to be sitting here until the very last moment,” Goresh said at AAC Media Day this week, “and at that point, it's not going to be possible to tear down the wall or rebuild it.”
As the design process progressed, Goresh realized he needed to study the building the same way he studied Xs and Os: He needed to analyze what other schools were doing and apply it to USF, so Bulls executives toured several facilities for inspiration.
Goresh assumed the dining space would feature standard banquet-style tables, but after looking at Georgia's dining facilities, he saw booths and counters more similar to a Chili's than a cafeteria, helping Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart achieve his connectivity goal.
“I didn't know that was what I wanted,” Goresh said.
That's what I do now.
Goresh looked at what other programs did right and wrong and jotted down other ideas, such as a kitchen to teach players how to prepare their own healthy meals.
Finally, we move on to the topic of women's restrooms.
During his visit, Goresh found someone he knew at his host school and asked him what was not working well in the brand new, multi-million-dollar building.
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A recruiter told Goresh to stick his head in the women's bathroom.
“There's one stall,” Goresh said.
Goresh then went into the men's room, which had four stalls and plenty of urinals.
Yes, the rosters and staff are predominantly male, but the schools use these facilities to register visitors on game days and to host recruiting camps. Prospective players don't just show up voluntarily.
“You have your mom, your grandma, your auntie,” Golesh said. “It's one food stall.”
Goresh said after the visit, the Bulls backed off the plan and started over. He has since approved the revised plan, and there won't be time to make any other tweaks once preseason camp opens on Wednesday.
Some of the details, like how the desks in the conference room open up, may seem trivial on a nine-figure project. Goresh sometimes thought that, but not anymore.
“You only get one chance, and we all know how college football is,” Goresh said. “You don't invest in facilities anymore. You invest in players, not facilities.”
That means everything about the Bulls' facility has to be done right.
This includes ladies' toilets.
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