ESPN College Football

Here is your daily serving of lunchtime links.

Desmond Conner of The Hartford Courant evaluates UConn's receivers. Plus, here is the final UConn depth chart of the spring.

Mike Casazza of The Charleston Daily Mail refutes recent reports about a history of problems involving Dana Holgorsen.

Did Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross make the right move in putting the season opener on a Thursday night? More Syracuse scheduling news here.

Former USF coach Jim Leavitt is pulling for his old squad.

Now the sun seems to be rising on the Big East, writes Eric Crawford of the Louisville Courier-Journal. Good information in here on where Louisville stands on the expansion issue.

• Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel grades the offseason coaching hires, and he likes Paul Pasqualoni a lot better than Todd Graham. Dennis Dodd ranks the coaching hires in order and puts Graham at No. 2 and Pasqualoni at No. 6.
• Jim Leavitt is excited about his new opportunity.
• The Big East and Syracuse are digesting Texas's new Texas-sized TV deal.
• Cincinnati picked up a defensive lineman.
• UConn's Kendall Reyes was not among the underclassmen who applied for the NFL draft.
• TCU might be getting an unwanted going-away gift from the Mountain West.
• Is Greg Schiano on the hot seat for 2011?

• Todd Graham hired a bunch of people he is familiar with on the Pitt staff. Graham had a fun first week.
• Rich Rodriguez wrote a check to West Virginia.
• A UConn recruit is weighing his options.
• Former USF coach Jim Leavitt has landed a job as an assistant with the San Francisco 49ers.

• It was time for Randy Edsall and UConn to part ways. Paul Pasqualoni's values are the same now as they were when he was an up-and-comer in his home state. Mark Whipple isn't bitter that he got passed over by the Huskies.
• Pitt can expect passion and energy from new coach Todd Graham.
• West Virginia has plenty of room left for new recruits.
• Jim Leavitt is ready to move on.
• A quartet of Rutgers signees got started in the spring semester.

• Syracuse picked up a receiver and a linebacker on the recruiting circuit.
• A split decision on Todd Graham.
• Hal Mumme talks about how Dana Holgorsen got his start and his offensive philosophy.
• UConn is still in a holding pattern with its coaching search.
• Jim Leavitt is being considered for a job with the San Francisco 49ers. USF has already moved on.

Almost a year to the day he was fired by South Florida, former Bulls coach Jim Leavitt and the school reached a settlement for $2.75 million on Tuesday night.

It's a hefty price tag, but Leavitt had been seeking to regain nearly $7 million that was left on his contract. He and his attorneys had planned a long, protracted fight that would have had Leavitt and the school air a lot of grievances in a public setting, which wouldn't have left either party looking good.

Now everybody can move on. The Bulls just completed a promising eight-win season under new coach Skip Holtz. Leavitt, who's been in coaching exile for a year, might now look less toxic to potential employees. Heck, even Joel Miller -- the player Leavitt was accused of grabbing at halftime of a 2009 game -- has moved on and played a key role in the team's win over Miami in November.

It's sad that things had to end this way between Leavitt and the program he built from scratch. But at least now this episode can be put to rest.

• Is Miami of Ohio's Mike Haywood the man for Pittsburgh?

• Oliver Luck learned a lesson about how to conduct a coaching search. Luck showed who is in charge.

• Lew Perkins reflected on his role in bringing UConn into big-time college football.

• Rob Long's brain surgery apparently went well. An Orange freshman receiver has recovered from his injury and will be ready next year.

• Jim Leavitt recommended Al Golden to Miami.

First some expansion reaction, then on to other business. (Funny how the last week of the season is also the newsiest, huh?)

• Adding the Horned Frogs bolsters the Big East and the BCS. TCU is a good fit for the league. TV, not geography, matters in this move. This fits in with the sport's wacky year. The Horned Frogs are miles ahead of Memphis.
• Rutgers pushed hard for the Western expansion. Adding TCU puts more pressure on cash-strapped Cincinnati. The Horned Frogs breathe some life into the Big East.
• Should the Big East voluntarily give up its BCS bid this year? It's a specious argument, and one that holds even less water after Boise State and LSU lost.
• Dave Wannstedt is more concerned with this week's game than his job status.
• The Champs Sports Bowl isn't necessarily sold on Notre Dame, especially if a 9-3 West Virginia is available.
• Is Charlie Strong's 6-6 record overhyped?
• Randy Edsall says he hasn't been contacted by Minnesota about the Gophers' vacancy.
• Could Jim Leavitt resurface at Miami? He has a strong connection to the Hurricanes' AD, though I'd still be stunned if he's hired as head coach there.

