University of South Florida head football coach (and so happy to be that) Jim Leavitt has a barrel of good characteristics, and - some believe - a couple downsiders that seem to go with the job. He says his solid Bulls will have all they can handle this week at North Carolina State, despite being rated by the betting line as an eight and a half-point favorite.

The game’s up in Raleigh and it’s at night and the Wolfpack have a solid team, he said, with this qualifier: “But I don’t mind playing them there. They’ll give us all we want, but, should we be favored? Yeah. Play like we should, and we can win. Fumble around and they’ll get the crowd going and they’ll come out of the bushes,” Leavitt said, speaking his mind. He’ll do that.

“What I don’t want to do is go back down south and have to play a team like Florida International,” which the Bulls beat, but not with any ease. “It is tough, just tough, to convince your kids they got a chance to get beat at a place like that against a team like that. I’m sure some coaches of teams of bigger reputations than ours have the same problem getting ready to play us. But, now, we are into it, the meat of this schedule. Oh, I mean I know beating Kansas (37-34) was a clutch thing and a big thing, but, we did it and it’s in the books.”

No. N.C. State is not Florida State, not North Carolina, but “Those guys can get you,” Leavitt said, grinning. He finally got to grinning. Tough man, Leavitt. Can grimace, can bluster, can rant on the sidelines with the best of them. But, he can surely grin well, and laugh and cheer and throw his cap in the air with the highest throwers.

Leavitt’s Bulls, quarterbacked by Lakelander Matt Grothe, are good and getting better with each game. They are physical, ambitious and know how to win. Grothe is versatile. He can tuck it and run. Has some receivers. Could probably use a bruising back, but who couldn’t? Grothe is an all-star candidate, and is being pushed now into the race for the Heisman Trophy, the one the quarterback with the Gators has in his place after last year.

A win for the Leavittmen this weekend and they can return to Tampa for two straight against two big-name teams, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. A win and a 4-0 record will get them a strong national ranking, recruiting points and, best of all, a possible sellout of Raymond James Stadium (like the mighty Bucs), their Tampa home and one the Bulls nearly filled for the Kansas game. After Pitt and Syracuse the Bulls go to Louisville and Cincinnati, before RJS here for Rutgers and Connecticut and the finale at West Virginia. Too early to project, I guess, but wildly loyal USFers could dream that that last game could be very important.

Much in these dramatic weekends directly ahead lies with Leavitt strategies (and those of defensive man Wally Burnham and the other coaching associates), but so much also hangs on the good health and wise and gritty play of quarterback Grothe.

Why, if these football Bulls get down to those opportunities, and all they could mean in money to raise, fan base to grow, students to thrill and national attention aroused, somewhere, all of those who originally opposed the sport might form a Bulls alumni club.

A warning: Don’t be around Jim Leavitt if such a dream came true. He could hurt you and not want to.

In the movies, after such a dreamy story, would come the disclaimer that all of the above is fictional and any similarity with real folks is coincidental, to which I add, and intentional.