In a zone outdoors
Apart from success at USF, Matt Grothe's hunting and fishing skills leave him in a zone outdoors.
By GREG AUMAN
Published December 23, 2007
TAMPA — On the football field, Matt Grothe is a blur, constantly on the move, scrambling, evading a sack and making a big play with his arm or his legs, to the cheers of thousands.
USF's sophomore quarterback is just as much in his element while sitting silent and motionless on a hunt in the woods, or enjoying the quiet calm of fishing on a lake near his family's home in Lakeland.
Grothe the outdoorsman is much like Grothe the quarterback, with that uncanny ability to consistently do things he really shouldn't be able to do.
"He's a down-to-earth guy, but he's a heck of a fisherman, that's for sure," said Jeremy McQuillen, his best friend and frequent hunting and fishing partner. "He's always catching the biggest fish or the most fish. We give him a hard time about it every time he catches another one."
Case in point: Grothe went fishing for mahi mahi with McQuillen's family on the east coast in Jupiter Inlet three years ago. McQuillen has been fishing dolphin his whole life, but Grothe's first was huge; he needed 45 minutes to get it in the boat. The final stats? Sixty-three inches long and 52 pounds. That's a Grothe-sized catch, stretching from his ears to his ankles as he's pictured holding it on the dock.
"My biggest ever is 47 pounds. He's good and he's lucky," said McQuillen, who said he goes fishing with Grothe every time he comes home.
For Grothe, the intersection of football and hunting is long-snapper Eric Setser, a good friend and his roommate on team road trips.
"I think they stuck us together because nobody would want to room with us. All we do is watch hunting and talk hunting until it's lights out," Setser said. "Freshman year, we definitely found a common bond between us."
Setser, a rare USF player not from Florida, has gone on several trips with Grothe hunting deer in his hometown of Richwood, Ohio, including a successful one last month after the Bulls' regular-season finale at Pittsburgh.
Grothe took a similar trip with Setser after the Bulls' loss in October at Rutgers but went home empty; this time he was pleased with the results, even if Setser had more bang to his buck.
"(Mine) wasn't as big as I was hoping. It was a 7-point, just a little basket rack," the 21-year-old Grothe said. "He killed a 9-point that was pretty big, real tall. It was a lot of fun."
Grothe said he won't have his buck mounted but kept the antlers and is getting the meat processed; he likes venison. And while hunting is a rare treat for him, fishing is a more regular diversion, something he has done since he was growing up. It helped that his grandfather lived on a golf course with a pond behind his house.
"Every day I'd go over after school and fish for bass, and just years and years of doing that, it just kind of stuck with me," Grothe said.
Time away from football is time to go fishing; ask McQuillen on Friday evening when they're likely to go out next, he says in an hour or so. Given four days off for Christmas this weekend, it's Grothe's way to prepare himself mentally for a Dec.31 game against Oregon at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. If Grothe isn't reachable on his cellphone, chances are he's out on his family's 21-foot Mako center console.
Grothe loved hunting and fishing before he was a football star. But now, the therapeutic value of getting away from cameras and crowds just adds to their appeal. As happy as he is wearing a green and gold uniform, camouflage is his camouflage.
"It's just a lot of fun, and you don't have any worries," Grothe said. "Just getting away from everything is nice. If I could live in the woods and not have to worry about anything, it'd be fine with me."