Providence Men’s Basketball Hires South Florida’s Bryan Hodgson: What to Know About New Friars Coach

A new head Friar is taking the reins at Providence.

Bryan Hodgson, the 38-year-old head coach of South Florida, is heading to the Big East and filling the Friars job according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Hodgson released a statement about his departure on Sunday morning.

“It’s hard to put into words what this past year has meant to me and my family,” the ougoing Bulls coach wrote. “From the moment we arrived in Tampa, you embraced us, supported us, and believed in what we were building. That is somehting we will never forget. To our fans thank you for showing up, for bringing energy to the Yuengling Center, and for truly making this Tampa Bay’s home for hoops. You gave our players and staff something specila to play for every single night.

“To our university administrators, thank you for your trust, your support, and your commitment to our program. You empowered us to build something we could all be proud of, and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead South Florida basketball. Deciding to leave is not easy. This place, these people, and this program mean a great deal to me. My hope is that we left it better than we found it that we delivered on the vision we shared and laid a foundation that will continue to grow. Most importantly, thank you for the way you welcomed my family. That meant everything. South Florida will always hold a special place in our hearts.”

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Hodgson leaves the Bulls after just one year—and a very successful one. USF went 25–9 on the season, rolling up a 15–3 record in the American Conference and winning the league’s regular season and conference tournament titles. The program earned a No. 11 seed in the NCAA tournament, and fell in the first-round to No. 6 Louisville.

The Bulls were ranked No. 48 in KenPom, with the No. 64 offense and No. 40 defense by the site’s efficiency metrics. His team’s up-tempo style resembles that of his former boss Nate Oats’s Alabama teams; USF ranked 15th in tempo, and were second national in field goal attempts per game at 66.3 (29.1 came from three, good for 22nd in the country in volume).

SWEENEY: Is This the End of Cinderella in Men’s March Madness?

It was Hodgson’s first NCAA tournament trip in three seasons as head coach. Before South Florida, he went 45–28 across two seasons leading the program at Arkansas State, bringing the Red Wolves to postseason tournaments both years. After finishing fourth in the Sun Belt in 2023–24, Arkansas State made a trip to the CBI semifinals. They won the Sun Belt regular season title the following season with a 13–5 SBC record, but fell in the conference tournament final to Troy, losing out an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Red Wolves would lose a tight game to North Texas in the second round of the NIT to end their season.

Now, Hodgson enters the Power 5, leading his third program in as many years. In the process, he returns to the Northeast and hopes to bring Providence to the Big Dance for the first time since 2023, Ed Cooley’s final year with the program.

Bryan Hodgson is a major branch of the Nate Oats coaching tree

Alabama coach Nate Oats began his Division I coaching career in 2013, when he became an assistant at Buffalo, after years coaching in high school and college basketball’s lower levels. After two seasons coaching under Bobby Hurley, Oats took over as the Bulls’ head coach when Hurley left for Arizona State in 2015. That year, he hired Hodgson, then an assistant at Midland College, a community college program in Texas.

The move to Buffalo was a homecoming for Hodgson, a native of Western New York. Oats and Hodgson were incredibly successful with the Bulls, making three NCAA tournament trips in four years including back-to-back trips to the round of 32 in 2018 and ‘19. Their final Buffalo team went 32–4, dominating the MAC. After knocking off Arizona in 2018, the Bulls beat Arizona State in the first round of the ‘19 tournament, losing to eventual national runner-up Texas Tech in the round of 32.

FISCHER: Duke Is Still a Work in Progress—and That’s the Scary Part

The pair left for Alabama after the end of that season, making a pair of Sweet 16 runs in their first four years with the Crimson Tide. Oats has gone on to make a Final Four and Elite Eight in the last two seasons and remains alive in the 2026 NCAA tournament, facing Texas Tech on Sunday night.

After four years in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Hodgson left to take over Arkansas State. Now, he makes his return to the Northeast, inheriting a Providence program that has suffered back-to-back losing seasons and failed to make an NCAA tournament under Kim English, who went just 48–52 with a 23–37 Big East record in three seasons.

Hodgson was reportedly in the mix for the job at Syracuse, which remains open as of Sunday morning, and was considering remaining with USF. Instead, he’ll look to resurrect a Big East program that has had moments over the last few decades but hasn’t won NCAA tournament games in back-to-back seasons since 1973 and ‘74.

More College Basketball from Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.