Leavitt denies hitting player; player's father backtracks

In the latest installment of “As the Bulls Turn”, head coach Jim Leavitt has denied an AOL FanHouse report that he struck South Florida special teamer Joel Miller during halftime of a Nov. 21 game.

And, more curiously, the father of the player allegedly on the receiving end of the twin hits is seemingly backing off the statements attributed to him in the original story.

Leavitt spoke to Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times this afternoon, and vehemently denied all that the article alleged.

“I’m appalled at it,” Leavitt said according to the Times. “It’s absolutely not true. It’s so wrong. It’s so far out there. I’m very disappointed something like this would be written.

“I shook a lot of different guys, but not in a forceful way. In my heart, I know I did nothing wrong. Nothing like that. I care so much for him.”

The university said this evening in a statement that they “are aware of the story and will review the matter promptly“, although Miller’s father seems to think that there’s no need for a probe.  That stance, though, stands in stark contrast to the words attributed to him in the FanHouse piece.

“You do something like that [on the street], you put them in jail,” Paul Miller, Joel’s father and a former Tampa police officer, told FanHouse. “Somewhere [Leavitt] crossed the line.” …

Paul Miller, who has spoken to FanHouse on five occasions since Dec. 1, said he initially didn’t want to disclose what happened because his son “just wants to play football. But at the same time, as a father, I’m very upset.

“If [Joel is] a whistle-blower, people say that they stand behind him and then they push everyone behind him. You still suffer some consequences. He’s a helluva football player. He just wants to play.”

This afternoon, in his conversation with the Times, Miller’s father was singing a vastly different tune.  So much so, in fact, he’s now in an entirely different choir in a church clear across the state.

“I stand behind the university and Coach Leavitt 100 percent,” Paul Miller said. “I truly believe there was no malicious intent to hit anyone. He grabbed his shoulder pad, but it was like a motivational thing. After talking with Joel, he was satisfied there was not a slap, not at all.”

So, to one media entity, the father intimates Leavitt did something that would get others jailed, then tells another that he stands behind the very same coach and is satisfied there was no violence committed toward his son?  Was the father misquoted?  Was he lying during the first interview?  The second one?  Or just a simple misunderstanding?

Something, as my mother was wont to say, reeks to high heaven in this whole situation.  We’re just not certain whether it’s one, some or all of the parties involved.