Melissa said

grayowl said

Actually, there was a story, with a link from this board. The South Florida coach was quoted as essentially correcting a questioner by saying Florida has only four BCS schools (Florida, Florida State, Miami and South Florida). Then he added something like, "No one else is even in the room." If you search the board, you'll find it. I apologize for not digging it out myself, but I simply don't have time. It is possible that he said five schools and included UCF. But it was clear that he EXCLUDED FAU from the upper group – and that he INCLUDED FAU as a school that wasn't "even in the room." I respect him for his achievements, but it seems like an odd assertion for someone who is not overcome by his own team's hype.

Thanks for posting the information in regards to what coach Leavitt said. I had (and still have) a lot of respect for your team and (most) fans… can't say I really respect someone who spews baseless insults at someone who asks a simple question. (Oh boo hoo someone wants to see the source behind the topic of the post, what a shocker!) Hopefully it will be a good game on Saturday, good luck to your team… I mean this sincerely. I have been really impressed with how well FAU has played though and root for you guys whenever you aren't playing USF.

I agree with Leavitt for the most part, by the way. I don't see what is so wrong with what he said… it's the truth. FAU is a good team, but they aren't anywhere close to USF or even UCF at this point in your history.  Doesn't mean you can't beat us. I know that Leavitt isn't going to look past a single opponent this season and he's not going to allow the players to either.

little miss sunshine: Go ahead - insert some "witty" prose here that has nothing to do with football.

Didn't UCF go 0-12 just two seasons ago?  You sure they are leagues ahead of us? USF is doing a fine job…give us 5 years.  If you are that confident in winning this game, stop talking smack and bet money on it.

fauowl said

USF said

proudowl said

Hmm, character.
CJL, "the next coach of the Michigan Wolverines". I bet he thinks that has a nice ring to it.
Lets see if he stays Yo Yo Ma.

Alabama has already made a run at Leavitt twice.  Kansas State stepped up with a solid offer as well.  Unfortunately, we've gotten used to all of the rumors.

Leavitt is from the Tampa area and loves it here.  I can’t guarantee that he won’t go anywhere, but the signs point to him sticking around.  He has built this program from scratch, much like your coach.  Leavitt even mentioned that at Alabama you can win a national championship and still be fired a few years later.  Then you’re just ‘another coach’ with a national championship.  At USF, you can make history.

Sorry but, “CJL, next coach of the Wolverines” doesn’t really have a good ring to it.

South Florida:   # 6 in the country, with a legitimate shot at playing in a BCS bowl and the possibility of playing for a national championship.  Now that has a nice ring to it.

I’ll be waiting for one of your clever responses.   :-*

JC95, you make some good points about Leavitt liking the area.  How is your athletics budget?  Ours is very small so when we get a good coach (such as our basketball team), and they start doing well, we cannot compete from a salary perspective even though a coach may not want to go elsewhere.

Some teams will just throw ridiculous money at Leavitt after this run.  You guys are 4 years ahead of us and am wondering if the athletics budget is still an issue for USF.

From what I understand, Leavitt's salary has been increasing steadily with the program and he's over a $1million a year now with salaries steadily increasing for his staff as well.  As the program grows in success, USF is renegotiating his contract to reflect that each time.

Remember, USF has 45000 students and TONS of graduates who are learning about the team and there's a number of successful USF alumns in the corporate world.  If they put out a request to "save our coach", pledge $50, I'm sure we could get plenty of money to retain Leavitt.

Plus, our President and Leavitt have an understanding regarding certain things that if met, will keep him at USF and those plans are being laid right now.  I believe she approved the dining hall and athletic village this week.

Before this year, I'd say financially it would be tough and we only could hope he'd value the "story" of what he's building and being close to home, but I believe we could get the finances to narrow the gap enough to keep him.  Remember, we don't have to OUTBID someone to keep him.  Trust me, it would take ALOT more than even double the money when you're already financially "set", living in your hometown where you are a god and building something that is YOURS.

Anywhere else, he's just another football coach where honeymoons are short.  In Tampa, he's THE COACH and the face of something big.  That's a pretty big ego trip.

fauowl said

USF said

proudowl said

Hmm, character.
CJL, "the next coach of the Michigan Wolverines". I bet he thinks that has a nice ring to it.
Lets see if he stays Yo Yo Ma.

Alabama has already made a run at Leavitt twice.  Kansas State stepped up with a solid offer as well.  Unfortunately, we've gotten used to all of the rumors.

Leavitt is from the Tampa area and loves it here.  I can’t guarantee that he won’t go anywhere, but the signs point to him sticking around.  He has built this program from scratch, much like your coach.  Leavitt even mentioned that at Alabama you can win a national championship and still be fired a few years later.  Then you’re just ‘another coach’ with a national championship.  At USF, you can make history.

