Bonus! Grammar discussion with Jim Leavitt

Because USF coach Jim Leavitt does his weekly press conference with the media on Tuesdays, the post-practice interview session on Tuesday nights is typically a quick, uneventful interchange, because we've asked most of our questions earlier in the day and Leavitt isn't likely to share updates on injuries and such.

So it's no surprise that Tuesday's discussion digressed briefly into a rare discussion about ... grammar, not something you get often from Leavitt. USF has the video up on its official site, and it's far more enjoyable when it's seen and heard, but here's the actual verbatim conversation.

Leavitt (talking about not doing a "Bull Bowl" scrimmage with younger players Wednesday): "We're not going to do that. We're getting better work right now getting those guys in with the 1s and 2s, kind of influxing them. Influx. The art of fluxing in? I don't know.

Me: We know what you mean.

Leavitt: Is that a word?

Me: It's a word. Just not necessarily a verb.

Leavitt: And I was using it as a verb. Influx. I wonder why I wouldn't be able to use it a verb.

Me: These days, you can pretty much make anything a verb.

Leavitt: These days, yeah, that's true, which is probably for some people sad. Influx. The art of influxing.

Me: Like an influx of players.

Leavitt: Influx of players. But there's movement there. So that would be a verb.

Me: Not really.

Leavitt: That would be an interesting discussion. I think I could debate whether influx is a verb or a noun.

Me: If you can find somebody that will tell you influx is a verb ...

Leavitt: I'm not going to pursue it. Personally, I'm going to look at film. Influx in my office after film.

Comments

[Ken]

What a blog! Maybe, Greg, you could try to work a little Strunk and White into each entry?

[G.A.]

Well done, Gary. My son's middle name is Calvin, and it's hardly a coincidence.

[Gary S.]

What, no one here remembers Calvin and Hobbes?

Calvin: "I like to verb words."

Hobbes: "What?"

Calvin: "I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when 'access' was a thing? Now it's something we do. It got verbed. Verbing weirds language."

Hobbes: "Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding."

[G.A.]

No taxation without apostrophisation! Glad to see a grammar discussion on a college football blog. There's hope for all of us.

[ryan]

I think a better question would be, "Why was 'Chris' dog' the only correct version of singular possessive (when I was in grammar school) and only now has it become acceptable once again, considering it has always been the preferred version in Old English? Is not writing a way to express language and therefore, convey thought to one another? So, if I say Chris's dog, who decided that the former way of writing it was more beneficial? Was it simply to alleviate taxation of my pen hand?

[ryan]

Since diction is a byproduct of usage over time, influx could be a verb if it is used as such. 'Ain't' ain't a word either.

[USFShep]

Influx of overrated commentary.
I would say underachieved is more like it!

[Bulliever]

How the heck are we "overrated"....

We lost the Big East BEST quarterback in its ENTIRE History and a very accurate kicker. That would mess up a lot of teams, ie Oklahoma... And somehow we are overrated.

What about BYU? Boise State? Kansas? Penn State? Now these teams are overrated!! The media (except for GA) stinks, they are all just stupid, stupid, stupid... And you just can't fix stupid!

[Steve O'Neal]

That was hilarious! Thanks for the laughs, Greg!

[Turd Ferguson]

...this is further evidence that Leavitt shouldn't be a coach...

Posted by: USFMikeB | November 04, 2009 at 10:04 AM

------

Oh, come on now, Mike...that's just ridiculous. Why would you say something like that? Why do you hate Leavitt so much?

[USFMikeB]

I'm waiting for Turd to tell me that this is further evidence that Leavitt shouldn't be a coach...

;)

[Norb]

I'm laughing so hard that I'm getting an influx of acid reflux.

[Yogi]

Noone is making any cents hear.

[Steve Stacy]

GA,
I think it's uncool for you to pull Leavitt's grammar card, especially after using "noone" in the Schwartz article!

But I agree with you. "Influx" is definitely NOT a noun.

[Hernando]

A room full of football players "influxing" with movement is usually preferred to a room full of players "flatulating" with movement.

[DN]

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/pgStory?contentId=10313322#sport=COLLEGE%20FOOTBALL&photo=10313270

Forgot to post the link

[DN]

Came across this article, it has a little on USF, thought some of you guys might be interested in it, but it's nothing that we don't all already know.

[G.A.]

Ping, I had to remind Leavitt afterwards that my five-year window of eligibility ended back in '97. He seemed OK with that.

[Ken]

And he thinks "the art of influxing" would be a verb? Perhaps he means to influx? "Not really" to quote Greg. Not even close. Fortunately, he coaches football and Greg writes--both found the right niches.

[pingbull]

Greg:

How about CJL's comment during the press conference?

"If BJ and Landi were injured, who would be our 3rd string QB? Probably Greg Auman...that'd be ugly...just hand the ball off."

Classic. You've got to be his favorite reporter, hands down.

[cg]

This is one of my all-time favorite posts. I just laughed (out loud, even).

[G.A.]

It's not posted here as news, just random USF-related amusement. Lots of nouns seem like action -- flight, for instance -- but that doesn't make them verbs.

[BULL-iever]

good stuff. I know that most will read that and say that's why he can't take us to the next level (and I can argue either side there), but I think that personality is great.
And for the record, i agree with you G.A...influx is a noun. Though CJL is right, it does have movement. But movement in this case doesn't dictate its part of speech. Wow, we're reaching for notable material here, aren't we?