USF Defensive End George Selvie

On what opponents are doing to stop the USF pass rush...
“Sometimes they will trip our defensive ends. Sometimes they leave their running backs in. I believe that we have an unbelievable pass rush. We have applied pressure, but we haven’t gotten to the passer like we want to. We have missed some big sacks. People see that we have a good pass rush so they are leaving guys in there to help block, like tight ends and running backs.”

On being double and triple teamed...
“I’m learning to deal with that. It is getting easier and easier every week. I am learning to play those blocks better.”

On what this year’s team is best at...
“We learned to play through adversity. We pull together at the end to win ballgames. We have had some tough games. We had close games with UCF and Kansas. We pulled together and won those games as a team, as a defense and as an offense. We stay together no matter what comes our way. We are going to find a way to win.”

On USF having a target on their backs this season...
“Last year when that all happened we were just a team from Tampa. Now, everyone knows us as South Florida. We are the South Florida football team. We are a program to be reckoned with. Everyone is going to prepare for us like we are a big time program, like we are. They are going to play us hard. Some teams will have nothing to lose, like FIU. They are going to play hard every time.”

USF Head Coach Jim Leavitt

“I will just comment on our last game, and then just talk a little about NC State. Whenever you play a team like FIU, it’s not anything against FIU, but I don’t know if it’s human nature. We worked extremely hard in the week of practice. I knew they had two weeks off, and they were opening their stadium. I thought their team played hard. The frustrating thing for me was I didn’t think we played as well offensively as what I would expect. I felt our defense played well. We gave up the one pass play that was frustrating, other than that I felt our defense played pretty well. In the kicking game, we did some real good things, and we did some things that were not as good. We were kind of in between. Offensively we need to play better. 17-0 with two minutes to go and we have the ball, you really want to have the ability to move through it. It is a tough situation. You are going into their stadium. They had two weeks rest. You just have to go out there and match toughness and play. It shows that we have some talent. With the number of mistakes we made, to win the ballgame. We probably left 24 points out there. That shows that there is some talent on this team. We won the game. That is always good. I don’t look at winning and losing. We just want to play good football. If you play good enough football, you win games. We didn’t play good football throughout, but we still won. So we move forward. NC State is a very good football team. They had a very big win against East Carolina, who is a very good football team. They have got some momentum. It is a night game at their place. Our guys are going to have to be mentally tough. We have to go in there and play. We have to play better than we did last week in order to have a chance to win. We are excited about it. I think our guys will play well. I expect them to. I think we will play hard.”

USF Quarterback Matt Grothe

On his Touchdown to Interception ratio this year...
“I think I am just taking more of what the defense is giving me, and not trying to make so many plays. When we get down, trying to just play football, and not worrying about trying to make the plays.”

On maturing as a quarterback, and as a team...
“I think it has helped a lot. We are right where we need to be. We are 4-0. We have got one game left before we go into the BIG EAST schedule. As long as we can keep playing well, and put points on the board we will be fine.”

On the road game environment...
“I like the environment. I like going to that type of environment, and playing on the road. Two, three, four, five, six games in a row wouldn’t bother me. We have a couple home games coming after that. It will be a nice way to kick off the halway point of the season.

On this week’s game against N.C. State...
“I think we need to make a statement. It is an ACC team. Everyone has been saying the BIG EAST is down this year. So if we can come out and play well, and do like I know we can, it will help us as a team and help us nationally with everybody.”