REPOST: Awesome Leavitt Quote on GoUSFBulls.com

[Jim Johnson]

South_Florida_Flip's post was corrupted by the "Ex-Member" problem...

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"I’m obviously proud of our players," said USF head coach Jim Leavitt. "Our players have got great character. Sometimes they take a lot of hits, which is unfair. That’s not right. But I guess that’s life. I wish the truth would always be told about our players, because they’re a great group of guys. I’m tired of people trying to attack our guys. I love them so much. They’ve got great character, they’re good people. I’m proud of them, proud to be a part of their lives. I’m disappointed in some things I read Thursday out of the Orlando paper and our guys took offense to it. We’re not a bunch of renegades.  It’s not us. It’s not anything about us. And I promise you that helped us. Those comments helped us. And they really fired our guys up, because our team knows who they are. And nobody thought we’d have much of a shot today. I’m proud of our team."

[Guest R_to_the_izzo]

Let's all email Bianchi and thank him for the win.

[South_Florida_Flip]

That problem sucks

[MikeG]

Bianchi was up in the press box. He is maybe all of 5'4" -- the only thing I said to him wassomething about the hotdogs up there since he clearly is an expert in balogna and other pork products.

[Bullyhoo]

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 Mike Bianchi

Leavitt should love series; USF owns UCF

Published September 17, 2006

What a total and complete waste of time.

What an absolutely awful atmosphere.

Why would anybody want to keep this unimportant nonrivalry alive?

Seriously, who needs a ranting, chanting crowd of nearly 50,000 to watch two state teams only 90 miles apart?

Who needs a nail-biting, heart-palpitating, up-and-down, back-and-forth game?

Who needs all the emotion and all the commotion coming down to the final, frenetic 30 seconds with UCF on USF's 10-yard line on fourth down with a chance to win the game?

Who needs the bands blaring, the coaches swearing, the fans caring?

Who needs USF players high-stepping over to their thousands of devoted, delirious fans and UCF players hang-dogging into a sad, somber locker room after the most devastating loss of Coach George O'Leary's tenure?

"This one hurts a lot more than getting beat 42-nothing by Florida," UCF quarterback Steven Moffett said after his team's 24-17 loss to USF. "This was a game we wanted to win badly. This one went down to the wire. This one was for bragging rights."

Hopefully, USF Coach Jim Leavitt took notice. Hopefully, he now understands why USF-UCF is better for his program than USF-Wofford.

Leavitt is the one who, for some unknown reason, wants to end this budding, brewing, young rivalry. That seems awfully strange, considering how badly he wanted to win it. Leavitt wanted to win so desperately, he actually resorted to reading a copy of an Orlando Sentinel column to fire up his team.

That's right, Leavitt, whose team is rife with academic casualties and drug suspensions, didn't take kindly to a column written Friday by yours truly in which USF was called a "renegade" program.

"We're not a bunch of renegades," Leavitt said. ". . . I'm disappointed in some of the things I read in the Orlando paper, and our guys took offense to it. I promise you that [column] helped us."

There you have it.

Don't hang this one on O'Leary, the million-dollar coach; hang it on the 50-cent mug shot in the paper. My shoulders are wide. I can handle the burden of blame.

I know the Knights got outcoached and outplayed. I know one of UCF's best players, running back Kevin Smith, was suspended from the game for missing curfew. I know UCF's defense got torched yet again -- this time for 433 yards. I know Moffett completed only 19 of 44 passes, threw two interceptions and was sacked three times.

But this one's on me, fellas. If you're handing out condemnation, give me two helpings.

And as long as we know Leavitt is a regular reader of the Sentinel, can we ask you one question, Jimbo: WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO END THIS SERIES? Why would you want to stop playing a team you own?

If UCF couldn't beat USF on Saturday, you wonder whether it ever will happen. UCF had an announced crowd of 46,708 on its side; and it would have been significantly larger if USF had brought all its academic nonqualifiers. UCF had a senior quarterback; USF had a freshman.

