As Bulls quarterback Matt Grothe took off his helmet during Thursday's practice, he showed off a reminder of one of the fun memories of USF's 6-0 start last season: The Grohawk.

Yes, the sides of his head are again shaved clean, as they were a year ago. Was it a nod to last year's rise to No. 2 in the rankings? An uncontrollable outburst of Rays mania? As it turns out, it was something of an accident.

Grothe, you see, went to Miracles in Motion, a barber shop on Fletcher Avenue we wrote about last season for the ornate designs shaved into the sides of the heads of Bulls basketball stars like guard Chris Howard. The same barber -- his name is Elvis -- has done artful designs for football players such as Dontavia Bogan. Anyway, Grothe, humble guy that he is, went to Elvis looking to get a "Superman"-style "S" on the side of his head.

Unfortunately, the barber was looking in the mirror as he started to make the S and thus had the letter going backwards (that's Zuperman, by our count). So Grothe opted to just go with a clean slate, so to speak. Will it help the Bulls on Saturday? Win or lose, it'll be all the buzz in pregame warmups.

-- USF coach Jim Leavitt isn't talking injuries, and defensive coordinator Wally Burnham said Thursday that he won't know if linebacker Brouce Mompremier has been cleared to play Saturday until he's evaluated by USF trainers. I can tell you that defensive end George Selvie and defensive tackle Terrell McClain, who have practiced all week as they recover from ankle injuries, both lined up with the first-team defensive line as they went through reads and alignments at Thursday's practice.

(photo from the Times' Brian Cassella last season)