USF Coach Jim Leavitt media quotes

[Guest HowieP1]

USF Football Coach Jim Leavitt Media Luncheon Quotes

Quotes from his Weekly Media Luncheon, Sept. 21, 2004

Big East Conference Room, USF Athletics Training Center, Tampa, Fla

Opening comments ... “A little bit about the last game. South Carolina is a very good football team. They hit three long pass plays on us and that did hurt us. That receiver (Troy Williamson) they have is very good. He is a very good football player, he is very talented, very big, very fast. When we started putting Mike Jenkins over on him he didn’t catch a pass so I thought Mike did a really good job of shutting him down. They tried, they tried to keep getting the ball to him but they couldn’t. Mike is a very good football player. They were able to establish a running game, as well. They are a very good football team.

“We played hard. I was really happy with our players that they played with really good effort. I looked at that and that was my first thing. We didn’t play very good but we played hard. We got a lot of young guys out there playing that are making some mistakes but it’s not because they’re not trying and that’s real important to me as you work through this.

“Offensively, we need to get in the end zone. We all know that and we’re not doing it. We have to find a way to do that. We’ll start Pat (Julmiste) this week and Ronnie (Banks) will be the backup. The thing I like about Ronnie is he came out and threw some good balls but we’re not getting into the end zone. I talked to Ronnie about it and I appreciate Ronnie Banks a lot. A lot of people don’t know how hard he works and tries. It’s not all Ronnie Banks or it’s not all Pat. It’s a lot of us. We’ve got to do a good job coaching. Everybody has to support everybody on the offense trying to get something going.

“I want to make sure our defense is playing well. We didn’t play real well on defense either. That’s what was a little bit frustrating.

“Some good things in kicking. Brandon Baker has some real good punts and some good pooches but he had a couple punts that weren’t as strong. We have high expectations for Brandon. I thought Santiago came back real well after missing his first field goal. Both of them were a pretty good ways and he really hit the 47-yarder and I was real proud of him for that.

“Our kickoff return game this year, we don’t like to have that many opportunities certainly but we have. We did okay there. We got a little bit of field position there.

“We have a very good football team we’re playing in TCU. You can’t go by the Texas Tech game much. They were up 21-nothing on them in the second quarter I believe. Texas Tech is an interesting team. They can do that to a lot of different people. I think you have to take that out of the equation. They beat SMU, who I know is probably better than they were last year, and they beat a very good Northwestern team. They are a very good football team and it will be a great challenge for us. But we’re really looking forward to the game and playing. The guys had a good practice last night. I thought they worked real hard and theyw ere very focused.â€Â

On playing good football ... “We’ll just take it one game at a time and focus in on TCU and see if we can play some good football. I think that’s important. The wins will come if you play good football but we need to play good football all the way around.â€Â

On USF allowing 10 TCU sacks a year ago ... “TCU really destroyed us last year to say the least. We didn’t do too much of anything right offensively against them. They’re very good. Certainly we struggled quite a bit last year against them.

On quarterbacks Pat Julmiste and Ronnie Banks ... “I think both of them can do some things. I really do. I like both these guys a lot. I like them as people. They work hard, they really do. It’s important to both of them. They want to win, they want to do well, they want to have success. That’s not an issue. We just have to find a way to get the ball in the end zone. No matter how hard it is, we’ve got to try to find a way, at least work at it. We’re trying, we’re working hard on it, we’ve got to find a way.â€Â

On whether Travis Lipp or Bruce Gipson will handle punt returns ... “Right now we’ll probably use Travis to do that. Bruce is a good punt returner. He really did well his first number of returns and really can do a lot with the ball but you can’t fumble. We know that. I don’t want to say that the door is closed on him forever to do that but we can’t fumble. You don’t want to do that, that really hurts us.â€Â

[bulls96go]

we will try

will we now run the ball more?

what's the plan coach?

a healthy dose of Hall Crossley?with a dash of PJ scramble?

[smazza]

too much bull for me

[Omniscientbull]

What the F do you want?  You want coach just to give the play book to the media for this week?

Well, we are going to open with Crossley up the middle.  Hall on 2nd and then a pass on third.  We plan to throw short early and then about the 3rd series throw long.  We'll mix in some pitch sweeps on the 4th series and some QB bootlegs on the 5th series.

NO WAY a coach is going to give the data you want to read.

Some people will ***** just to *****.

[Guest wildrover]

that portion of the QB section made him sound just as clueless as all of us.  Of course they're working on it, I doubt anybody doubts that and I doubt anybody doubts PJ's or RB's work eithic or desire to win.  That is a given, I would like to know what if any changes i scheme he is planning, he doens't even have to let us know what it is, just let us know if they are making adjustments, or if they feel they need to...something?

[BullWriter]

What the F do you want?  You want coach just to give the play book to the media for this week?

Well, we are going to open with Crossley up the middle.  Hall on 2nd and then a pass on third.  We plan to throw short early and then about the 3rd series throw long.  We'll mix in some pitch sweeps on the 4th series and some QB bootlegs on the 5th series.

NO WAY a coach is going to give the data you want to read.

Some people will ***** just to *****.

Exactly.  Every week, it's a challenge to think of a few questions to ask Jim that will give a little insight into the mindset of the team going into the upcoming game, knowing he won't reveal any of his cards.

If you want blunt honesty from the coaching staff, catch them in the media room after the game.  That's the only time you can expect to hear the truth from them.  The rest is pretty much throw-away answers with a few nuggets of wisdom mixed in occasionally.

If you're expecting anything else, you won't get it.

Matt