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Buffs Hire Defensive Coordinator Leavitt For Hefty Price Tag

DENVER (CBS4) - The CU Buffaloes broke the bank for their latest coaching hire. Defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt was hired for a cool $500,000 a year, a hefty salary even by CU's standards.

This is the most the Colorado Buffaloes football team has has ever paid an assistant coach -- but he isn't your typical assistant.

Leavitt spent the last four years coaching in the NFL, and before that he was the longtime head coach at University of South Florida.

Leavitt was fired from that job in 2010 when he was accused of striking one of his own players during halftime. He maintains that he never hit the player, "I've always told the truth, I've always been honest, and that's what I've always been."

He said, "I was disappointed that I was not going to be at South Florida anymore, but in my heart I was fine. The only thing I can do is tell the truth, be honest, and move forward."

Mike McIntyre, CU head coach, said he knew Leavitt before this incident, and that he did not have to earn McIntyre's trust back, "I knew him through all that and then I got to really know him well when he came to San Jose, we went to church together, I would see him at practices."

macintyre
(credit: CBS)

McIntyre said, "I am excited about Jim being here, I trust him and I believe in him and what we're going to do."

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