Credit South Florida for embracing and not denying the fact it’s looking forward to playing West Virginia Friday at 8 p.m. Friday on ESPN.

USF cornerback Mike Jenkins said Leavitt admitted he started looking to West Virginia in the fourth quarter.

“Coach Leavitt’s exact words: ‘I don’t want to lie, but in the back of my mind I was thinking about West Virginia,'” Jenkins said. “But then again, everybody was.”

With Carolina no longer on their minds, the Bulls (3-0) have set the stage for one of the biggest college football games to be played in Tampa. It could be a matchup of top-20 teams depending on how far USF moves up the polls today.

The Bulls are up to No. 18 in both polls, which came as no surprise, but a bit of a disappointment to WVU Coach Rich Rodriguez. He votes in the coaches’ poll and while he wouldn’t reveal where he placed the Bulls, he did provide a hint during his teleconference Sunday.

I believe South Florida is better than 18. They’re higher than that, in my opinion.

About 3,000 tickets remain in Raymond James Stadium (65,000 capacity). It’s expected to be the largest crowd and the first sellout in USF football history. The bandwagon got rolling in Saturday’s game against North Carolina.

Linebacker Brouce Mompremier said he has never heard USF’s students louder in the north end zone, especially in forcing a false start when UNC had third and goal on the USF 5.

“That was incredible,” he said. “I couldn’t hear anything, but that’s better for us. When I saw that false start, I said, ‘Oh, thank God.’ “