Sports Frog

Welcome to the big-time, South Florida. Top ten ranking? Feel good story? Now, a target for folks to criticize. Which is to be expected. But what wasn't to be expected? That the targeting and open criticism would come from, say, Nick Saban. Nick Saban, what's your beef with South Florida?

"There are a significant amount of players who don't qualify and they end up being pretty good players at some other schools," Saban said in an interview with the Birmingham News. "I think there are six guys starting on the South Florida defense who probably would have gone to Florida or Florida State, but Florida and FSU couldn't take them."

Ooof.

Care to respond, someone from South Florida? Like say, South Florida coach Jim Leavitt?

""(Saban) and I have always had a good relationship, but to sit there and tell the world something that he doesn't know about is not right," Leavitt said at his weekly press conference in Tampa. 'Six defensive starters? Why's he making a statement like that? Florida, Florida State didn't recruit those guys anyway. Why that bothers me is it takes a hit at the credibility of our program that we can't do it with just hard work. There always has to be some reason. That is the heart and soul of our program. So he's attacking the heart and soul.'"

Class, as always, from Saban.