If Leavitt had a losing record...

[VeryBullish]

for consecutive seasons he would be fired faster than a Pat Julmiste benching in the first game of 06.

When we had ONE losing season in football, people were calling for Leavitt's head. Didn't a firejimleavitt.com site pop up that year? RMC had four seasons to show promise. By keeping RMC around, we are saying to the city, state, and nation that we condone losing in our athletics program. I expect better than this from USF.

RMC was a loser(45-57 I beleive) when he arrived and he will be a loser when he leaves.

[mutt]

Well, that's where the blame happens to lie sometimes... If Leavitt had a losing record (which will never happen), of course people would be out for blood. People pay to see their team win. Period.

[usfgrad84]

If Leavitt had a losing record for four seasons in a row with no OUTWARD signs of improvement (yes i know there are some potential up and coming players and possible incoming recruits, but those are all still big ifs and unproven commodities).  I am quite sure there would be no 5th season.

[usfgrad84]

RMC was a loser(45-57 I beleive) when he arrived and he will be a loser when he leaves.

Not necessarily a fair assessment of his past record when he got here because he was hired to turn around the program in his previous position as well.  He did that.  he just has not been able to achieve the same results on the court here at USF.  

[crambone]

Leavitt will be USF's Bobby Bowden/JoPa.

[Brad]

Right... so this is not a good analogy.

The proper analogy would be if we hired Leavitt to coach USF Basketball and he had a losing record after four years, would we fire him?  Probably yes.

You can't compare taking a Top30 football team to the gutter (your what if?) to taking a team in the gutter and trying to build it.

Let's try to keep this a little more clear.

If Coach K came here and did not win in four years, would you fire hime?  Or would you note the circumstance and determine whether the program was on the right path/making progress/etc.

Leavitt destroying a football program does not compare to McCullum inheriting a destroyed Basketball program (in the best conference in the land no doubt).  Maybe the Jim plays football in the SEC and then we can run him after 4 years?

[Brad]

Leavitt will be USF's Bobby Bowden/JoPa.

And that is why this question makes no sense.

Two VERY different situations.

[Sunil]

at this point if CJL had consecutive losing seasons...not sure that he'd be fired, but there would be a strong sentiment for it. Fair or not, he has set his own bar really high, and there is just too much momentum  and talent in this program to NOT win at least 6 games. College football is not like the pros where stringing together "winning" seasons is really hard. Look at our own conference last year...Pitt went 2-5 in the conference and STILL finished 6-6. Syracuse and UCONN went 1-6 in the Big East and won 4 games. So basically to avoid the losing season you need to go .500 in conference and steal another few games. That's reasonable to expect from this program and CJL...anything less would really point to a serious problem.

[Triple B]

I find these type threads fascinating...

[Guest JulmisteForPrez]

Right... so this is not a good analogy.

The proper analogy would be if we hired Leavitt to coach USF Basketball and he had a losing record after four years, would we fire him?  Probably yes.

You can't compare taking a Top30 football team to the gutter (your what if?) to taking a team in the gutter and trying to build it.

Let's try to keep this a little more clear.

If Coach K came here and did not win in four years, would you fire hime?  Or would you note the circumstance and determine whether the program was on the right path/making progress/etc.

Leavitt destroying a football program does not compare to McCullum inheriting a destroyed Basketball program (in the best conference in the land no doubt).  Maybe the Jim plays football in the SEC and then we can run him after 4 years?

First of all, I am pretty sure someone like Coach K would come here and have a winning record within two or three years.

Secondly, like you say, it's only fair to assess progress.  But holy cow...at this rate of "progress," we will make our first Big East tournament in 2010.

Is that okay?