USF Athletics

Zach Cole was named director of football operations for USF Football in January of 2024, joining head coach Alex Golesh’s staff as the Bulls entered their second season under Golesh.
 
Cole came to USF after two seasons serving as assistant director of football operations under head coach Josh Heupel at Tennessee (2022-23), working for one of those seasons with Golesh.
 
Prior to his time in Knoxville, Cole served four seasons with the Texas A&M (2018-22) football program. He started as a graduate assistant working with the linebackers (2018) before moving into a football operations assistant role for three years (2019-22).
 
Cole began his career as an intern working with the defense at Ole Miss (2017).
 
Cole has been part of five bowl games during his career, including the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (2018), The Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl (2019), Capital One Orange Bowl (2020, 2022), and The Cheez-it Citrus Bowl (2023). 
 
Cole played linebacker for Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, earning All-SCAC honorable mention in 2016 and totaling 222 tackles and 27.5 tackles for loss on his career. He earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science in 2017 and was a member of the Hampshire Honor Society as well as earning Dean’s List and SCAC Academic Honor Roll awards. He went on to earn a master’s degree in sports management from Texas A&M in 2020.
 
A native of Bridge City, Texas, Cole lives in Tampa with his wife, Lauren.