Jim Leavitt Media Luncheon Quotes

[Guest HowieP1]

USF Football Coach Jim Leavitt Media Luncheon Quotes

Quotes from his Weekly Media Luncheon, Sept. 28, 2004

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

On the USF-Southern Miss series being dominated by the home team … “We’ve only played three times so I don’t know if domination is a three-time word. They are a good football team and the first time we played them up there I think that was our transition year, then we came back here and we beat them here and then we went up there and they were a good football team last year, they won the conference. They were just better than we were last year. We moved the ball we just couldn’t get in the end zone.â€Â

On first-time defensive starters at TCU … “The effort was great, like you expect, you’ve got some young guys and they’re going to make some mistakes that you don’t want. But they were battling so hard and that’s what you appreciate. They are really trying.â€Â

On quarterback Pat Julmiste … “I think he played a good game. I don’t think he’s ever had a command of the offense quite like he had the other night. He’s got to get better, I think all of us do, but he did some good things. His knee is getting better, it’s getting stronger. It shows a lot of courage and to me you have to have that to be a good quarterback and he displays that, and that’s what you enjoy seeing.â€Â

On running back Andre Hall … “Andre is a good football player, I think he is an awfully good leader. He has so much enthusiasm, he loves the game, he’s a good football player. We knew we were going to get to Andre eventually and we knew we were going to kind of feature him this past game. We did and I was really proud of him. I was proud of Clenton Crossley, he came in and ran also. They both ran hard and they both had some good runs.â€Â

More on Hall and Crossley … “I thought he might carry around 30 last game. It’s pretty hard to run that many times and not get tired. I think Clenton Crossley will be a real key for us – and Andre. Both are important.â€Â

On winning on the road in overtime … “I would hope that our football team would never die. I hope our football team would always just battle every second and just see how it plays out. That I would expect always. This team is confident, we work hard. You have to have some confidence if you’re going to have a chance.â€Â

On Bruce Gibson playing on both sides of the ball and on the death of his brother … “He had a good performance regardless. And then on top of that, it was extraordinary. It’s a lot for a young guy to handle. We found out the news on the airplane right after the South Carolina game. It’s rough. It’s something you deal with and I think Bruce and Javan (Camon) did an admirable job with it. It’s hard, it’s difficult.â€Â

On Southern Miss leading the nation in turnovers … “I’m not on their team. You ask me what do they do, I don’t know what they do in their camp and in their practice. I can tell you that two years ago we lead the nation in turnover margin and we were 9-2. I don’t know what they do bit I know it’s an important stat.â€Â

On if the team is making progress in limiting penalties … “Not as much as I want. I was disappointed the last game in some of the specialty team penalties. Obviously, I’m not doing a very good job getting that across to players. That’s all there is to it. We’ve talked about and hopefully we’ll get better at it. If we don’t then it’s a difficult situation.â€Â