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Kansas State Football: Potential head coach candidate Jim Leavitt

By John McCarty

EUGENE, OR - OCTOBER 13: Oregon Ducks defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt reacts to a penalty call during a college football game between the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies on October 13, 2018, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon.(Photo by Brian Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
EUGENE, OR - OCTOBER 13: Oregon Ducks defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt reacts to a penalty call during a college football game between the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies on October 13, 2018, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon.(Photo by Brian Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Jim Leavitt, former South Florida head coach, has ties to Kansas State football and is currently the defensive coordinator at Oregon. Will he be the guy to take the whistle from Bill Snyder?

Jim Leavitt, current defensive coordinator at Oregon, has an interesting clause in his contract stipulating if he leaves Oregon to be the head coach at Kansas State, there is no buyout on the contract. No other school and no other position are listed in his contract.  If ever there was a coach that made their interest public, it would be Jim Leavitt.

Leavtt was a coach during the early days of the Bill Snyder era, following the now retired coach from Iowa to take over the linebackers in 1990. Between coaching linebackers and defensive coordinator duties, Leavitt would stay in Manhattan through the 1995 season. He’d eventually leave for the head coaching job at South Florida, a program in their very first year.

Moving to the Division 1 level in 2001, the Bulls of South Florida would eventually go to five bowl games under Leavitt, recording three bowl wins over the five bowl game appearances they would record. In 2007, the South Florida program would climb as high as second in the BCS rankings after defeating their instate rival Central Florida before losses would plummet them down the rankings.

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However, the end came quickly for Leavitt in January of 2010 after an investigation into allegations that he not only struck and grabbed at a player during halftime of a game, but that he obstructed the investigation and lied to university officials about what happened. Leavitt was immediately fired by the USF program and they would turn the program over to East Carolina coach Skip Holtz, who didn’t last long in Tampa.

Since leaving USF, Leavitt took a job in San Francisco with the 49ers as their linebackers coach, working there from 2011 through 2014 before returning to the college ranks as the defensive coordinator at Colorado. His tenure in Colorado lasted two years before he went to Oregon to follow Willie Taggert to Oregon.

Ironically enough, Taggert was the head coach at South Florida prior to taking the job in Eugene. Leavitt continues as the defensive coordinator at Oregon under new coach Mario Cristobal after Taggert returned to Florida to take over the Florida State program.

Obviously Leavitt has head coaching experience stemming from South Florida, has coached under various head coaches and schemes through his travels around both college and professional sports as well as a background, albeit distant memory, of working at Kansas State. Also, Leavitt is an energetic recruiter, something the new coach at Kansas State will need to be, regardless of who it is.

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However, there are concerns about Leavitt. Not so much the allegations of hitting a player (Leavitt claims he never struck the player and filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against USF), but the allegations of lying and obstructing the investigation are a concern.

He also has not recruited, much if at all, the area that Kansas State would need to look into. He does not appear to have recruiting Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas in a long time, if not since his time at Kansas State. Previously documented coaches Seth Littrell and Brent Venables both have secured commitments from these very important areas.

What kind of staff could Leavitt put together and would he have the freedom to bring the people in that he wanted? The issue with Kansas State last year was not really the defense.

The Wildcat defense was able to hold Texas to 19 points (two of those came on a safety against K-State quarterback Alex Delton) , Oklahoma State could only muster 12 points and Texas Tech would only muster two field goals.

Again, defense isn’t the over reaching concern. The offense was inconsistent and plagued by penalties and mistakes. Will Leavitt have the freedom to bring in the people he’s wanting and run the system he is wanting to run on both sides of the ball?

Lastly, Leavitt is not young. He’s not as old as Snyder, but he’s still 61 years of age. Snyder’s age and concerns about just how long he would be around dogged the program for years, if not the entire time since he returned. How long until other schools or recruits begin to wonder the same about Leavitt?

Jim Leavtt is a name that many Wildcat fans and alumni are familiar with and would be okay with being the next head coach. He likely isn’t the first choice of the alumni and fan base and certainly doesn’t appear to be the top choice of Athletic Director Gene Taylor.

However, he likely is a solid hire if nothing else brings energy to a program desperately in need of an infusion of energy. Would you be okay with Jim Leavitt being the next head coach of Kansas State football?

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