USF football program outgrew Leavitt's antics

No one takes any joy in this.

Seeing Jim Leavitt fired from the program he founded as head football coach the University of South Florida is no victory to his enemies or anything else, except maybe the truth. There are no winners here, not after USF saw its name and reputation dragged through the slop for the last month after an online news service wrote that Leavitt had put his hand around a player's throat and hit him in the face at halftime of a game.

Investigators have spent most of the last month interviewing eyewitnesses and we'll know their findings sometime later today. The news of Leavitt's removal just broke a little while ago and everyone is still absorbing it.

I have talked to people this morning at USF who say the firing is not necessarily related to the alleged incident, but rather to the events that followed - included a possible attempt to cover up the facts.

Ultimately, you may recall, Watergate wasn't about the break-in, either, but the cover-up that ensued.

Those same people tell me of big-money boosters who had enough of Leavitt's antics, on the field and off. A sizeable portion of Bulls Nation wanted a change, even if it was proven Leavitt didn't do what Fanhouse.com accused him of doing.

A lot of people would say this day was inevitable, that Leavitt's antics - head-butts, slamming head-first into lockers, running around on the sidelines like some out-of-control maniac. We've seen his forehead bloodied from these collisions and I think anyone being honest would say they do believe it's possible he did what was alleged.

He could be a bully, vindictive, and he was a control freak to the highest degree.

He could also be caring, thoughtful, and go out of his way to help those in need - often with no fanfare. Over the years I've tried to talk to him about some of those times, such as the way he cared for USF booster and uber fan Jeff Wagner during Wagner's lengthy illness. Leavitt wouldn't open up, saying it was too personal. He was often that way.

I know that he grew distrustful and combative with the media the last few years but I have to be honest and say he wasn't often that way with me. He didn't like scrutiny of his program though, especially when its flaws were exposed. In many ways he wanted USF to be on par with Florida, FSU and Miami but didn't want the other things that came with that - negative headlines, especially.

He was furious with The Tampa Tribune after then-beat writer Brett McMurphy reported a couple of years ago that some starters had been suspended because of failed drug tests. He never got over it, or at least never seemed to. I tried to tell Leavitt once that had a similar incident happened at Florida, it would be national headlines for weeks.

He didn't get that.

No one will forget how Leavitt built the Bulls from the ground up into a team that once rose to No. 2 in the nation and it's pitiful that it has to end this way. But it has to end. This needs to be over and USF needs a fresh face, a more stable face.

Leavitt brought USF some of the highest highs, such as wins at Auburn and Florida State and five straight bowl games.

The Bulls are in the Big East, largely because of the football program Leavitt built. They are players on a national level and should contend for a BCS bowl every year. The days of living out of trailers are long gone, and that's why Leavitt's antics couldn't be tolerated.

But it's not a good day when something like this happens.

That doesn't mean it wasn't necessary.