CJL Comments on His Termination from USF

[BullAdrian]

CJL would take some conference championships away from UCF if we stayed in Conf USA but we played much tougher in Big East.

Edited November 11, 2016 by BullAdrian

[DC]

If Leavitt were still here, would USF be in the same position they are in presently? I think we'd still be in the AAC, and probably have the same record this year. The only difference is that we wouldn't have been so down from 2011-2014.

[Bear]

9 minutes ago, DC said:

If Leavitt were still here, would USF be in the same position they are in presently? I think we'd still be in the AAC, and probably have the same record this year. The only difference is that we wouldn't have been so down from 2011-2014.

Attendance wouldn't have fallen so hard...

 

We probably would have never lost to UCF. (good defensive recruiting)

[Orlando Bull]

17 minutes ago, DC said:

If Leavitt were still here, would USF be in the same position they are in presently? I think we'd still be in the AAC, and probably have the same record this year. The only difference is that we wouldn't have been so down from 2011-2014.

No way to know... My personal feeling is that we would not have fallen off a cliff during the time that the major expansions were happening. We likely would have continued to pop up in the rankings occasionally, along with his ties to the B12, maybe we could have been an attractive team to bring in with WVU. No way to know, and probably wouldn't have made a difference, but, when you're winning <4 games/year, there aren't a lot of conferences that are going to think they "need" to bring you in.

[Brad]

He was being out recruited, not out coached, in my opinion.  We lacked depth. 

Either way, for reasons like Ned remembers, he was a marked man.  Everyone loved the "plateau talk", that he'd "taken the program as far as he could", blah, blah, blah.  He was going to be gone regardless.  The Miller/McMurphy thing just worked best.  Some thankless SOBs and spineless administrators were willing to nearly destroy him to clear the path for an up an comer like Skip Holtz.

 

[Brad]

Riggghhht....

[MikePhillips]

I started at USF in 1996, when the program was being built

In no way, did I ever think Leavitt plateaued. He brought so much passion, so much energy, so much love to USF football. Sure, we weren't FSU yet, but we were building something. It was fun, exciting, respectable, and everyone was behind it

Leavitt was an amazing, humble, loving coach and I genuinely missed him when he left. 

I love Taggart, I remember watching Taggart whoop us in 1998 as the quarterback for Western Kentucky. He was awesome to watch. He's a great coach and I love seeing what he's done for us

Leavitt was great people, he really was and I think he was an awesome coach. I would have gladly stuck with him as coach for a long time

 

[mattegunz]

On 11/11/2016 at 2:20 PM, GaUSFBull said:

One thing I can definitely say is:  the man knows defense.  

And allegedly a little something about offense. 

[MikeG]

On 11/11/2016 at 1:40 PM, Who'sYourData? said:

I wouldn't be surprised if he now owes USF some of his settlement money back.  I'm sure there were tight rules around him not commenting on the situation at all in order to get the settlement money.  If he says much more, USF might try to get some money back.

Just a thought--- it has been about 7 years so maybe there is a time period where he couldn't comment but that might be over.

Either way-- he didn't say anything all that detrimental to the current USF program. I personally feel he got pushed out by alumni who thought they knew better-- perhaps some real heavy hitters donation wise-- and if you lose their support, you are not long for the job. It hurt when he got fired-- and if those big time donors were in his corner, I feel he would have been reprimanded or suspended, not fired. The other incidents certainly didn't help either (Leach at Texas Tech in particular).

Time we all moved on and let this sleeping dog lie. The reporter asked some questions and he gave a watered down response. He owes USF and us nothing imo.

[Paisa el Toro]

4 hours ago, MikeG said:

Either way-- he didn't say anything all that detrimental to the current USF program. I personally feel he got pushed out by alumni who thought they knew better-- perhaps some real heavy hitters donation wise-- and if you lose their support, you are not long for the job. It hurt when he got fired-- and if those big time donors were in his corner, I feel he would have been reprimanded or suspended, not fired. The other incidents certainly didn't help either (Leach at Texas Tech in particular).

And Magino at Kansas. I agree with what you've written, Mike G. "Slapgate" was never proven or corroborated. The report written by "independent counsel" didn't substantiate a thing. I'm sure being told to stand-by while the investigation was going on frustrated Leavitt, and I can imagine him simply wanting to resolve things on a man-to-man basis. Leavitt was fired for attempting to talk to Miller and Erskin, while the investigation was going on.