At it again: Leavitt headbutt fires up Bulls

[Don Toro]

From Greg's Blog

http://blogs.tampabay.com/usf/

TAMPA -- When USF coach Jim Leavitt took the podium after Saturday's 34-22 win against Louisville, he looked as if he'd played in the game himself, with a bloody gash across the bridge of his nose and a red mark above his left eye.

Asked about the injury, Leavitt deadpanned that he "fell in the locker room," but his players revealed a familiar Leavitt halftime motivation: headbutting players while they still have their helmets on.

"He was fired up. He grabbed somebody -- I think it was (walk-on linebacker ) LaDre Watkins," safety Nate Allen said. "He headbutted him and fell backwards. I couldn't help but laugh, because that's the best one I've seen. ... We were fired up about that one."

The Bulls scored a touchdown on their first drive of the second half, then Allen intercepted a Louisville pass on the next play, setting up a field goal and a 27-16 lead.

"I just heard about it when I got back to the press box (after) halftime, and they said 'Did you see Coach Leavitt?" coordinator Mike Canales said. "I said 'Why, what's wrong with him?' They said 'He's bloody.' I thought 'Oh, golly, OK.' ... That's Coach. That's who he is. You know what you're getting, and the kids love it."

(Times photo by Chris Zuppa)

[Brad]

Yeah you could see it on the TV shot of Leavitt on the sidelines.  Classic Leavitt.  His detractors will call it clownish.  Apparently it works and the players get a kick out of it. 

[bullsbucsboltsrays]

yea, it works against the bottom-dwellers of the big east... notice how it didnt work against Cincy, Pitt, or even RU

if it's so effective, more coaches would be doing it-- no coach in the modern era of football who has even won a conference title does it.

[Brad]

Ta-da!!!

[bullsbucsboltsrays]

nice how you lift the embargo until we win a game.. this UL win is cute and all, but we still doesn't heal the "RU is our daddy" spanking that we received last week.  i don't care how many headbutts CJL dishes out and how many gashes to his forhead he gives himself-- they don't reduce the numbers in the "L" column.

to me, that's just hurting yourself [physically] and is pretty 'clownish'

[Triple B]

yea, it works against the bottom-dwellers of the big east... notice how it didnt work against Cincy, Pitt, or even RU

Did he try it against those teams?

if it's so effective, more coaches would be doing it-- no coach in the modern era of football who has even won a conference title does it.

Link?

[cmhatter]

i think it is comical.

i think players love the fact that he is emotional... even during the game he stands up for his players...

sometimes he may go over the top tho

[bullsbucsboltsrays]

when people say that the coach's personality reflects on the team, i truly believe that is the case at USF... the head-butting makes our team overaggressive.  while we are pretty overaggressive and it make work sometimes, i don't think it works to be too aggressive over the duration of the season.  i think we can all speculate that the aggression that CJL portrays leads to costly penalties and over-pursuit (evidence by how we have our own over-aggression work against us in how opponents call draws and screens).

[On_the_Chip]

Legendary

[BULLO12]

The USF head coach needs to cut out the "dramatics " and get to the job he was ******* hired to do.  Win games and championships.