University Of South Florida Coach Jim Leavitt Hits Player

Lunatic

The folks in Tampa have grown to love Jim Leavitt. They love his passion for the University of South Florida, his crazy antics like following his team’s 34-22 win over Louisville, when the coach reportedly roughed himself up in the process of enthusiastically head-butting players with their helmets on. He has even won some big games that have left some USF homers thinking that there is a Big 4 in Florida.

But Leavitt might not be around the program to see that happen, he might not even be there to see his team play Northern Illinois in the International Bowl on Januaray 2 in Toronto. According to a handful of players and other witnesses, Leavitt was pacing in the Raymond James Stadium locker room at halftime of the November 21 game against Louisville when the coach grabbed a Joel Miller by the throat then struck him twice in the face with his hand. The incident stemmed from Leavitt being upset over Miller’s first-half mistake on special teams.

When Miller approached Leavitt the following Monday, the coach reportedly told him, “Before you say anything, just know I am the most powerful man in this building.”

Leavitt reportedly called Miller to apologize a little over two weeks after the incident, one day after Kansas coach Mark Mangino, a former colleague of Leavitt’s on Bill Snyder’s staff at Kansas State in the early nineties, was forced out for allegedly abusing players in a variety of fashions throughout his tenure in Lawrence.

“You do something like that [on the street], you put them in jail,” Paul Miller, Joel’s father and a former Tampa police officer. “Somewhere Leavitt crossed the line.”

Athletic director Doug Woolard hasn’t commented on the situation and may not been aware of the incident until it hit the press.

Leavitt, who is 67-40 overall and 17-18 in the Big East as the only coach in the program’s 13-year existence, never mentioned the incident to the team. Leavitt is completing the second year of a seven-year contract worth $12.6 million. He will make $1.6 million this year, plus incentives. South Florida finished 7-5, 3-4 in the Big East.

When you look back on the University of Kansas situation involving former coach Mangino, a little verbal abuse doesn’t seem that bad when you compare it to this lunatic smacking players.