For UCF, there are no answers today -- only questions: Didn't O'Leary used to coach defense? Wasn't he once the defensive coordinator of an NFL team? Aren't there four coaches on UCF's coaching staff who used to be defensive coordinators at other schools?

Then how can USF freshman Matt Grothe pass for 302 yards and three touchdowns and run for 73 more? How can UCF allow USF to drive 90 yards late in the fourth quarter for the winning touchdown? How can UCF's defense be so consistently bad?

Where's the toughness?

Where's the nastiness?

It's one thing for UCF to be badly outplayed by the University of Florida, a program that has been around for 100 years. It's quite another for the Golden Knights to have to live with knowing they are clearly behind a USF program that is in a better conference, has better players -- and is only 10 years old.

The atmosphere was electric Saturday.

The fans were incredible.

But the reality was harsh.

Mike Bianchi can be reached at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com.

[E.T.]

What a great win for our Beloved BULLS !

This team is not "great", but we have great character and will NEVER give up.

I am even more confident going undefeated now.

Go BULLS !!!

P.S. Regarding this series ... I BULLieve this will be the closest game in the series ... what will be the excitement in 2008 ? If it sells out their new stadium ... we'll see. But this loss may very well have killed UCF's season by their post game comments ...

LMFAO !!!  ;D

[Omniscientbull]

ET - Pass the pipe man.  I need some of the shizzit you're smoking.

Have you watched Rutgers, UL or WVU?  We don't a single easy win left on our schedule and at least 3 teams that are going to be double digit favorites.

[hightechbull]

I do not appreciate the nasty comments about our players from Bianchi, but he does have a good point on one thing.  Leavitt is a complete idiot if he does not want to continue this series.

The fans on both sides were really into the rivalry of the game.  The smack talk I heard was entertaining, but none of it went over the line of good taste.  I think the USF section sometimes outshined the rest of the stadium full of UCF'ers.  The UCF fans graciously took their lumps after the game.

The players on both teams were into the game and the rivalry.  There was a lot of hard-hitting, intense action on the field all day long.

H.O.T was just freaking incredible.  It was the coming out party of "The Bull", formerly known as "Number 8" or "The Spaniard".  They drummed that song into everyone’s head all game long.  A donation is coming your way from me just on the merits of that game’s performance.  If that is how the band sounds in a aging dump stadium like the Citrus Bowl, then I will take an annoying stadium like that one any game day of the cozy but sterile confines of RJS.

What do you know; even Leavitt was into the game.  He obviously appreciated our large presence at the game.  He even came over to wave at the USF fans after the win.  We should have stormed the field and tore down their goal posts at that point.    <- Notice the tongue-in-cheek wink here.

Continue the series Coach Leavitt.  It is a no-brainer.   We lost our fierce rivalry in soccer with U Tampa because of a rule change over us being div I and UT being div II.  Those self-righteous jerks at UF and FSU won't play us in basketball anymore, and those were always the highest attended games for BB.  This game has shown itself as a rivalry after just two years.

Dust off the old Mayor's trophy that we used for the soccer series with UT.  Heck, commemorate a new trophy that looks like the construction zones on I-4.  You know, full of broken road, bulldozers, and fat construction workers doing everything but finishing that **** road.

Continue the series Coach Leavitt.  It is the right thing to do.

[E.T.]

Never said it will be easy ...  8-)

But we will have Ponton back for Game 7 and Rutgers is Home.

Go BULLS !!!

[E.T.]

...

H.O.T was just freaking incredible.  It was the coming out party of "The Bull", formerly known as "Number 8" or "The Spaniard".  They drummed that song into everyone’s head all game long.  A donation is coming your way from me just on the merits of that game’s performance.  If that is how the band sounds in a aging dump stadium like the Citrus Bowl, then I will take an annoying stadium like that one any game day of the cozy but sterile confines of RJS.

...

And I hope more follow in your example.

This was one of the best game experiences I have had ... I never had a problem with this game and would love for it to continue. Probably our best away attended game ...

UCF can become our Navy as with Notre Dang  ;D

Go BULLS !!!