Courtesy ESPN.com & Ivan Maisel
The only thing that's not old school about South Florida redshirt sophomore quarterback Matt Grothe is that he's not old. Name another player described as having "moxie," a word that ran out of eligibility years ago.

Yet Bulls coach Jim Leavitt plucked it out of thin air to describe how Grothe took over the offense last season as a redshirt freshman. He led South Florida to a 9-4 record, including a 24-19 upset victory at No. 7 West Virginia.

"I knew that he had the moxie to really be something special," Leavitt said. "And I saw it during two-a-days. How he was going to do, I didn't know. I knew he was a competitor. I knew he was a good football player. I don't want to give him too many accolades yet."

As Leavitt thought out loud, an earlier play popped into his head, from December 2005, when the Bulls prepared to play North Carolina State in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

"We put our young guys out there and let them scrimmage," Leavitt said. "And Matt threw a seam route, got on top of the ball, to [wide receiver] Taurus Johnson. And I grabbed him right then, I said, 'Matt, you're going to get a great shot in the spring.' I knew right then that we got to really look at this guy. He's pretty impressive."

The 6-foot, 211-pound Grothe is a native of Lakeland, Fla. He threw for 2,576 yards with a 63.7 percent completion rate and also led the Bulls in rushing, with 622 yards and nine touchdowns. Some of those yards Grothe got by being fast. Some he got by putting his head down.

CLICK HERE to read the complete feature on Grothe...