USF coach Jim Leavitt can say this because he knows he probably isn't playing Michigan anytime soon, but I'll put this up against any zinger you'll read out of Newport today. Here's what Leavitt had to say when he was asked about new West Virginia coach Bill Stewart:

"He's got a great reputation, because he is who he is. He's a down-to-earth, good person, loves the game. ... The people who wonder on how he'll be (compared) with Rich are nuts. This guy's probably better than Rodriguez. I'm worried about him. We beat Rodriguez. We haven't gotten this guy. This guy worries me. I wish Rich would have stayed. But he didn't, so we'll have to go play Michigan now."

One more jab from Leavitt, talking about the job Mike Tranghese has done in creating the new Big East after the ACC raided Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech: "In the history of college football, one of the great stories is what Mike Tranghese did during that whole period of time ... the ability to hold and in some ways strengthen the Big East, while the other three schools seem to have watered down, I have to be honest with you, on the national scene."

Leavitt said he enjoyed his first Big East media gathering in 2005, when much of the talk was whether the new Big East even deserved an automatic berth in a BCS bowl. "I sat back and I had fun that year because I knew what was going to happen. Everybody's running around, wanting to get that story. I thought it was funny. I knew how people were going to work, the credibility of the Big East. I said I'll just sit back and let time take over. I knew it was going to happen, but I didn't know the other three would seem to have watered down as much."

No, wait, there's more: "These are powerful statements, and you can say all you want, but the facts are facts. We're 8-2 in bowl games the last two years. It's a test over time. We're 3-0 in BCS games with West Virginia and Louisville winning, and those guys didn't go through undefeated. They got beat in the Big East. To me, that is reality. How it'll be this year or next year, I don't know, but if you look back through the last two, three years, the facts are the facts."

(Rodriguez photo courtesy of University of Michigan)