Niceville grad Sager ready to make impact at South Florida
Going back to his days as a stud defensive end at Niceville, Luke Sager had grown used to being known as the resident Big Man on Campus. But all of that changed the moment he stepped onto the campus of the University of South Florida.
Even at 6-foot-4, 243 pounds, the once hulking Sager was little more than another baby-faced freshman when stacked up against his contemporaries in the Bulls Athletic Training Center. Immediately, Sager knew he had his work cut out for him.
“I was undersized when I came in,” Sager said of his redshirt season of a year ago. “But I put on a good 30 pounds and that helped a lot with me being able to play with these guys. I was able to come out and have a really good spring.”
That strong showing in April has catapulted the former Eagle to No. 2 at one of the defensive tackle positions on the latest South Florida depth chart. It also prompted assistant coach Kevin Patrick to laud Sager as a potential pillar of future USF defenses.
“(Sager was) a nice bright spot for us,” Patrick told GoUSFBulls.com following the conclusion of spring drills. “He’s put on some good weight. He’s learning to be more physical down inside and giving us a little bit more depth.
“We’re looking for a lot of great things out of him in the near future,” Patrick added. “He’s a guy we’ll rely upon because he’s going to do what you ask him to do and go after it.”
Sager’s first run as a Bull was a mercurial one, to say the least. South Florida opened with five straight wins for a third consecutive season before cooling off down the stretch and dropping five of its last seven regular season contests. In 2007, USF started the year 6-0 and had risen to a No. 2 national ranking before dropping three straight games to tumble out of the Top 25. Then, in 2008, the Bulls began the year 5-0 only to lose four of their next five.
Complicating matters last fall was the messy circumstances off the field that engulfed the program as a result of accusations — and an ensuing school investigation — centered on head coach Jim Leavitt. According to multiple reports, Leavitt, the only head coach in program history, had grabbed a player during halftime of the Nov. 21 Louisville game by the throat, slapped him in the face and later lied about the incident. Leavitt was later fired.
“That was pretty rough for the team,” Sager said. “Everybody was torn between what they should believe and what was right and wrong.”
Former East Carolina coach Skip Holtz was later tabbed as Leavitt’s successor and according to Sager, the focus of the program now is of finishing what they start and debunking the recent trend of fading when the calendar flips to October.
“We have to show we can finish out a season,” Sager said. “Our expectations are to win a Big East championship … anything less than a Big East championship is failure for us.”
As for what should be a much-increased role in the Bulls’ fortunes next season, Sager said he couldn’t be happier with the way his collegiate career has begun.
“Everything is going the way I always hoped,” Sager said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more. I just have to keep going hard and keep being myself, and hopefully everything will keep going good.”
