Where Are They Now? Former USF Coach Jim Leavitt

[Harry]

When it comes to the history of the South Florida Bulls football program, there is no one man that can take all of the credit for the team's past successes, but there is one that can come close. Since receiving his "walking papers" in 2010, the USF Bulls have been in a tail spin that hasn't been seen anywhere outside of Lawrence, Kansas where the KU Jayhawks faced a similar situation.

But college football fans in Tampa only knew of one coach at USF from the time their school started a football team until Leavitt's firing in 2010. He did something most people can't do when they inherit a winning program, much less starting one from scratch; he won games and broke records.

To give you an idea of how hard Leavitt worked to get the ball rolling at USF, his entire 1996 redshirted. Every single player he got to commit to the Bulls football team ended up sitting out a year while everything got finalized and South Florida prepared to play their first season in 1997 as an FCS program. From there the rise of the Bulls was rapid and surprising as they only played at the FCS level for four years before moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision level of play as an independent.

Read more: http://www.bcsnn.com/aac/777-where-are-they-now-former-usf-coach-jim-leavitt.html

[Travis]

It was so frustrating to see a team like this pass us by in 'speed of light' fashion.

Trends do their thing and they have since came down a little from that lofty pace. But, they continue to reap the benefits of it.

[DeepGreen]

Love Coach McCarney, but Leavitt was the guy I wanted UNT to hire when Dickey was let go.

[MeanGreenTexan]

Love Coach McCarney, but Leavitt was the guy I wanted UNT to hire when Dickey was let go.

Leavitt was busy at USF when Dickey was let go.