Jim Leavitt Quotes (53 Quotes)

To go to a bowl game as part of a BCS conference is a pretty big deal. A lot of things came together to make this happen. I always expect big things to happen.

He's going to go right in and play quarterback. We'd be crazy not to watch him. I won't know until I let him get in there and let him play. He knows if he doesn't play quarterback here he would go to safety. I know he can play there. He's a natural leader. He's a heck of an athlete. I've liked Nate for two years now.

You saw the mountains and the valleys in our special teams. Mostly mountains though. We had some pretty good returns.

It wasn't me, but those guys had fun. I stayed as far away from that group as I could. I'd show up for five minutes and leave, but they'd play cards, watch TV, have fun. They were a very close group.

I like to win, so right now, I am just thinking about the loss. So saying I am happy that we just got here is a bunch of baloney. The bottom line is, we have to play better to win. But I will tell you this We are in the hunt. We have 70 sophomores and freshmen on our team. We have a chance to build this program as long as we keep battling.

It was surprisingly better than I expected. I thought the guys did a pretty good job. After a break, you never know.

I have no idea. After the Louisville game (a 45-14 win), I'd say no, after today, I'd say a lot. I haven't thought about it. But we just lost, and we've got to get moving the ball.

Any time you can play a game on national television, it's something we want to do.

At defensive end we thought we just hit the gold mine. On our board at end, we about hit on everybody we really wanted.

He's a young guy, a true freshman. We told him after the first time that he can't hold the ball down (low) and he's got to put the ball away. Those two turnovers gave us two tough situations.

He's such a good leader. He has humility. He goes out and works so hard, and he understands you have to work for everything you get in life. He's got the right mind-set, and that's why I think he'll make it in the NFL.

I thought Andre played great. He's a hell of a player.

Those kids are the ones that have all the courage.

I think you always have to make a decision to get movement. Some people sit on the fence all the time and never make a decision. We've got some movement going on and people knowing what they have to do. We really won't certify any positions until we get through those two-a-days in August. Some guys will sit on their laurels after spring and not train as hard. I've seen a lot of people beat other people out during the summer.

I really like this group. Every single guy is very serious and very focused and, knowing my personality, that's big. They all work hard, almost like blue-collar workers, no nonsense, they get after the task and get it done.

That's a good question. I don't have an answer.

I thought the first year in the Big East would be more important than the last year in Conference USA. I thought we had a team that could compete in the Big East. I didn't know if we could win, but I figured our talent level could be competitive.

Both are capable. Both have moments when they are great, both have moments when they're not as consistent.

We got everything done we needed to. It might have been better inside, we got their attention. We've done enough hitting.

We thought we might have close to 50 (thousand).

We had a gold mine this year. We got almost everybody we wanted. We needed help on the line and big, physical receivers, and we got them.

They're both very serious and very focused. With knowing my personality, that's big. They work hard, almost like blue collar workers, get after the task, get it done.

I wasn't happy with all the dropped passes like anybody wasn't. That part is disappointing. On the other hand, I was encouraged by the same guys going out in the second half and making big catches.

We have been eligible to go to a bowl more than not since we joined I-A, but we've never been able to go. I enjoy the practice and being around the players a lot. For me to be able to practice at this time of year as opposed to making more recruiting calls or meeting is really satisfying for me.

He's a very motivated individual and he doesn't want to miss this game.

I thought we played horrible. You want to give Pittsburgh credit but I didn't think our team came in prepared. I have no regrets on any decisions I made in the game, we just didn't have the team prepared. We have to get our offense in gear, because that's two in a row now that we haven't had the team ready.

It's really tight. I'm waiting for somebody to consistently move ahead of the other guys.

When you get to (reflect), we were bowl eligible, we finished in the top of the Big East (fourth place) and we played the eighth-toughest schedule in the nation. Those are some good things there. I think this group did a lot of good things.

I think he'll be fine. We're all right. If something happened where he didn't, (walk-on freshman kicker Kyle Bronson ) will do fine. He's done it all year.

We're definitely ahead of where we were last spring. We lost some good players, we lost some guys that played a lot of football.

I couldn't wait for the day when we could use our own fields to practice for a bowl game. I won't miss seeing (the other teams).

He's not small. He's solid as a rock. He's a horse. He's tough and has great hands.

We had that game to look at a year ago and we didn't get much done, did we It sure didn't help us because they beat the dog out of us. Besides, they're a different team than they were two years ago. They're more powerful on all fronts.

It seems fairly clear to me that had the sewage spill not occurred, he'd still be alive.

There is an awful lot of athletic talent in the group. Over the next two years, we'll really find out just how good the class is.

I don't think about negative things happening. I just think about Pat going out and doing what he does. As the game plays out, we'll make those decisions. I don't think 'Well, if Pat does bad, what do I do' I just don't think like that.

The one thing I'm proud about our football team is we battled. You've got to give credit obviously to North Carolina State's defense. They did a great job.

We found out Hector was going to visit Louisville last weekend, and the problem I had was that we had players coming in and I didn't want to lose them also, so if he was going to continue to talk to Louisville, I had to move on. To me a commitment means that you don't visit anyone else, so if you visit somewhere else, you must have interest. We had to move on, so he only had the Louisville offer.

People thought Pat couldn't do it for us. But nobody was complaining after the UCF and Louisville games.

I thought we should've gotten here sooner and was surprised we did not go in 2002. But to go to a bowl game as part of a BCS conference is a pretty big deal. A lot of things came together to make this happen.

Penn State is building their team off their defense and you saw it today. They got two big turnovers and kept us in check.

What choice is there You have to do what you have to do. This is more important.

I said to the team, if we hold them to 14 points in the second half, we'd win. I was wrong.

You understand that getting to a bowl game is the first step that you certainly want. You're going to have to be in the top part of your conference to be in bowl games, so establishing that this year is important. Getting to a bowl game is nice, but you want to win that's what it's all about.

I thought he tackled incredibly well for one hand. You have to tackle with a club. That was really impressive, and he's never complained once in practice about it.

I thought they played good enough to win.

Every one is big. every game is a championship game. You're in the Big East race, and you'd better be on and play well each week if there's any hope of winning a championship.

I don't know what it'll be like for Central Florida. I expect a pretty big crowd.

I'm going to be in the office today. On the 24th, I want to get out and do a little shopping probably pick up a bunch of gift certificates. And then I'll enjoy the 25th. I probably won't work on the 25th.

I went out and did a press conference. I stood with the police officers and paused for a moment. That's all we get.