12 weeks into the 2025 season, the Tampa Bay Rowdies sat last in the entire USL Championship with five points earned. Fast forward a year, and the story couldn’t be more different. Across all USL competitions, the Rowdies have earned 30 points in their opening dozen matches, good for the best start for any club in the last decade. With a +14.6 xG margin during that same span, Tampa Bay’s underlying numbers are as good as anyone’s since New York Red Bulls II in 2019.
That’s a historic level of improvement, but how did it come together? Rowdies manager Dominic Casciato and captain Lewis Hilton spoke to Backheeled to explain how Tampa Bay re-asserted themselves as a contender.
Between 2019 and 2023, the Rowdies never finished lower than fifth in the Eastern Conference. Twice, they reached the playoff final. In many ways, that 2023 campaign was a changing of the guard. Tampa Bay placed second in the East, but longtime manager Neill Collins decamped for England that June, and the Rowdies crashed out in the first round of the playoffs without him.
In the ensuing two seasons, Tampa Bay struggled to meet their usual standard. Manager Robbie Neilson, Collins’ full-time successor, led the club to a sixth-place finish in 2024 and was fired just four matches into 2025. For Hilton, who was recruited by Collins and remains the club’s longest-tenured player, that period was defined by an inability to evolve.
“It was tough when Neill moved on. He had so much control at the club and was making so many decisions about how we play, setting a whole culture off the field,” Hilton recalled. “When he moved on, like you’d see at any club at any level, it took some adjustment.”
After the Neilson firing, Tampa Bay took their time in finding a successor. Three months went by before the Rowdies found their man: Dominic Casciato.
