Coaching connections for Bulls, Owls

There will be plenty of familiar faces on the sidelines during FAU’s season and home opener versus South Florida on Saturday.

The Owls’ current coach, Willie Taggart, and defensive coordinator, Jim Leavitt, were previously head coaches at USF and will each coach against the Bulls for the first time since departing from the program.

“It’s a great storyline this week, but for us it’s just another ball game,” Taggart said during the FAU coaches show this week.

The Bradenton native was USF’s coach from 2013-16. The Bulls were 24-25 under Taggart, but went 8-5 in their third and 10-2 in their fourth seasons under Taggart, with USF being the co-AAC East Division champion during its final season with Taggart at the helm.

“Tampa is basically a home for me, which made that job spe

cial,” he said. We had some great times there. It started off rough but ended really well.”

Leavitt was USF’s first coach (1997-2009), with the Bulls going 95-57 with Leavitt at the helm. The Bulls reached as high as No. 2 on the AP Poll (2007), and won two bowl games in five appearances under Leavitt.

USF fired Leavitt in January 2010 after a university investigation concluded

Leavitt hit a player in the throat, slapped him and interfered in the school’s investigation of the incident.

Leavitt has previously denied the allegations.

“When you think about Jim and what he did there, he built that program kind of like how coach [Howard] Schnellenberger did here,” Taggart said. “He had it as a top-10 program and had it to where everyone knew who South Florida was.”

When asked, Leavitt said he hadn’t really thought about what coaching against USF will mean to him.

“I know people are sitting there thinking ‘I know he’s not telling the truth’ but I really am — I haven’t thought about anything except practice [Tuesday],” he said. “All I want is a good practice. I haven’t thought about anything else. When I start thinking about other things I get confused, and I don’t want to get confused.

“I’m just excited to play. I hope I stay focused on each snap.”

The FAU-USF coaching connection doesn’t stop with Leavitt and Taggart.

Glenn Spencer and

Charlie Weis Jr., USF’s defensive and offensive coordinators, held the same positions with FAU last season under Lane Kiffin before joining Jeff Scott’s staff in December 2019.

Spencer helped lead FAU’s defense to a nationhigh 33 takeaways during his lone season with the team last year. He was the interim head coach after Kiffin stepped down to take the head-coaching position at Ole Miss, and coached the Owls during the 2019 Boca Bowl.

Weis was with FAU for two seasons, with the team averaging 36.4 points during his second season as the Owls’ offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.

Wes Neighbors is USF’s safeties coach after holding the same position at FAU from 2018-19.

“It’ll be weird,” FAU starting quarterback Nick Tronti said. “I have a good relationship with coach Weis and coach Spencer, so I’m looking forward to getting a chance to compete against them. It’ll obviously be weird, but let the best team win.”