The Former Bull In The NFL Playoffs Everyone Always Forgets
by Jamie DeVriend on Jan 14, 2012 2:00 PM EST
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PrintYou know Jason Pierre-Paul and Jacquian Williams are still alive in the NFL playoffs this weekend. You'll see them on Sunday afternoon when the New York Giants play the Green Bay Packers in the NFC divisional playoffs. But there's one other former Bull out there. One who seems strangely absent from all the stories coming out of USF Athletics, or the tweets from assistant coaches wishing former players luck.
You all realize Jim Leavitt is coaching this weekend too, right?
Leavitt is the linebackers coach for the San Francisco 49ers, who face the New Orleans Saints this afternoon. The 49ers finished fourth in the NFL in total defense, thanks in large part to their four starting linebackers. Patrick Willis is on his way back to the Pro Bowl. NaVorro Bowman led the team with 143 tackles. And rookie Aldon Smith had 14 sacks and quite honestly got gypped out of his own trip to Hawaii. San Francisco held teams to just 3.5 yards per carry and allowed only three rushing touchdowns the entire season.
I'll be curious to see what Leavitt's future will be, as long as the 49ers defense is in the limelight. Will other teams looking for a defensive coordinator try to pick off position coaches? Leavitt was a defensive coordinator before starting the USF program (he and some guy named Bob Stoops were co-DCs at Kansas State), so he might get that opportunity down the line. For now, he can focus on trying to become the first non-playing former Bull to win a Super Bowl ring.
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Wish Him Well!
I hope his team wins it all. Where would the Bulls have ended up with CJL as HC? I’ll always believe USF would have been much better off as long as CJL was running the football program. Maybe Holtz will be successful but I don’t think his howdy-doody demeanor will get him as far as CJL’s unbridled aggressiveness.
I kind of disagree.
The last couple years of Leavitt felt like a plateau. I remember a couple of times he said that he was a couple of years away from having the depth he thought he needed to compete… but he was such a shaky in-game coach that I’m not sure it would have made a difference.
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by Jamie DeVriend on Jan 15, 2012 1:36 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Burned Bridges?
Very thought-provoking post since I’ve been thinking about this for most of the second half of the NFL season. Is it possible that CJL was so unfriendly with the local media when at USF that the outlets now have zero appetite in writing anything remotely favorable about him? If that’s the case then it’s a shame because his success with the Niners makes for a pretty good redemption story.
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