BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic head football coach Tom Herman is still talking about the handshake that wasn’t after Saturday’s USF-FAU game.
“The way I was raised, when you slap another man’s hand down, you stick around and talk about it,” Herman told the media on Monday. “I wasn’t mad at anything, so I turned back and wanted to figure out what the confusion was about … and he continued to walk away.”
The exchange between Herman and USF head coach Alex Golesh took place on the field at FAU Stadium moments after the Bulls blasted the Owls 44-21 – and seemingly ran up the score.
Golesh appeared to smack Herman’s hand away as the FAU coach reached out for a congratulatory handshakeat mid-field. Herman was then seen angrily following Golesh for an extended period of time before being pulled away.
More: FAU football coach Tom Herman angrily confronts USF’s Alex Golesh after Bulls’ 44-21 rout
It has been speculated that the disdain between the two American Athletic Conference rivals can be traced back tolast season when FAU attempted to run up the score on USF by recovering an onside kick late in the fourth quarter of a 56-14 blowout. Golesh said as much during his post-game news conference.
“I said a year ago we would be back to get it and we came back to get it,” Golesh said in the post-game news conference. “Whatever said is said, I’m good. I think it was said that we recruit against each other, it was said we don’t like each other. I got a lot of respect for their staff. I don’t specifically think we recruit against each other. We certainly run into them.
“I said we were coming back to get it. Last year at the end of the game, we got embarrassed at home and we came and got it. We’ll continue to do so.”
Herman said Monday that he has no plans to change his approach to postgame courtesies with opposing coaches.
“I know how I handle postgame handshakes, win, lose, or draw,” Herman said. “That’s how I’ll continue to do it, and not worry about how other people do it.”
Herman insists he has since moved on from the testy handshake, and is turning his focus to the rest of the season. The Owls (2-6) play at East Carolina on Thursday night.
“We’ll meet again someday,” Herman said, “and we’ll figure it out at that point.”
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Icy postgame exchange between FAU, USF football coaches still going
