USF, BIG EAST & Connecticut Game Notes
TAMPA -- BullsVision, the live streaming and on-demand multimedia player on GoUSFBulls.com, brings web browsers new video content on a daily basis and today's offering is the weekly press conferences with head coach Jim Leavitt and Matt Grothe.
Coach Leavitt talked with the media for nearly 30 minutes on Tuesday about the state of Bulls football and his excitement heading into the nationally-televised ESPN game against Connecticut Sunday night (8 p.m.). He was followed by junior quarterback Matt Grothe, who promised to play this weekend despite suffering an ankle injury against Rutgers.
Coach Leavitt Video | Matt Grothe Video
A handful of quotes are below:
USF Head Coach Jim Leavitt
On what her saw on film against Rutgers...
The most important thing that I wanted to know was if we really played hard. I also wanted to see what the reasons were for many of the mistakes that we made. One of the encouraging things that I saw was that I thought our guys were ready to play. That is real important to me. I thought they played extremely hard on the field. The only time that I thought we didn't play hard was on the last drive of the game. On that last drive, I didn't think that our guys on defense played as hard as I wanted them to play.
On turnovers...
The turnovers really hurt us. They hurt us in the first half, and they hurt us after that. We had one ball tipped. On one of the balls that was thrown a receiver should have done a different thing. Jessie fumbled. Jessie is a real good receiver for us, so that was huge. If that fumble didn't happen then we would have been across the 50. We were still in the hunt.
On the long pass plays...
They got two long pass plays on us. On the one against Murphy, Murphy should have had some help. We had some guys that didn't line up right. We should have had two guys on that post pattern. I don't know why we made the error. Those are things that we work on a lot. The effort was great, but there were too many mistakes, and too many turnovers. We can't have those things happen.
On Connecticut...
Connecticut is a good football team. They are extremely well coached. They are very good people. The running back that they have, I haven't seen many better than him. He runs hard and strong. He has quick feet. He blocks well on their blitz protection. Their offensive line is huge. They are big like Rutgers. They are a big group. They know what they are doing. They have their quarterback back. It looks like he is ready to go. They have a very good defense. They are very sound, and the play hard. Their kicking game is very well coached. This is a good football team.
On Matt Grothe...
I love Matt. I called him in to come talk to me on Sunday night. I just felt like it. He is such a competitor. He works hard. I think he is a winner. He may be trying a little too hard. This game he had some interceptions, but they weren't all his. He had about 10 big plays that he did make. You could put together a highlight reel of Matt Grothe this week. I wouldn't want anybody else in there. I think Matt would go out there on one leg if he had to. He would hobble through it. Matt wouldn't have come out of the game last game. Matt would've stayed in. We will keep him in a boot for a few days. We will keep him in a boot all the way until the pregame warm up if we need to. He will go out and play. He is the guy.
USF Quarterback Matt Grothe
On the Connecticut game...
I am really looking forward to this game. It is primetime, in the lights. It is on ESPN against a really good team. I am looking forward to it. I am looking forward to the chance to play football again. I just want to play.
On the frustrations this season...
I'm not worried about anything anymore. I just want to go out and play football. I want to go out there and have fun. As a team, if we just go out and play football and not worry about anything then the rest will come.
On the goal for the rest of the season...
We just want to win. We want to go out and win a game. It has been a few weeks since we have. We need one more win to go to a bowl. We are worried about this week, and getting that win so we can make it to wherever that may be. We will worry about West Virginia when West Virginia comes. This week we are just worried about getting that one more win to get us over the hump. We need to get out of the hole.
