In 2009, Leavitt ended the intrastate rivalry game with the University of Central Florida, a school located up the street, to move on to bigger and better things. They beat Florida State, which was a huge win (in theory), and they lost to Miami, but the Bulls opened the season against Wofford, Western Kentucky and Charleston Southern. How is that bigger and better? 2009 Season October 15, 2009 - Big win against Florida State a few weeks ago, but once again Cincinnati owns the Bulls. The more things change, the more they stay the same! October 24, 2009 - Here we go again. Does any of this feel familiar? Blown out by Pitt. The Big East's most-penalized team drew the game's first eight penalties and ended with 71 penalty yards. The Bulls have been outscored 75-31 in losses to Cincinnati and Pitt after moving into the Top 25 two weeks ago. November 12, 2009 - What a night. Embarrassed by Rutgers. Couldn’t throw. Couldn’t run. Eventually the defense could not stop them. They hit a new low, when they were shut out for the first time in a regular season game. A team that was once 5-0 (for the 3rd straight year) is now 6-3. In their 3 losses, all of which have been conference games, the Bulls have been outscored 106-31 and have been penalized 214 yards. On a side note, USF is 1-6 in Thursday Games and 1-8 on ESPN. I guess they don't do well in front of a national audience. November 28, 2009 - Embarrassed again. At least it wasn't a Conference game. How did the Bulls come out flat for this game? Honestly I don't know how any team ever comes out flat, but this was a big game. Sellout Crowd. National TV against a Big Time school from 4 hours away. A school the Bulls are trying to start a rivalry with. USF made them look like the #1 team in the country. The score would have been worse if it wasn't for some dropped balls and bad passes. Miami showed USF how far behind it is in talent, speed and most importantly... coaching. December 5, 2009 - The perfect end to a dismal season. A loss at Connecticut. I can hear the excuses already. The fact is that both teams had to play in that weather. Everyone knows about the talent level of high school players that come out of Florida. There is no debating that. But 92% of the players on the Bulls roster are from the Sunshine State. Perhaps if the school with the highest paid coach in the Big East and the smallest recruiting budget spent a little money recruiting players from other states, they would be able to play in the cold. That fact is that in a game like this one, it was all about field position. The kickoffs and punts by the Bulls were atrocious. The Huskies basically worked with a little more than half of a field on every drive. To finish 7-5 after starting 5-0 is not acceptable. This is the 2nd consecutive year that this has happened. The Leavitt supporters always say, “Look what he has done in 13 years. He started in a trailor… blah blah blah.” How many more years is that a tolerable argument? 15 years, 20 years, 25 years? December 6, 2009 - So the Bulls are going to the International Bowl against Northern Illinois. That’s right up there with the Meineke Car Care Bowl, the Papajohns.com Bowl, the Sun Bowl and the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl. Nice spin Leavitt put on it… “We have been to every bowl game, besides the BCS, that our league has partnered with and this guarantees to be among the most unique.” What a joke. At least the game is in January and not December.