Jim Leavitt on K-State job reports: 'I don’t know anything about all of that stuff'

Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt was asked Wednesday if Kansas State coach Bill Snyder offered him a job last offseason.

His response: “I don’t know anything about all of that stuff.”

During a media session with Oregon reporters, Leavitt said he respects Snyder and would like to be a head coach again. But he did not shine any new light on recent reports that have linked him to the Wildcats.

“I’m not trying to be coy or get away from that,” Leavitt said, according to a video shared by The Oregonian. “I don’t remember all the different facts. I’ve always had a relationship with (Snyder). I’m his biggest fan. I forget. I don’t know all the different things that happened. I know I had the opportunity to come here, and I was pretty excited about that.”

Leavitt said he remains “very, very close” with Snyder.

“He gave me my first opportunity to go into coaching at Kansas State,” Leavitt said. “Everybody is going to see that, the background. Everybody knows about the clause in the contract. All of my time has been spent focusing on Oregon State.”

Last week, former ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy published an unconfirmed report K-State administrators had a verbal agreement with Leavitt to become head coach-in-waiting at K-State last December, but Snyder blocked the deal because he wanted his son Sean (K-State’s associate head coach and special teams coordinator) to take over for him when he ultimately decides to retire.

Earlier this week, Snyder said he tried to hire Leavitt as a position coach after linebackers coach Mike Cox left K-State’s staff in March. He said Leavitt turned down the opportunity to remain at Oregon, where he is one of the nation’s highest paid defensive coordinators, earning $1.15 million a year.

Leavitt has a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave his position without paying a buyout if he is named head coach at Kansas State.

Leavitt was an assistant under Snyder in the early 1990s before leaving to be the first head coach at South Florida. There, he built the Bulls into a regular winner, before losing his job in 2009 over allegations of player mistreatment.

He was considered a candidate to replace Snyder when he briefly retired in 2005, but timing issues and other obstacles got in the way of that possibility. Leavitt later flirted with joining Snyder’s staff as defensive coordinator after he left South Florida, but instead took a job coaching linebackers with the San Francisco 49ers. He returned to the college ranks with Colorado, and is now leading Oregon’s defense.

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Jim Leavitt on K-State job reports: 'I don’t know anything about all of that stuff'."