Safe to say USF Coach Jim Leavitt has come to grips with the reality favorite foil P-Rod is no longer at WVU. He just can’t quit the school’s head coach, though.

As part of a spring game promotion, Leavitt ran the 40-yard dash and gave students a chance to beat it and win a prize. The trick was the build-up, and Leavitt played the part, going so far as to say he’d beat 6.0 seconds … and to toss a soft jab at Oll Stewart, who, by the way, has his spring game Saturday. Might a rebuttal be in play?

“My goal is to break a six-flat,” Leavitt said after Wednesday’s practice. “I’ll probably hit a 5.99. If anyone can’t beat me, that will be really sad. If there’s a student that can’t beat me … it ain’t like 5.9 is fast.”

Leavitt, 52, joked that there probably wasn’t any other Big East coach that he could beat in the 40. Not even West Virginia’s 56-year old Bill Stewart. “It would probably be neck to neck,” he said.

Leavitt clocked a 5.72, which was much better than Mr. McMurphy’s mock prediction for what might happen if coaches were to race.

Gets off to a great start midway through the race running mostly against weak non-conference coaches. In the second half of the race Leavitt notices he’s running against Big East Conference coaches and stumbles down the stretch. To top it off, Leavitt jumped offside and was penalized five seconds. Afterward in the postgame news conference, Leavitt storms out after four questions, but shakes a reporter’s hand for asking a “positive” question.