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Forget The Hype; Worry About FAU

Gregg Becnel, Brett McMurphy

Published: October 1, 2007

For the past few weeks, the University of South Florida has been inundated with national attention because of its meteoric rise in the polls (No. 6 in the AP, No. 9 in the coaches).

And while Bulls coach Jim Leavitt has seemingly made the rounds and become the national media's most requested interview since USF's win at Auburn last month, he cautions his players to not get buried in the avalanche of hype.

"I hope they're just thinking about getting ready for FAU, because if they don't, we'll get beat," he said. "It's not too difficult to figure it all out. You saw six of the top 13 [ranked teams] got beat [this past weekend] and it'll happen to us if we don't play our very best game."

BIG RATINGS: USF's game against West Virginia on Friday night was the second highest rated regular-season football broadcast ever on ESPN2.

Friday's game, which attracted 2.6 million viewers, drew a Nielsen rating of 2.7, which is the second best in ESPN2's history behind a LSU-Tennessee meeting in 2005.

BULLS ADD TWO: Northeast (Miss.) Community College WR Anthony Jones (6-foot-1, 180 pounds) and DT Corey Grissom (6-2, 275), of LaGrange (Ga.) Troup County High. verbally committed to USF.
Jones, a sophomore from Tallahassee Rickards, has 23 catches for 271 yards and four TDs in five games this year. "They've always been with me, they were the first school to offer me," said Jones, who signed with Oklahoma State out of high school but didn't qualify.

ODDS AND ENDS: USF's home game vs. UCF on Oct. 13 will begin at noon and will be televised by ESPNU. The game is expected to be the school's second consecutive sellout, as the entire lower bowl and upper-level east side is already sold out. … … LB Ben Moffitt was named Big East Defensive Player of the Week on Monday. … Friday's USF-West Virginia contest was the second highest rated regular-season football broadcast on ESPN2, attracting 2.6 million viewers. Only the 2005 LSU-Tennessee contest (2.7 million viewers) had more.

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