USF Press Conference Quotes: Leavitt, Selvie, Grothe

[Brad]

Courtesy USF

Leavitt Press Luncheon - 9-8-08

Q: Coach can you talk a little bit about the Kansas defense.

A: They’re good. No, I mean really good, they’re experienced. They run, they’re strong, they’re good. You don’t see many weaknesses there.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about Reesing?

A: He’s good. I don’t see any weaknesses there either. He runs, he throws, he’s good, he’s very good.

Q: Obviously a very emotional day for Mo Plancher this past weekend, talk about his performance.

A: I thought he did good. Thought he did good both games he played in. He’s a good football player. I didn’t talk to Mo a lot about it, Coach Franks talked to him a little more, I knew Mo could take care of himself, I just thought he ran extremely well.

Q: With Reesing, how important is it for you to get to him and get into the backfield?

A: Well, I don’t know if it’s so much with him or anybody, you always want to try to get some pressure somewhere at certain times, he’s seen a lot of defenses, this is not the first time someone has talked about getting pressure to him. I mean he’s played a lot of people, there’s a lot of good coaches out there. Just cause someone says you’re trying to do that doesn’t mean you can, there’s a lot of things it’s not just about that, there’s a lot of things involved here, not just about forcing pressure.

Q: How would you assess the performance you saw from front four defensively and the pass rushing you got against UCF?

A: I thought they did a good job. The only running yards they got, which we knew they would get was with the quarterback.  I would probably take that 31 yards back, but they were pretty good, thought they did a good job.

Q: Is it going to be difficult coming off of a hard fought win and then having a short week to prepare?

A: No. I’m excited. Why would it be tough for the players, they don’t go full pads at all, they get out there and get to play another game, they should be on fire, playing one of the top teams in the country I don’t see it being tough, I see it being exciting

Q: The punt returns, you had a BIG EAST record against Tennessee Martin, obviously the opponent change, is there anything you can do...

A: Their punter did an outstanding job of getting the ball up, but we didn’t really have a whole lot of room to run, the punter was very different for both teams. The punter for the first game was not near as effective. Their punter, anytime the ball was way up there, even if we protected Marcus a little better, which we could have, I don’t know if we could have gotten much better returns against them.

Q: What’s the health of your running backs?

A: A little unsure. I was with them this morning, they’re still getting treatment, we’ll see.

Q: Do you have some other breakdowns on special teams, punt returns? Are there some personnel changes you need to make, or maybe go a different scheme?

A: I think what we’re doing is fine. I just think the way we’re doing it needs to get little better. Just like our kickoff coverage was outstanding except for one time, that was a big one time our punt coverage a couple times this year was very good. I was really disappointed we didn’t keep the ball from going in the end zone one time, but we got a lot of young guys in the kicking game. We’ve had some outstanding kicking teams and we don’t really change year to year too much. We know what we’re doing we just got to get people to understand it a little better.

Q: How do you expect to get the defense ready for Kansas?

A:  They do some similar things that we do.  They are very good at what they do and have a great football team all the way through.

Q:  How will you address the placekicking this week?

A:  I’m not sure.  We have got to figure out a way to get the ball through the uprights.  Both our protection and are kicking needs some resolving.  Delbert is a very good kicker.  You have to remember he’s doing a lot both as a punter and a kicker.  He’s hit a lot of big field goals for us in games so it’s not always just about the kicker.  We need to protect well and do some other things better.  I’m confident we’re going to get better.

Matt Grothe Press Luncheon - 9-8-08

Q:  Playing opposite a good quarterback, is that fun for you?

A:  Yes, I’m sure throughout the week there will be a lot of comparisons between me and him.  I think it will be more fun for our defense since they see that type of quarterback all year long.  Both defenses know what to expect and it should help us all around.

Q:  What do you like or dislike about these Friday games?   

A:  There are not that many other games on Friday nights so we get a lot of more extra exposure.  There are some downsides though because we have to get our stuff together with not as much practice time.  I’m looking forward to this game probably as much as any other game I’ve played.

Q:  Does it make it tougher going into the game with less time?

A:  No, I mean there are going to be times this year where we have even less time than this week.  We’re always going to be ready physically, it’s just getting there mentally.  We’re going to need a little more work this week and we’ll be prepared Friday night.

Q:  What about the Kansas defense do they do well and what kind of problems can they give you?

A:  I think everyone knows that they have an extremely talented defense and have a lot of experienced guys.  We played them two years ago and they have a lot of the same guys back.  They’re just good at what they do and they execute.  It will be a great task but I think we will do a good job against them.

Q:  One of your first starts was against Kansas.  After looking at the film, do you see any similarities?

A:  Yes.  Going into that game, we knew they had a great defense with a lot of young guys.  They’re going to be better than what they were before, but so are we.

Q:  Is there anything about the UCF game that surprised you?

A:  Not really, I knew they were better this year.  It’s kind of hard for them not to play well in front of there fans and since it would be the last time we played.  They have a top five secondary in the nation and I knew they were going to be good, it was just all about executing what we do.  I knew it would probably come down to the last play, but it was kind of nice winning it in overtime.

George Selive Press Luncheon - 9-8-08

Q:  Talk about the amount of attention you’ve gotten with the double teams in the first two games.

A:  They have been throwing a lot at me lately but with them doing that, it just allows the other playmakers on my defense to come through.

Q:  Is it hard not to get frustrated?

A:  I do get frustrated sometimes, but I realize I need to stay grounded and just play the game because when that comes, that’s when you start to make mistakes, so I just play hard and do the best I can so my team can win.

Q:  How do you think the defense has played?

A:  I think we’ve been playing real well by just shutting down some offenses.  UCF didn’t score in the first half against us and didn’t score until four minutes left in the second half so we defended them real well.  We’re not getting much statistics, but no one has run the ball on us yet so we just try to go out there and play good defense.

Q:  Can you talk about Kansas’ style of offense?

A:  I haven’t really watched film on them this year, but last year I saw them a little bit.  They run the same type of offense we do, they have big running backs and big offensive linemen, so they look good.

Q:  Does the similarities of the offenses make things easier for you?

A:  It does.  We see it everyday so we should be able to play them.

Q:  What do you remember about your trip to Kansas a couple years ago?

A:  I just remember playing a fairly decent game, but they kept converting on third downs.  It wasn’t a bad game for us, but we didn’t win in the end.  I think they scored 13 points on us so it was a good game, but we have to stop them on third downs this time. 

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[BleedGreenAndGold]

Q:  Is there anything about the UCF game that surprised you?

A:  Not really, I knew they were better this year.  It’s kind of hard for them not to play well in front of there fans and since it would be the last time we played.  They have a top five secondary in the nation and I knew they were going to be good, it was just all about executing what we do.  I knew it would probably come down to the last play, but it was kind of nice winning it in overtime.

Yeah, that was awesome Matt.  My blood pressure thanks you.

[ksquire]

He’s hit a lot of big field goals for us in games so it’s not always just about the kicker.  We need to protect well and do some other things better.

Have to disagree with CJL on this. He's bad.