MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama football quarterback Matt Floyd recently sat down with USAJaguars.com to discuss his experience with the program, as well as his journey to get to USA.

Floyd, appeared in five games last season, and made his first career start at USA at Arkansas State. He made his Jaguar debut against Mississippi State, and completed 7-of-16 pass attempts for 85 yards. The Milton, Fla., native finished 19-of-44 passing for 264 yards in his junior campaign.

What factored into your decision to come to South Alabama from South Florida?
"(Head) Coach (Joey) Jones recruited me my senior year of high school. The program was still young, and at that time the coaching staff showed me a lot of love. I always liked South Alabama, and given the fact that I am from Pensacola – it's kind of like a hometown team. You see this new program popping up and you want to support them. I went to USF, and leaving there I wanted to come home. The fact that South Alabama was right down the road from my family that I hadn't gotten to see very often, other than when they would come down to my games, was a huge factor. They had the program I really wanted to get into, public administration, and I loved the offense – the type of shotgun, passing offense. It was something I went to USF for and then a new coach came in and kind of changed up the system. There were multiple factors, but I would say the number-one factor was that it was so close to home and I remembered the coaches showing me a lot of love and really wanted me to come here."

What has it meant to you to be able to close out your collegiate career so close to home?
"It has been huge being able to see them every single game. And especially my little brother and sister, who wouldn't be able to come to all of the games (at USF) because they had high-school obligations. Now that I am only an hour from home, they can come over more often and watch games and I get to see them. And even more so, I get to go over and watch them play. Last year was my sister's senior year of high school and I was able to go see her play a lot. This year is my brother's senior year, so being so close to home has been huge. It has been one of the biggest blessings of coming here. But just being close to home and having that opportunity to go home whenever I wanted or needed to is awesome."

How have you improved since you started playing college football?
"Mentally is probably where I have grown the most, just being able to understand the game better – what defenses do and why coaches call the plays they do. Going into college, I might have known a few types of defenses that were run, but being able to be in the film room and meetings and learning about other teams – I know a lot more about defenses and how to exploit them from the offensive side of the ball. I have definitely gotten football smarter."

What are your strengths as a player?
"I had always been told that I had good feet, coming out of high school, and that I was able to move around the pocket and get my feet in a good position to make a throw. And I have always been told that I have a quick release, and that's something that has always helped as well."

How did you injure your shoulder? When did you have surgery?
"I had surgery Sept. 10. I tore my labrum in my shoulder on day five or six of camp, and I had surgery a month later. It was just from throwing. It started a couple of days before, then we realized what it was. It was really sore, and I just figured it was regular soreness. I sat out a couple of days of practice then came back and threw one pass and couldn't pick up my arm. We knew then that something was wrong."

How is the rehabilitation process going?
"It has been great. I am way ahead of schedule. My arm feels great. I finally feel like I have an arm back to be able to use. I definitely can't throw anything at the moment, but I feel like a normal human being again being able to use my arms."

What is the timetable for your return?
"It is definitely a full-season injury. It takes about six months to make a full recovery, so I definitely won't be able to come back this season."

What did you gain from your experience working as an intern for U.S. Senator Marco Rubio?
"I was a political science major for my undergrad. I was networking with people and found the opportunity to intern with Senator Rubio. I had always admired him, and I took the opportunity to intern with him when it presented itself and ran with it. I learned a lot about the policy-making process, and got to meet a lot of really influential political leaders. I gained valuable experience of being able to understand how policy works in government, how bills are made and passed, and the difficulty of it. I learned that it is very difficult to do things in Congress – there is hardly ever full support on both sides. You can never please everybody. That's what difficult about it."

What are your plans once your football career is over?
"I dual-majored in political science and international studies with a concentration on the Middle East, and I am working toward my master's degree in public administration. I will finish my master's in July. There are a multitude of different things I would like to do with my life. Military service has always been something that has been really high on that list. At the moment, I think I really want to join the Air Force. I don't know what I would like to do after that, but I know I would like to be involved in government in some capacity. I really like international relations; I would love to play some kind of role in our country's international relations in the future. My dad is retired from the Air Force. I grew up as an Air Force kid, and I think joining the Air Force is something I would like to do."

What did you gain from being raised in a military environment?
"It definitely played a role in school and being disciplined. Number one would have been service – learning the value of service whether it is serving the community, friends, country or now I am a husband serving my wife. Being able to lead in that service was something that was very valuable to learn. Knowing the sacrifice you have to make as military personnel and the sacrifices military families make to serve our country and protect us – I have definitely learned a lot from that as I have gotten older and that kind of career becomes a possibility."

What do you like to do in your spare time?
"As most kids my age, I like to play some PlayStation and I love to mountain bike. I like doing outdoor-type stuff. My wife and I go scuba diving and mountain biking a lot. We love to run and do things out on the trails. I got a puppy recently, and I love to hang out with her and try to teach her new tricks. We go camping a lot and try to take trips to hike and camp up in the mountains."

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