Sorry but, “CJL, next coach of the Wolverines” doesn’t really have a good ring to it.

South Florida:   # 6 in the country, with a legitimate shot at playing in a BCS bowl and the possibility of playing for a national championship.  Now that has a nice ring to it.

I’ll be waiting for one of your clever responses.   :-*

JC95, you make some good points about Leavitt liking the area.  How is your athletics budget?  Ours is very small so when we get a good coach (such as our basketball team), and they start doing well, we cannot compete from a salary perspective even though a coach may not want to go elsewhere.

Some teams will just throw ridiculous money at Leavitt after this run.  You guys are 4 years ahead of us and am wondering if the athletics budget is still an issue for USF.

FAU OWL – Our budget is improving and this year should help immensely.  The Big East has been the biggest ‘shot in the arm’ thus far.  Unfortunately, we are not on par with most of our conference brethren.  However, a BCS bowl appearance would go a long way for us.

We stepped up a few years back and gave Leavitt a real nice raise putting him at around 1mm per year.  Kansas states total package offer was around 1.5mm per year, and Leavitt turned it down.  K-State is also where he came from as he was one of Coach Schneider’s disciples.

We recently hired Stan Heath (former Arkansas Coach) as our Head Basketball Coach and we paid him around $750,000 per year.

Leavitt’s main concern always seems to be for his assistant’s salary pool.  That has increased over the past few years, but is no where near the BCS average.  That’s to be expected due to growing pains as FAU can appreciate.

We just recently signed a deal with Under Armor to wear their uniforms and cleats.  We’re the first team in the state to sign with them.  That revenue will help a little and Leavitt will get a piece of that as well.

We recently completed a state of the art athletics facility that is awesome.  That has gone a long way in terms of recruiting.  Leavitt has been pushing extremely hard for a dining hall/nutrition center over the past few years and I would say that is #1 on the priority list.

Stadium discussions are always a touchy subject with USF.  A few years ago Leavitt said he was envisioning a 55,000 seat stadium that would cost in the neighborhood of 90mm.  It will be interesting to see if the talk heats up any more after this season.  Eventually we will have an OCS, but right now I feel Raymond James Stadium is perfect for us.  Our athletic administration has been extremely diligent in planning our future, so I fully trust them.

I hope this helps.

It sounds like you guys are doing great with being able to have the money to retain the head coaches.  That is a major concern at FAU athletics.  Not so much with Coach Schnellenberger, because he is not looking to go start another program and make tons of money.  We are fortunate to have him (and I believe he is one of the best) and not have to shell out a ton of money.  The downside is he will retire soon so we will lose him one way or another.  The next guy will want a lot more…

On the basketball side, we have Rex Walters.  He is an up and coming talent in coaching.  He has brought so much excitement to FAU.  He is horribly underpaid (I believe in the neighborhood of $175k per year).  It's a double-edged sword.  We want him to do well, but as soon as he gets us back to the NCAA tournament, he will get the attention, a nice offer, and possibly be gone.

We also have an excellent Baseball coach and an excellent softball coach.  My guess is they are probably also underpaid.

To get to the next level we are going to have to find a way to pay these coaches.

Good luck tomorrow.

Go Owls!!!

fauowl said

It sounds like you guys are doing great with being able to have the money to retain the head coaches.  That is a major concern at FAU athletics.  Not so much with Coach Schnellenberger, because he is not looking to go start another program and make tons of money.  We are fortunate to have him (and I believe he is one of the best) and not have to shell out a ton of money.  The downside is he will retire soon so we will lose him one way or another.  The next guy will want a lot more…

On the basketball side, we have Rex Walters.  He is an up and coming talent in coaching.  He has brought so much excitement to FAU.  He is horribly underpaid (I believe in the neighborhood of $175k per year).  It's a double-edged sword.  We want him to do well, but as soon as he gets us back to the NCAA tournament, he will get the attention, a nice offer, and possibly be gone.

We also have an excellent Baseball coach and an excellent softball coach.  My guess is they are probably also underpaid.

To get to the next level we are going to have to find a way to pay these coaches.

Good luck tomorrow.

Go Owls!!!

The key to sustaining good programs are BOOSTERS WITH LOADS OF $$$$$$$$$$$$.

The money from athletics fees and conference affiliations can only go so far when you've got schools like Bama who can get $10 million in a week from boosters to buy out and hire a new coach.  If they can do that, you can imagine the money being used behind the scenes to support the program…

Absolutely.  And I think that is the difference between our programs:  getting boosters with loads of $$$$$$$$$$.  We don't have a huge alumni base (103k) to sustain the athletic budget; we need to recruit boosters and do a better job of separating their money from their wallet.  That takes time.

The good news is we are in an area (like you guys) that has a lot of wealth.  We need to grab some attention and thats why this game tomorrow is so important in so many ways.