• Pitt's Greg Romeus could be out as long as eight weeks, if he's even able to return.
• In the wake of Brandon Hogan's suspension, it's time for Brodrick Jenkins and Pat Miller to walk the walk.
• NC State's coaches are very familiar with Cincinnati.
• UConn needs to approach the Temple game with a sense of urgency.
• Jim Leavitt is trying to tie a questionable hiring of a basketball recruit's trainer into his wrongful termination suit against USF.
• The next two games could allow Syracuse to build some depth.
• Darius Ashley could be in line for more playing time at Louisville.
• Rutgers is getting back to basics on offense during its bye week.
• Villanova is only part of the answer for the Big East.

• Bill Stewart likes what he's hearing about the Mountaineers this summer.
• A countdown of the 30 most unforgettable games in West Virginia history nears its conclusion.
• South Florida released nearly 300 pages of notes from its investigation into Jim Leavitt as the lawsuit in the matter continues.
• The Bulls heard from a former NFL great about how to carry themselves on and off the field.
• Cincinnati got a commitment from an Ohio lineman.
• A former Rutgers player is enjoying life at Delaware.

• Cincinnati receiver Lynell Payne has transferred to Youngstown State.

• Syracuse got a commitment from an "under-the-radar" New York linebacker.

• West Virginia never offered Spencer Boyd a scholarship but did land another quarterback.

• Jim Leavitt continues to try to clear his name.

• The Courier-Journal's Eric Crawford has an interesting Q&A with Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich about conference expansion. "You don't know what to react to. There's no way to be proactive. What I keep telling the board and everybody is that we've just got to take care of ourselves, continue to grow, continue to improve academically, because that's what people are going to look at."
• West Virginia's coaching salaries are tops in the Big East, Mike Casazza writes in the Charleston Daily Mail.
• Academic achievement might be Greg Schiano's greatest success story, Steve Politi writes in The Star-Ledger.
• South Florida will turn over its investigative notes to Jim Leavitt and his legal team, Scott Carter reports in the Tampa Tribune.
• Cincinnati landed a coveted local linebacker, Tim Adams writes for the Cincinnati Enquirer.

• Watch Tavon Austin's highlights, and you'll see a future superstar, Bob Hertzel writes in the Times West Virginian.
• The legal battle between South Florida and Jim Leavitt returns to court today, Scott Carter reports in the Tampa Tribune.
• Louisville's athletic budget has increased by $11 million, thanks in part to an expanded Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, C.L. Brown writes in The Courier-Journal.
• Rivalries and tradition will be gobbled up by expansion, Joe LaPointe writes for FanHouse.

• Andy Staples' way-too-early Top 25 for SportsIllustrated.com includes Pitt (16), Cincinnati (19) and UConn (24). Glad I'm not the only one high on the Huskies.

• Bill Stewart talked about the state of the West Virginia program over breakfast with the Charleston Daily Mail's Jack Bogaczyk.

• More wrestling in the South Florida-Jim Leavitt case, as Leavitt's lawyers fired back at the Bulls' response to their lawsuit, Scott Carter reports in the Tampa Tribune.

South Florida's attorneys have filed a response to ex-coach Jim Leavitt's lawsuit against the school in which they've requested that about half of Leavitt's complaint be omitted, Greg Auman reports in the St. Petersburg Times.

The USF motion alleges that many of the allegations in Leavitt's lawsuit have nothing to do with the reason he was fired and are "consistent with the plaintiff's counsel's efforts to try their client's case in the press."

Leavitt's lawsuit argues that he is owed $375,000, or one-12th of his remaining contract, even if his firing were justified. USF says that Leavitt is owed only one-12th of his base contract, or $66,667.

Leavitt was fired in January following a university investigation into a complaint that he grabbed and slapped walk-on Joel Miller at halftime of the Nov. 21 Louisville game.