USF Bulls Quaterback Matt Grothe Bio

By: S Dean: Matt Grothe is currently the sophomore quarterback of the USF bulls. 6 feet tall and weighing in at 200 pounds, Matt is a Florida native who grew up in Lakeland and played for Lake Gibson High School, where he was a two-time state player of the year. Playing the position of quarterback for the entirely of his football career (which started in early childhood), Grothe grew up idolizing scrambling quarterbacks like Steve Young, Troy Aikman and Brett Favre.

Grothe was the most prolific freshman in the 2006 season, earning approximately 250 yards of total offense per game and contributing to 24 touchdowns. Grothe was the Big East’s third leading passer in 2006 and is a big reason that the Bulls are making a run at a national title this year.

Although Grothe had no shortage of college offers when he graduated from Lake Gibson High School (one of which was to play defensive back at Penn State), Goethe chose USF because he wanted to be part of what he knew would be USF’s football history.

Grothe is admittedly superstitions - repetitively wearing sweat bands up near his biceps during every game. He used to be obsessive about an Indianapolis Colts undershirt he wore during every game from 5th grade through his senior year of high school, but his Lake Gibson coach made him burn the shirt, so now he never wears an undershirt at all.

Grothe used to tape his left fingers, but he forgot to tape them before 2006’s 37-20 win over North Carolina. So he’s started a new practice of not taping his fingers at all and it certainly seems to be working for him.

By all accounts, Grothe is a humble, hard working young man, repeatedly stating he’s just happy to be playing for a Division I team. Undoubtedly, he’s not the only one who‘s ecstatic he's here.

Bulls Schedule

Sat, Sep 1
Elon
W 28-13

Sat, Sep 8
at (17) Auburn
W 26-23

Sat, Sep 22
North Carolina
W 37-10

Fri, Sep 28
(5) West Virginia
W 21-13

Sat, Oct 6
at Florida Atlantic
4:00 pm

Sat, Oct 13
UCF
TBA

Thu, Oct 18
at (21) Rutgers
7:30 pm

Sat, Oct 27
at Connecticut
TBA


Sat, Nov 3
(20) Cincinnati
TBA

Sat, Nov 10
at Syracuse
TBA


Sat, Nov 17
Louisville
TBA


Sat, Nov 24
at Pittsburgh
TBA

Underdog USF Bulls Defeat West Virginia Mountaineers

The 65,000 screaming fans present at Raymond James Stadium enjoyed quite a show as then 18th-ranked underdog USF bulls secured a 21-13 upset over fifth-ranked West Virginia on Friday night.

It was undoubtedly the hugest victory in USF football history and it propelled the Bulls to number 6 in the national polls. The move finally proved that the Bulls belong among the top football teams in the country and the team's consecutive victories against West Virginia and the recent defeat of Auburn were not lucky flukes.

For the weeks and days preceding the game, USF students, alumni and current players continuously heard how the mountaineers intended revenge for the Bulls’ win over West Virginia last year. But it was the Bulls instead of the Mountaineers that put on a show of punishing the Mountaineers and rendering one of the supposed best colleges mostly ineffective. An offense who previously had averaged more than 350 yards per game rushing was help to a mere 188 yards over 48 carries. The Mountaineers showed up with the second ranked rushing game in college football, including two Heisman Trophy candidates. These facts, however, did not seem to intimidate the Bulls, who played with aggressive confidence from the first snap of the ball, and effectively shut the supposed awesome Mountaineer offense down. For three consecutive years, the Bulls have limited top-ranking running back Steve Slaton and pretty early in the game they injured quarterback Pat White and knocked him out of the game.

The Bulls have been confident that it’s defense could hold any team on any night. The Bulls proved it Friday night. Bulls head coach Jim Leavitt has expressed pride in his team’s performance, but stressed that the Bull’s goal is to win the Big East title, beating the Mountaineers on the way to get there. He says he is already analyzing tape of the game, identifying reoccurring mistakes, with an eye on correcting them for upcoming games.

If the defeat of the Mountaineers and subsequent leap to number 6 in the polls isn’t enough, one poll even ranks USF the best team in the state.

After entering the poll for the first time two weeks ago following a win over Auburn, the Bulls have risen to number 6 in the AP poll and number 9 in the coaches' poll.

USF’s descent into the top 10 is the fastest rise ever for a college football team. Even better, USF is sitting pretty. USF is undefeated (4-0) with many of the top 10 teams recently struggling while USF’s star rises. Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Rutgers were all upset this weekend.

USF is in its 11th season of college football. In the early days, Coach Jim Leavitt and his staff practiced on a shoestring at Chamberlain high school and had to pull their cars up to the practice field so that the team could see during night practices.

USF has been in the Football Bowl Subdivision (I-A) since 2001. USF will play Florida Atlantic on Saturday.