Media Luncheon Quotes/Leavitt, Selvie, Grothe

[Brad]

Courtesy USF

Head Coach Jim Leavitt:

Opening Statement

“I’m being very sincere.  For a team to battle out of that hole like they did and then come back, with a chance to win on the last play is extraordinary.  I don’t know if I’ve seen a team come back and battle like that since I’ve been here.  I thought the defense played as good as I’ve ever seen a defense play in the second half.  I’m really proud of them.”

“Offensively, we went up and down the field.  It’s just turnovers.  We won the turnover battle the first six, we haven’t won the turnover battle the last three.  That’s it in a nutshell”

“Guys are playing hard, guys are doing what they ask us to do.  I’m real proud of the football team for that.”

“Syracuse is a good team, a good football team, played a tough schedule.  A lot like us, played a tough non-conference schedule.  We’re going to have to play extremely well. Turnovers are going to be big, kicking game is going to be big.  We’ll just play on Saturday, get ready to go.”

On the return of Matt Huners:

"Good player, did a great job.  For a guy to come back off that knee injury, and to give us some snaps, he’ll get better as he plays.  It’s a lot of courage.  I think the world of Matt.  Just tremendous courage."

On if the losses can simply be blamed on the turnovers:

"What is it, around 19 [actually 11] the last three games?  If you add them up, I don’t know how many it is.  You can’t win.  I don’t see many people that do.  I mean the last game we had a play at the end of the game. For us to be in the position we are to win is extraordinary to me.  To me it shows the courage and the heart and the passion that our guys play with is as good as I’ve ever seen on a football team.  You know the turnovers, you can’t, that’s pretty consistent, most coaches will say if you turn the ball over that many times you know, you’re going to have a hard time winning.  And we cane close in all three of them, even with the turnovers.  Which shows great resiliency to me, I mean it really does.  Shows a lot of character, a lot of real positive things."

On Carlton Mitchell:

“He’s done some great things.  You know, he had that ball in that end zone, both hands, and I thought the defensive back I thought made a real good play.  I thought it was a great football play.  Tremendous throw, tremendous catch, tremendous defensive play.  I thought that was a great football play.  It didn’t go in our favor, but it was a great football play.”

“I think Carlton has done a great job.  He’s a freshman who’s done a great job.  (Keith) Bogan I thought as a freshman did a great job.  A.J. (Love) is out thereMatt Grothe (courtesty J. Meric) working hard, freshman receiver, trying to do his best out there.  Those guys are all working hard.”

On whose idea it was to use Mike Jenkins on kickoff returns:

“Mine.  I mean Taurus is out.  We’ve had Mike back there before though.  I told Mike we really need you back there, he said ok.  Ya know he’s worked there before.  We’ve had him back on kickoff return before.  It’s not the first time.  Should we of had him there earlier?  Obviously yeah.  But Murphy was one of the top of the conference.  And Taurus was the guy who led our team, so we had the two guys.  But when Taurus went down, I went to get Mike because I knew Mike could run and do some things."

On the key to going to Syracuse:

"I think emotional.  I think your mindset is really important.  I think your mindset is going to be critical.  You’re going into a different environment.  You’re going to have to stay relentless and stay at the task and really work it.  I think that’s going to be really, really important.  I think that part is going to be a big thing.  Our guys have done a pretty good job of that.  I’ve been really impressed with the way our guys have come out and played, and they’ve got to continue to.  You’ve got to stay on edge, you’ve got to keep pounding it, and keep just doing the things you know you need to do.  Do I believe our guys can do that?  Yeah, absolutely."

Defensive Lineman George Selvie

On whether they’re a little disheartened as a defense:

“It’s been real tough.  We’re going out there, trying to play real hard and do the best we can to win.  But you know, that team was just better than us that day.  They just came to play hard, they might have wanted it more than we wanted it.  We just got to go out there and play hard, but its real tough on us because we really want to win.  And we’re gonna go out there and try to get turnovers to get our offense back on the field.”

On stopping the “snowball effect:

“We just go out there and practice hard.  We’ve been losing to teams by it coming down to the last minute of the game.  We just got to finish, you know finish strong like Jeff Wagner said.  We just gonna go out there and try to practice hard.”

On what the offenses might be doing to frustrate you and limit your presence:

"Not really.  I might have some backs on my side or some tight ends, but that’s no excuse.  I should always try to rush hard and get back there to the quarterback and try and help my team out, and we got other people doing the same.  We got Aaron Harris, Richard Clebert, Jarriet Buie, and Allen Cray and they’re trying the best they can do too.  We just got to get back togetting sacks as a defensive line and attacking the offensive line more."

Quarterback Matt Grothe

On whether he’s putting less at risk for injury this year:

"No, actually I think I’ve put myself with an opportunity to get hurt more this year than I did last year.  I think it was just coincidental last year or you know, the wrong place wrong time.  Like when I hurt my foot at the beginning of the year against UConn, it was just a freak thing.  Just got caught up underneath someone who was already on the ground and just rolled.  That just kind of went on the whole year.  Just freak accidents, but its part of football."

On his relationship with his receiving corps:

“We push each other.  If I throw a bad ball in practice they’ll let me know, and if I throw a ball I thought should have been caught, I’ll let them know.  It’s just competition.  You know what’s going on, and we want to push ourselves to do the best we can.”

On how the offense can stop the losing streak:

“Come out and score points early, and put it on our defenses back.  Because that’s when you win ball games.  You come out and put points on the board early, it means they’re going to have to start throwing the ball and we can make some nice plays that can get everybody going.”

[cmhatter]

good to see them still thinking positive... i guess they are just saying what they are supposed to tho.