Leavitt has built a winner at USF

[E.T.]

Leavitt has built a winner at USF

By Charles Bricker

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

December 18, 2006

TAMPA · If Walter Walker had gone off to the University of Iowa four years ago, he'd be flying down to San Antonio for the 14th Alamo Bowl against Texas on Dec. 30 -- a game with a payout of $3.3 million.

Instead, the 310-pound former South Plantation High School tackle is accompanying his USF teammates to the inaugural Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., which probably won't deliver more than $750,000 to South Florida and East Carolina, but which will throw in all the pizza the players can eat.

There are no regrets from Walker over his university choice.

"I had two scholarship offers, and I chose USF because I had a chance to be part of history in a new program. All these other schools have 100-year-old traditions," he explained. "Here, we're making tradition."

Football at USF is in only its 11th year and spiky-haired coach Jim Leavitt, whose patois is a cross between Bobby Bowden and Will Rogers, is the school's only head coach and a man who has perfected that "sense of history" line to coveted high school recruits.

It's working. Last year, USF stunned Louisville. This year, on Nov. 25, they shocked No. 7 West Virginia 24-19, on the road, for the Bulls' eighth win against four losses.

That not only clinched a bowl bid but awakened a few more people to the growing authority of USF football.

"If that was the only big win we've had, you'd have to wonder about the substance and foundation of the program," says Leavitt. "But you're starting to see a trend. It's not a one-game deal."

In a year when both Florida State and Miami had 6-6 records, one wonders whether Leavitt is going to cut further into the recruiting efforts of the more prosperous schools in the state.

From scratch, he has moved USF football from Division I-AA to a Division I-A winner and, in 2001, sent his first players, tackle Kenyatta Jones and cornerback Anthony Henry, off to the NFL. They were followed by kicker Bill Gramatica, linebacker Kawika Mitchell, defensive end Shurron Pierson, receiver DeAndrew Rubin and free safety J.R. Reed.

This is Leavitt's second bowl game, after losing 14-0 a year ago to North Carolina State a year ago in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., and he'll have less time to prepare for Birmingham. The game is on Dec. 23 instead of Dec. 31.

Four year ago, he was offered the University of Alabama job and turned it down. Last year, there was an offer from Kansas State. "Why would I want to leave here," Leavitt says, and there's more truth than rhetoric to that remark.

Leavitt, who turned 50 on Dec. 5, grew up in the Tampa Bay area and played baseball and football at Dixie Hollins High School in St. Petersburg.

That line about making history must have appealed to redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Grothe, who looks as if he might have a professional future in the game after becoming the focal point of the club.

Grothe, from Lakeland, will get one more year out of Walker, who was born in Jamaica, came to the U.S. when he was 8 and who is still learning to play the game.

"I believe I can be an NFL player with my time and coaching," Walker says. "You'd be cheating yourself and the game if you said you didn't want to play professionally."

He not only spends a lot of time in film study watching himself, but he has tapes of his hero, tackle Orlando Pace of the St. Louis Rams.

"Smooth ... fast. I watch his feet and they just don't misstep," said Walker. "I've learned a lot just watching him."

A bowl win and a 9-4 record would be an historic first for USF. As Leavitt repeatedly says, "You've got a chance to make history here."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-spusf18dec18,0,2769731.story?coll=sfla-sports-headlines

[flsportsfan83]

I love the Sun Sentinel. Nice to see press in the Ft. Laud/ Miami Newspaper

[SANJAY]

Gets me pumped up.

[Mama_Bull]

It's not that Leavitt has built a winner at USF.....he is the winner at USF.  To watch him start from zero to where we are at present is a trbute to the man.

I see nothing but positives in our future.

[Unintelligibull]

Great article from an unbiased source!

[smazza]

usf has won nothing and finished 4th in big east this year

hate to rain on the parade

hopefully usf can put 12 weeks of good football together next year and reallly win something

[USFMikeB]

hate to rain on the parade

No you don't, it is all you do on this website, day in, day out.  Here's an accurate sign for Saturday:

Expect

Smazza to

Preach

Negativity

2day

[MatRatUSF]

I just drove home to Boca Raton today to my parents place and sitting on the table was this article circled. They couldn't believe it. They have been sending e-mails and letters to the sun down here to start including USF in their coverage and it might be working.

Hopefully they can keep it up.

[E.T.]

... They have been sending e-mails and letters to the sun down here to start including USF in their coverage and it might be working.

Hopefully they can keep it up.

It's good when publications cater to their audience.

Tell your parents we Thank them !

[smiley=GoBulls.gif]

[aly20xx]

sun-sentinal had our story on the front of the sports page...when we beat WVU.... granted that half of the page was filled with UF-FSU coverage...

we got the same coverage as FAU-FIU which are the local teams here