Working from the Jeff Long playbook

I don’t understand why, given how badly the Beaty buyout kerfuffle turned out, but South Florida’s athletic brain trust seems bound and determined to give the same approach a whirl.

South Florida is interviewing former assistant coaches to see if former Bulls head coach Charlie Strong knowingly permitted any analysts or quality control personnel to conduct impermissible hands-on coaching, multiple sources told FootballScoop.

Sources said NCAA representatives joined USF compliance staffers in the interviews with former Bulls coaches.

The sources felt South Florida is engaging in an after-the-fact attempt to get out from under Strong’s contractually-obligated buyout in order to help with a coronavirus-induced budget crunch.

Strong was fired without cause in December after posting a 4-8 record in the 2019 season. He has since taken a defensive analyst position at Alabama.

The sources said South Florida has spoken with former assistants on both sides of the ball in an attempt to acquire damning testimony against the Bulls’ former head coach…

As with all coaching contracts, the terms of Strong’s deal gave USF the ability to terminate his contract “for cause” in the event of any NCAA violations…

Opening yourself up to an NCAA investigation to get rid of a buyout seems like a really stupid self-own, but, hey, an AD’s gotta do what an AD’s gotta do.

Oh, yeah.  There’s a punchline — with these guys, there’s always a punchline.

What is peculiar is that multiple sources said South Florida AD Michael Kelly and USF compliance staffers regularly attended multiple practices per week, meaning any possible violations would have been clearly visible to all at the time.

That’s gonna be an awfully narrow needle hole to thread, my dudes.  Knock yourselves out.