Big Four? Miami, Florida, FSU have company with Leavitt's USF Bulls

TAMPA, Fla. -- Jim Leavitt looked at me like I'd just asked him to help me move.

It was a typically sticky August day in 2000. I was a 21-year-old punk writing a freelance story for The Tampa Tribune. He was about to begin his fourth season at the helm of the nascent University of South Florida football program.

I asked him what it said about his program that freshman tight end Mark Feldman had turned down an offer from Virginia Tech, which had played Florida State for the national title eight months earlier, to play for USF, which was weeks away from entering Division I-A as schedule grist for such traditional titans as Kentucky, Baylor and Southern Miss.

"I don't blame him," Leavitt spat. "I wouldn't want to leave the state of Florida. In fact, I'd have been surprised if he went to Virginia Tech. I look at it differently."

Eight years later, it all makes sense.

Even in 1997, when the first-year Bulls got waxed by Western Kentucky and Elon, Leavitt knew he sat atop a potential goldmine. In 2003, when he and his staff still worked out of trailers and he turned down the Alabama job anyway, Leavitt knew his Bulls were headed to the Big East with almost every possible recruiting advantage necessary to build a juggernaut. Relatively new NFL stadium for a home field? Check. Scads of elite athletes within four hours' drive? Check. Beaches less than 30 minutes away (depending on traffic)? Check.

Thursday, Leavitt fielded questions at the Florida Sportswriters Association's media day about whether the term "Big Three" -- Florida, Florida State and Miami -- should be revised to include USF. A St. Petersburg native who remembers the 1970s, when a mediocre Florida program ruled the state, Leavitt sidestepped that landmine, tossing compliments at the programs that dominated college football for the final 20 years of the 20th century. But in his heart -- and in his recruiting spiel -- he probably wants to say something like this: Big Three? How about Big Two?

Think about it. Of the state's four BCS-conference programs, which ones have a realistic chance of playing in a BCS bowl this year? Florida, which returns Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, most of its offensive line and several excellent young defenders, certainly does. But Florida State and Miami?

The Seminoles will have to string together an offensive line from a group that seems to lose another player every day. The Hurricanes are coming off a 5-7 season, and while they have recruited well the past two years, they still may be two or three years away from looking like Luther Campbell's favorite squad.

Meanwhile, USF has as good a chance of winning the Big East as fellow favorites Rutgers, Pittsburgh or West Virginia. The Bulls probably weren't ready for the spotlight when they reached No. 2 last October thanks to wins against Auburn and West Virginia. They lost three in a row (Rutgers, Connecticut, Cincinnati) and laid an egg against Oregon in the Sun Bowl. Still, the experience taught the players who will return.