Grothe’s final message to UCF fans

Posted Sep 8, 2008 by Brett McMurphy

Updated Sep 8, 2008 at 03:49 PM

Yes, University of South Florida QB Matt Grothe has a new cell phone number. He actually laughed when he saw UCF fans holding up his now old phone number (863-559-4559, if you somehow missed it) in the UCF student section at Saturday’s game.

However, he didn’t think it was too funny that his father, Matt Sr., received a threat from a UCF fan. Grothe’s father and a Florida Highway Patrolman told The Tampa Tribune Saturday night that Grothe Sr. received a voice mail that said: “Watch your backs. We can’t get to your [expletive] son, but we can get to you.”

Grothe said he knew about the threat to his father before Saturday night’s kickoff.

“I knew it all,” Grothe said. “I knew my dad had gotten a call. I think it helped a little bit with my motivation. Normally I get a little bit of jitters before the game, but I was ready to play some football and take care of business.

“[To a] certain extent you can joke around, but you don’t do that - especially since you can’t win a football game against us.”

While most USF players wanted the series to continue against UCF, Grothe wasn’t one of them.

“I don’t like their school,” he said. “I’m glad we’re not playing them anymore. Because we’re off to bigger and better things, teams that can hopefully say they’re more of a rival.”

I asked Grothe if he had one final message for UCF fans. He did.

“Don’t mess with something you can’t handle,” he said.