Death. Taxes. A winning season for University of Sioux Falls football.

These are some of the inevitable truths about life, at least the last 30 years, during which USF has only had one non-winning record. That was two years ago in the first season of current coach Jim Glogowski, whose second squad last season turned the 3-8 record upside down to 8-3. The 2025 squad is picked to finish fifth out of 14 teams and kicks off the season at Black Hills State on Thursday.

With a new season comes renewed excitement at USF, whose football tradition no doubt owns a lion's share of the school's identity and brand for the last three decades.

But a couple components of that brand received a shake-up over the summer. The Coo has a brand new logo and a new apparel deal with Nike after years with Under Armour. It is part of a second year athletic director Jon Hart's larger vision of keeping the small, private school competitive and on the cutting edge in a Div. II and Northern Sun conference landscape full of copmetitors with much larger enrollments and athletic budgets.

In a 40-minute sit-down with Happy Hour host John Gaskins, Hart dives into that vision, which includes the navigation of NIL deals. Yes, they exist in D2, as well. Hart also gives a glimpse into how USF hopes to spruce up athletic facilities, and why USF decided to parter with Forum Communications — which owns Sioux Falls Live and oversees Happy Hour with John Gaskins — to bring Cougar home football and basketball games to the brand new Midwest Sports+ app.

Hart also delivers his assessment of Glogowski and both 17-year head basketball coaches Chris Johnson and Travis Traphagen. Also, a tribute to 27-year Voice of the Coo Tom Frederick, who joined Happy Hour last week and announced he'll be back on the mic for USF football games this autumn but is stepping away from calling both men's and women's basketball. Gaskins will take over the USF hoops roll and call all men's and women's home games.