Grothe Out for the Season
The Big East Conference career leader in total offense was lost for the season when South Florida quarterback Matt Grothe suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during South Florida’s 59-0 victory over Charleston Southern Saturday night.
"Matt is a great quarterback and his play speaks volumes ," South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said. "He is just a great young man and we are all sorry for what happened."
Grothe had started 41 consecutive games for the Bulls. HIs 10,875 yards of total offense surpassed Patrick White’s conference record.
Redshirt freshman B.J. Daniels will step in and start at quarterback for the Bulls when they play at No. 18 Florida State on Saturday.
"B.J. is a confident young man with great athletic talent," Leavitt said. "B.J. will continue to grow and develop . He has a number of strengths himself. I know B.J will work hard to prepare. His focus has always been great."
Leavitt continues to look ahead to South Florida’s first game with Florida State.
"For us to have the opportunity to play them is very, very important for our program," Leavitt said. "We want to play games like this. We have the Big East and those are the most important games for us, but this is a very important step getting involved in games like this."
Leavitt has addressed the Grothe situation with the entire team.
"We talked about it (as a team) and we are moving forward," the coach said. "I don’t think it is being callous to say. They all love Matt to death and he knows that. But injuries are part of the deal. We have had a bunch of them the last few years. I understand that the quarterback is a little bit different. He is your leader, but we are moving forward. Matt expects us to do that, and we will."
Freshman QB Savage Recovering from HIt
Tom Savage of Rutgers remained motionless on the field for nearly a minute after a jarring hit he took from Florida International defensive end Armond Willis Saturday night. Savage was attended to on the field for about four minutes before he got up and walked off the field under his own power.
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano was satisfied Sunday that Savage did not suffer a concussion. Schiano said the quarterback "was dinged a little bit."
Schiano said the hit was scary because there was both helmet-to-helmet contact and Savage hit his head on the ground.
"Both of those things are pretty hard," Schiano said. And (Savage) did both on that play. We’ll have to chalk it up to it being a good hit, (but) it’s one that we shouldn’t allow our quarterback to take.”
Savage has started the last two games for Rutgers–wins over Howard and Florida International. Rutgers will play at Maryland Saturday afternoon.
Turnovers (Both Lost and Gained) Killing the Mountaineers
Turnovers are a major issue for the Mountaineers. As everyone knows, the six turnovers committed and the -5 in turnover margin cost the team the game at Auburn.
Here are the numbers overall: WVU has committed ten turnovers while gaining just three takeaways. The Mountaineers are 116th in the country in turnover margin .
The three take aways rank WVU at #94 in the country.
They are the only big east conference team yet to recover a fumble.
There was also a bit of concern about WVU quarterback Jarrett Brown after Brown came out of the Auburn game after landing on his shoulder.
"Jarrett is just sore," Mountaineer coach Bill Stewart said Monday. "He got body slammed and he had guys pushing on his face and all of that stuff. They roughed him up a little bit.
"But he is a tough guy and a big strong guy. He will be ready to go come Colorado."
Cincinnati Bumps Up Into the Top 15
The Bearcats are No. 15 in the coaches poll and No. 14 in the AP poll following Saturday’s impressive 28-18 road win over a ranked Oregon State team.
It was the third game in 13 days for Cincinnati and the Bearcats struggled early. But with the game on the line in the fourth quarter, quarterback Tony Pike led Cincinnati on a clutch touchdown drive culminating with a 19-yard scoring pass to Mardy Gilyard.
"For our team, it was a gut check," Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly said. "We got behind on the road at a tough place and fought back. In the development of a football team, you have to be able to past these tests. I think we have done a good job."
The Bearcats will host 1-2 Fresno State Saturday. Fresno State is coming off a 51-34 loss to Boise State on Friday night.
Although the Bearcats lost ten starters from a Big East title team last season, several young players have emerged on the defensive side.
Sophomore linebacker Walter Stewart stepped in as a starter. Stewart had 2.5 sacks in the Oregon State win. Sophomore linebacker JK Schaffer had eight tackles and came up with a key interception late in the game. Redshirt freshman strong safety Drew Frey led the team in tackles with 12 in the game.
