Figured it was time for a Praise Leavitt thread!

[E.T.]

And because Maria Gabriela got me up and now I have to post at 4 AM  

[smiley=GoBulls.gif]

People can talk all they want about Carroll, Weiss, Meyer, etc.

But I would promise you that NONE have the footBALLS to take a coaching job from scratch and turn it into a real threat to anyone on the football field.

The 3 coaches named above, think they really recruit ? They "select" more than "recruit". And the facilities they came into.  

What Leavitt has done here is a 7th Wonder and should be applauded !

And he could have used this as a stepping stone as I think any other coach who may have had the same success here would have done. If Leavitt wasn't our first coach, we may very well be on our 3rd coach ... or would have been still at 1AA.

THANK YOU COACH LEAVITT !!!

[usfgrad84]

Great points E. T.  It's a hell of a lot more difficult to build from scratch and to sell nothing more than a vision than it is to select from among the nation's best.  Jim is recruiting with nothing more than a vision, the same way Schiano did 5 and 6 years ago.  Carrol, Weiss and Meyer can let their teams tradition and history do the recruiting for them.  ( it's not meant to take anything away from Meyer though, he has proven he could do it at Utah).

[TampaTower]

Any coach that starts a program in a trailer and brings it to a BCS conference is great.

[HaulingBull Sucks]

Great points E. T.  It's a hell of a lot more difficult to build from scratch and to sell nothing more than a vision than it is to select from among the nation's best.  Jim is recruiting with nothing more than a vision, the same way Schiano did 5 and 6 years ago.  Carrol, Weiss and Meyer can let their teams tradition and history do the recruiting for them.  ( it's not meant to take anything away from Meyer though, he has proven he could do it at Utah).

Tell that to Tyrone Willingham and Ron Zook.

[E.T.]

Both recruited well ... coaching is another issue.  8-)

[Bullpride08]

Great points E. T.  It's a hell of a lot more difficult to build from scratch and to sell nothing more than a vision than it is to select from among the nation's best.  Jim is recruiting with nothing more than a vision, the same way Schiano did 5 and 6 years ago.  Carrol, Weiss and Meyer can let their teams tradition and history do the recruiting for them.  ( it's not meant to take anything away from Meyer though, he has proven he could do it at Utah).

Tell that to Tyrone Willingham and Ron Zook.

Yeah, who despite being awful coaches still managed to have winning records and go to bowl games.  Ron Zook took UF to 3 straight bowls, despite being a very poor coach.  That's what tradition, and resources is all about.  In fact, the point you brought up those only enhances ET's point about Leavitt.  Because despite Willingham, and Zook being bad coaches the resources and traditions at their two previous schools were so profound it carried them to success inspite of their awful coaching.  To further demonstrate that fact both took jobs at other schools void of such tradition and resources and so far both have failed miserably.

[HaulingBull Sucks]

n 2005, Willingham's first season at Washington, marked improvements over the team's performance in 2004 were made in nearly every facet of the game. The 2005 Huskies improved their per-game scoring average by more than seven points over 2004. They improved both their rushing offense and defense in terms of yards per game. The team's passing efficiency improved from 78.73 to 123.30. Turnovers dropped from 42 in 2004 to only 20 in 2005 while total offense and third-down efficiency were up and penalties were down. In the meantime, the Huskies' academic performance during the fall quarter was the among the best in years. In all, 11 Huskies received some level of academic All-Pac-10 honors from the conference.  

In his inaugural season with the Irish in 2002, he wasted no time reversing the tide of the Irish program, leading Notre Dame to a 10-2 regular-season record and a trip to the 2003 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

In the process, Willingham became the only first-year coach in Notre Dame history to win 10 games in his initial campaign.

That doesn't look like  failing miserably to me, but then I'm not an expert in the field.

[usfgrad84]

You can get the players to the teams on with tradition, it doesn't mean you automatically become a genious on the field.  Charlie Weiss got a late start  for last year's team because he was still coaching into the super bowl.  he was pretty much playing with Willingham's recruits and turned a 5-7 team from Willingham's last year into a 9-3 team last year and then 10-2 this year.  2 BCS appearances in his first 2 years and his recruits mostly haven't seen the field to any great degree yet.

[Unintelligibull]

Thought I'd see more replies. Leavitt is a gift. Fortunately he feels gifted to be where he is (and he should).

JL will be another Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno.

USF is JL's home, thank goodness!

[alau255]

Jim Leavitt for President