Jim Leavitt Could Coach Rutgers

[WhoRUSF]

49 minutes ago, TromBull12 said:

I have enjoyed reading this thread. I often wonder how much of Jim Levitt's success was right place right time, and how much was of his own merit. Take the year we rose to #2 in the nation,  we honestly took advantage of a flaw in the system. We weren't deserving of the #2 ranking and got exposed shortly after. 

How much of the nostalgia is because we were in what was affectionately known as "the big least?" We had a regular opportunity to play storied programs who got the benefit of name recognition in the polls. 

I love USF and my family loves USF, but in hindsight we never beat a storied program when they were firing on all cylinders. So it confuses me when fellow Bulls fans want to live and die by XCJL.

Saying they "wouldn't care if we ever won a conference championship as long as he came back." What would be the point of him coming back if we would be in the same place we're in now? We're just not good enough. 

The level of competition has gone up and we are in a down year/cycle. Quinton Flowers is a hard dude to replace. The Florida Gulf Coast offense is a hard thing to replace. Hate it or love it but XCWT is a hard guy to replace as well. 

If XCWT's story and success have a huge BUT/* next to it, why do some of you give Xcjl undying support when his results were no different, with the exception of falling up in the polls one year, what was XCJL except for our first football love?

I was a student when he was here so I wasn't privy to all of the insider knowledge of his personality flaws and such,  but if that's true, what on field success has he had that's worth that? Football ha's it's natural ups and downs, this team has life,  it's just struggling to compete while going through a growing phase.

Ucf has had some good luck recently and it sucks because it's lined up with our bad luck. But soon my fellow bulls will see and remember that the golden hue you see over the horizon isn't sunshine, it's the light reflecting off of their golden showers. They will suck again,  and honestly, they probably do already. Their suck had just been masked by high powered offense... Either way,  i wish XCJL the best just like I wish XCWT the best. 

*Please forgive the potential rambling. I'm suffering from insomnia lol

There is nostalgia when it comes for Leavitt, no doubt. There is also the feeling that we did him wrong, when he seemed to have so much more to offer out of passion for this program. 

As for Taggart, I thought he did awesome by USF. He seemed to put in a lot of effort and energy in this program also. I think a lot of people would have respected him more if he had just seen through Flowers / Mack / Nichols / Sanchez's last season. We had such a talented roster coming back, I was shocked he didn't want to see how far he could go. Obviously having Strong come in held them back. 

[zarnozdabull]

Has CJL turned the FSU defense around in two weeks or what?

The man is a hell of a coach.

Edited October 1, 2019 by zarnozdabull

[NewEnglandBull]

CJL is pure nostalgia...nothing more. His teams caved at the end of the year and most on this board raised hell about it every time. Some now see this as the good old days because they were better than now. But if there is any coach who takes over and gets stuck on eight wind we will again get tired of it. It’s psychologically impossible not to do it. We are programmed for wanting more. That person would be fired again especially since the stakes and difficulty for success is now lower in the AAC.  

Edited October 1, 2019 by NewEnglandBull

[Brad]

People lament about Prez Allen being anti- sports and people lament running off the coach that built the program. Let them lament.  Maybe there’s a lesson for the future in there somewhere.  

[bullsbucsfan426]

14 hours ago, Triple B said:

Are there not any programs out there built from young, defensive coordinators? That's where we, ARGUABLY, have had the most sustained "success" ..... or is that just not done any more.

Temple has worked that model to perfection of late. The issue is that when they face any kind of high powered offense and defense at the same time, they end up getting beaten. 

[NewEnglandBull]

25 minutes ago, Brad said:

People lament about Prez Allen being anti- sports and people lament running off the coach that built the program. Let them lament.  Maybe there’s a lesson for the future in there somewhere.  

Yep I am guilty but I stand by this. But of course if Allen had started football Jim would have never existed for USF. It was without question the greatest calamity in the history of USF spirts and quiet possibly in the history of the university itself. 

[Danm1983]

17 hours ago, NAS Gone to Paradise said:

How many Conference Trophies did win while driving his “muscle car”?

Zero. Because you can have a muscle car that runs 11's, but doesn't mean squat if everyone else is running 10's. And I do not want him back (other than someday getting some praise for his contributions).

[Danm1983]

2 hours ago, NewEnglandBull said:

CJL is pure nostalgia...nothing more. His teams caved at the end of the year and most on this board raised hell about it every time. Some now see this as the good old days because they were better than now. But if there is any coach who takes over and gets stuck on eight wind we will again get tired of it. It’s psychologically impossible not to do it. We are programmed for wanting more. That person would be fired again especially since the stakes and difficulty for success is now lower in the AAC.  

I know there was a lot of lament even on this board for "suffering" through 8 and 9 win seasons, but I don't know how long it would've taken for USF to fire him for "underachievement". CJL could have probably kept winning 8-9 games a year (and likely a 7 or 10 win season sprinkled in), and kept his job for a while. I know Judy and some powers that be didn't like his stature as biggest man on campus and probably would've loved to can him at some point, but his incident was probably viewed as the best thing to happen in their eyes because i don't think the fanbase would've ever turned on CJL for constantly going to bowls and 8/9 win seasons, though it's fun to wonder if he continued that win rate into the AAC if that would've been viewed as acceptable at THAT point. I agree though, at some point even the smallest programs that haven't made a bowl game in 30 years finally have a few winning seasons and then grow tired of not having 9 or 10 win seasons (and then end up with another slew of dud coaches and suck for another generation).

[NewEnglandBull]

7 minutes ago, Danm1983 said:

I know there was a lot of lament even on this board for "suffering" through 8 and 9 win seasons, but I don't know how long it would've taken for USF to fire him for "underachievement". CJL could have probably kept winning 8-9 games a year (and likely a 7 or 10 win season sprinkled in), and kept his job for a while. I know Judy and some powers that be didn't like his stature as biggest man on campus and probably would've loved to can him at some point, but his incident was probably viewed as the best thing to happen in their eyes because i don't think the fanbase would've ever turned on CJL for constantly going to bowls and 8/9 win seasons, though it's fun to wonder if he continued that win rate into the AAC if that would've been viewed as acceptable at THAT point. I agree though, at some point even the smallest programs that haven't made a bowl game in 30 years finally have a few winning seasons and then grow tired of not having 9 or 10 win seasons (and then end up with another slew of dud coaches and suck for another generation).

But the issue was it was more like 7/8 wins not 9. I do think people got tired of that and wanted to get over the next hump. At the same time a long term coach winning 7/8 in the AAC (inferior) would not last more than five years wining 7 games consistently (ECU is an example of that). Sure many will say that’s not the case but if you can’t win a championship in this conference in five years your going to get a hard look for your future. 

[Danm1983]

15 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

But the issue was it was more like 7/8 wins not 9. I do think people got tired of that and wanted to get over the next hump. At the same time a long term coach winning 7/8 in the AAC (inferior) would not last more than five years wining 7 games consistently (ECU is an example of that). Sure many will say that’s not the case but if you can’t win a championship in this conference in five years your going to get a hard look for your future. 

agreed. sooner or later no trophies will cost you your job in this business. moving to the AAC, that's where i wonder how he would've done - would his style of play and recruiting allow usf to win some AAC titles, or would it have been status quo and status quo after coming into this league? i think reasonably he'd have 2-3 years in the AAC and if no titles? time to move on.