Game 5 Player to Watch: Mike Love
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, SEPT. 29, 2017 – USF's defense has jumped on the national scene this season with an all-around impressive defensive end leading the sack attack.
Birmingham Bowl hero
Mike Love has gotten to the quarterback a team-best 2.5 times already to help the 4-0 Bulls rank 13
th nationally with 3.25 sacks per outing. Love is tied for third in the conference in sacks per game (0.75) heading into Saturday's conference showdown at East Carolina..
"He always does his job, he's always in the right place and he's a positive influence on the rest of the defense," said defensive coordinator
Brian Jean-Mary.
Typically quiet and polite, Love has become one of the defense's most vocal leaders since making the game-winning sack against South Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl. Younger players are eager to follow because of Love's all-out work ethic and dedication to doing the right thing.
"We'll only go as far as our senior leaders take us," Jean-Mary said. "Those guys have done a good job and
Mike Love has been an integral part of that."
Director of Athletics
Mark Harlan likes to tell student-athletes there's no coincidence that success in the classroom and community translates to excellence in competition. Love is a shining example with a criminology degree he earned in the fall of 2016, which was in the midst of USF Athletics' record-setting season for community service hours.
On the field, Love became a regular starter for the Bulls in 2016 and since then, he's racked up 5.5 sacks and 10.0 tackles for loss. Love's solid play this season has helped USF rank in the top 25 of nine different NCAA defensive stat categories, including tackles for loss (12
th, 8.3 per game) and total defense (13
th, 263.8 yards per game).
"I'm very, very happy for him," Jean-Mary said. "He's had a great four games and we're hoping he's able to continue that because we're going to need him to keep playing at a high level."
Love Finds His Way
Years before Love became a team leader for the Bulls, he was a teenager trying to find his way in life.
The Clearwater native went to live with his aunt in Wesley Chapel as an eighth-grader that needed a little tough love after getting into trouble at school.
"When you're that young, you don't know about after high school stuff," he said. "At that age in eighth grade, I didn't know anything."
After middle school, Love found the direction he needed in his second family. Chicago Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez, formerly with the Tampa Bay Rays, his wife, Lisa, and their four children welcomed Love to live with them at their home in Pinellas County.
Love was happy to be with close friend, Dalton, and stayed with the Martinez family from his freshman to junior year at Countryside High School. Love still made sure to spend the weekends with his mom, Shalonda, and also credits her for his positive upbringing.
"Since the day I moved in, everything was great. I got honor roll for the first time. They kept me on the right track," Love said. "Mom did an unbelievable job. She raised me well, I was just young at times, just immature."
Love still cherishes the Martinez family and still looks at Dave and Lisa as his second parents. Sometimes you'll even see Love sporting Cubs gear on campus in a show of support for Dave.
"He's been watching the games. He's been telling me to keep going. Every time we talk, he tells me he's proud of me," Love said. "I asked him if they're going to win this year again and he said they're going to win it. It's really exciting."
Support Helps Love Push Through Injuries
Love has made his loved ones proud in college by overcoming several obstacles to succeed as a Bull.
As a freshman, Love played in the 2013 season opener but missed the rest of the year after having knee surgery to repair a microfracture. A preseason foot injury also threw Love a curveball in 2015 and in that same season, he battled through a microfracture injury to his other knee that required surgery.
Right after the Miami Beach Bowl, Love and his mom drove right back to Tampa, so he could get on the operating table the very next morning at 6.
"My mom calls me every day and she tells me to keep working," Love said. "She's always telling me she's proud of me."
Love calls it a "true blessing" he's still able to play and feels better than ever in his first injury-free season at USF.
"I go and practice, and I don't feel anything," he said. "I continue to pray. I continue to work and get treatment every day."
With his mom and the Martinez family always there, Love never doubted himself while dealing with the injuries and his support circle grew even larger in 2015. That spring, Love met his father for the first time and the bond between the two has grown naturally since.
"I always had a father figure, which is Dave. My father being in it, it was just like a complete cycle. It was a good feeling and he was there for me," Love said. "He's taught me some things within two years, taught me a lot about being a man. He's still there for me every day and we talk all the time. I'm really blessed to have these people in my life, two dads and two moms."
About USF Football
USF finished the 2016 season ranked No. 19 in the Associated Press poll with a school-record 11 wins following the program's fifth-ever bowl victory in the Birmingham Bowl. The Bulls' 11-2 record marked the fifth-best winning percentage in FBS football in 2016 and one of just 11 teams to reach 11 wins. USF set nearly 40 team and individual records in 2016, including team records for total yards (6,650), rushing yards (3,714), touchdowns (77) and scoring (569). Junior quarterback Quinton Flowers was named the American Conference Offensive Player of the Year and led a school-record 10 players named to the all-conference team, six of which, including Flowers, returned in 2017.
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