Some young offensive talent has emerged as well. Sophomore wide out D.J. Woods had career highs with seven receptions for 117 yards. Sophomore running back Isaiah Pead had 87 yards of total offense with 46 yards rushing and three receptions including a touchdown.
Pitt Defense Stops Navy
The Panthers held a navy team averaging 238 yards per game on the ground to just 129 rushing yards to to 218 total yards in a 27-14 victory.
The Pitt defense held Navy to just 2.8 yards per rushing attempt. The Panthers had six sacks.
Quarterback Bill Stull led the offense as he went 17-24 for 245 yards and a touchdown. Stull spread the ball around to eight different receivers. He even caught a pass himself on a deflected ball.
Emerging star Jonathan Baldwin had a career high 111 yards on six receptions.
True freshman linebacker Dan Mason was named Big East defensive player of the week following his 11 tackle, two sack performance against Navy in his first career start. Mason is in the lineup for the injured Adam Gunn.
"That was a pleasant suprise," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. "You never know with freshman.
"Adam expects to play again this week. You can never have enough good players. Dan will continue to play special teams as far as how much linebacker play he’ll get, we’ll see."
This Saturday, its a trip to 2-1 North Carolina State for a 3:30 start time.
"They look similar to us on defense," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said Monday. "They are big, athletic and active. I really like their defensive line."
N-C State is getting brilliant quarterback play from Russell Wilson. Wilson threw for a career high 345 yards last week during a win over Gardner-Webb. Wilson, in that game, set an NCAA record in that game as he has thrown 329 consecutive passes without an interception.
"You can tell that he is extremely intelligent ," Wannstedt said of Wilson. He gets the ball out as quick as any player we will see all year. He knows exactly what he is doing."
Pitt has won six of its last seven on the road.
Syracuse Busts Out on Offense
The Orange earned their first win of the season 37-34 over Northwestern on Ryan Lichtenstein’s field goal in the final seconds.
The Syracuse offense produced 471 yards and 37 points in the game, more than the output of its previous two games combined.
Lichtenstein earned Big East special teams player of the week honors for his effort. The Orange also had the offensive player of the week in the conference. Wide receiver Mike Williams was honored after his 11 catch, 209 yard, two touchdown effort.
"We managed to get Mike into situations where he was able to make a play," Syracuse coach Doug Marrone said. "Being out of football for a year and now coming back as a continued impact player, that is a really good sign for us. Mike is an excellent athlete who can make plays all over the field. We just have to get the ball in his hands as many times as we can."
Louisville Travels to Utah
Utah had the longest FBS winning streak in the country prior to a loss at Oregon State last week. Utah had won 16 consecutive games prior to a 31-24 loss to Oregon. Louisville will visit Utah this week.
Louisville played well in a loss to rival Kentucky. Down 17-7 at halftime, the Cardinals rallied to take leads of 20-17 and 27-24 in the fourth quarter before losing.
"We had plenty of chances to win," Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe said. "Especially with those two fourth quarter leads."
The Louisville offense produced a number of big plays, something that had been missing.
Victor Anderson–who went over 100 yards rushing–had a 35-yard run, Scott Long had a 32-yard catch and Trent Guy had a 66-yard reception that went for a touchdown. The Louisville defense also forced four turnovers.
U-Conn Solid at Baylor
Both Andre Dixon and Jordan Todman went over 100 yards rushing for the second consecutive week as the Huskies won at Baylor 30-22. U-Conn finished with 235 yards on the ground.
"We went down with three offensive starters out," Connecticut coach Randy Edsall said. "The guys that went in did a great job."
Quarterback Cody Endres managed the game well as he finished 12-23 for 147 yards Endres played in place of the injured Zach Frazer. The U-Conn offense held the ball 39:44. With the limited possession time, Baylor had just 266 yards of total offense.
Connecticut (2-1) will host Rhode Island this week prior to a week off. Big East Conference play will then begin with a trip to Pitt October 10.