I think Jim Leavitt is a very good football coach. I also think he has lost his way this season.

Leavitt has always been a bit of an odd duck, so to speak, but I always felt that as strange as he can appear to outsiders at times, he still commanded the respect and loyalty of his players. I wonder if that’s still the case, though. I don’t base this on the fact the season is cartwheeling toward the ground with flames shooting out of the engines. Every team can have a tough season (just ask Rich Rodriguez at Michigan). It’s the way the Bulls are losing, though, that is disturbing.

I've watched Leavitt since he founded this program and this is his first real taste of adversity. He doesn't seem to be handling it any better than he handled success last season when the Bulls rose to No. 2 in the national rankings. Leavitt admittedly lost focus then (and the Bulls lost three straight) and he seems powerless now. Rather than drive his team harder, I'd lighten up; throw a picnic, tell the coaches to invite their kids, take a few hours off. It might just relieve some of the tension around this program.

There has been a change in the atmosphere at USF in the last year or two as well. Leavitt seems deeply suspicious about nearly everyone and he never used to be that way. You wonder if that paranoia is being translated to his players because they aren't playing like the free-wheeling fun bunch that helped the Bulls rise in prominence last year. There may be a connection, or there may not be. I just know there's no way they should lose by 33 points at home to Rutgers, so whatever Leavitt is doing now isn't working.

It's too late to salvage this season; and no, I don't consider an invitation to the St. Pete Bowl to be much of a salvation. Next season needs to start now. Leavitt has proven he can build a program, but his biggest challenge now will be to prove he can adjust.

CHOKE JOB: Leonard Levy is one of the best-known guys in town, a real mover and shaker. He almost checked out on us last week though after a piece of bratwurst got lodged in his throat during lunch at Palma Ceia Country Club. Fortunately for Levy (and all of us, really), a guy in the dining room at the time knew the Heimleich maneuver and performed it on Levy.

“I thought I was dead,” Levy said.

Suggestion: Next time, order the pasta or a salad.

BOLTS GETTING BLASTED: The Lightning deserve every bit of criticism they get and more for this Fiasco de’ Melrose. I had my say about it in Saturday’s Tribune and here are some other snippets from around the hockey world.

Scott Burnside of ESPN.com says there is plenty of blame to go around. Here’s a video link to an interview Melrose gave to Ron McLean on “Hockey Night In Canada” where he admits players basically didn’t want to play for him.

PARTY ON LONGORIA: In case you’re worrying about how Rays rookie of the year Evan Longoria is doing these days without baseball to play, fear not.

I ran across this blog from ShysterBall that told of a big party Longoria threw over the weekend for all the beautiful people in California. Here’s more on that subject from the Long Beach Press-Telegram.