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Saban's Comments Raise The Ire Of Leavitt

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By BRETT McMURPHY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2007

Updated: 10/03/2007 12:13 am

Comment: Discuss Admissions Standards

TAMPA - University of South Florida coach Jim Leavitt vehemently disputed quotes by Alabama coach Nick Saban insinuating substandard academic standards at USF and even offered to resign if Saban's statements were true.

In Tuesday's Birmingham News, Saban, when asked about why non-traditional schools are competitive, said:

'There's a significant amount of players who don't qualify at some schools and they end up being pretty good players at some other schools. I think there are six guys starting on South Florida's defense who probably could have gone to Florida or Florida State but Florida and Florida State couldn't take them. And if you do a good job of recruiting that way ...'

Leavitt was furious about the comments, first addressing them at his Tuesday news conference and again after Tuesday night's practice.

'That's amazing, a guy can make a quote like that when he doesn't have any idea,' Leavitt said. 'The truth is we have two non-qualifiers out of 110 on our team or I'll resign tomorrow. And those two will both get their degree.

'Why that bothers me is it takes a hit at the credibility of our program that we can't do it with just hard work. There always has to be some reason. That is the heart and soul of our program. So he's attacking the heart and soul.'

Saban's comments were not about schools admitting non-qualifiers, but about schools having different admission policies, said The Birmingham News' Ray Melick, whose story contained Saban's quotes.

'Six starters on our defense? He Saban doesn't know what he's talking about,' Leavitt said. 'Why's he making a statement like that? Florida, Florida State didn't recruit those guys anyway.

'I think he blew it, they Saban and Melick blew it. ... They'll hide behind the shroud of this and that. Nobody takes responsibility. If they made the comment, they need to come out and say I'm wrong.

'What bothers me is that story goes all over Alabama and they'll accept that as truth. That's why I get upset about media. There's no way I'm going to go out there and share this with 3 million people. It's not the truth. That's too bad, that's sad.'

Ironically, USF freshman running backs Jamar Taylor and Mike Ford both initially signed with Alabama. Taylor enrolled at Alabama in January, but transferred to USF in the summer to be closer to his family. Ford signed with Alabama but did not meet NCAA qualifying standards out of Sarasota High and went to a prep school before coming to USF in January.

USF senior Mike Jenkins disagreed with Saban's statement, even noting Saban offered Jenkins a full scholarship to LSU when Jenkins was a senior at Bradenton Southeast.

'I picked USF because I wanted to pick USF,' Jenkins said. 'I could have gone to the Floridas, the Florida States, the Alabamas, the LSUs.'

Leavitt said he has a good relationship with Saban but said he won't call him to discuss the quotes.

'It's not worth my time to pick up the phone,' Leavitt said. 'The statement is wrong - I'm not attacking him, I'm saying that statement is wrong.'

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com.

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