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Grothe leads South Florida to rout of Memphis

Dec 21, 2008 - 8:38 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- Matt Grothe threw three touchdown passes to lead South Florida to a 41-14 victory over Memphis on Saturday in the inaugural St. Petersburg Bowl.

After a disappointing season in which it lost five of its last seven games, South Florida pulled away in the second half.

The Bulls (8-5) scored on four of their first five possessions to take a 24-14 lead at the half.

"He's Matt Grothe. He is going to make plays," wide receiver Taurus Johnson said. "He's going to scramble around until someone is open, and if they're not open he'll take off running. That's what he does."

Arkelon Hall threw for one TD and ran for another for Memphis (6-7).

"You can see today why they are a BCS team and why we're not," Memphis coach Tommy West said. "The difference in speed was pretty noticeable."

The Tigers' top weapon, tailback Curtis Steele, was limited to 48 yards on 12 carries. Steele rushed for 1,175 yards in the regular season - the fourth-best one-year effort in school history.

If you would have told the Bulls that they would end their season with a bowl game in their home state, they likely would have been ecstatic. However, after a disappointing season, South Florida had to settle for a consolation prize.

At the start of the year, the Bulls (7-5) had visions of winning the Big East Conference title and earning a berth in the Orange Bowl. Those hopes ended with a three-game losing streak to Louisville, Cincinnati and Rutgers.

As disappointed as they may have been, the Bulls came out and took out their frustrations on the Tigers, racking up 496 yards of offense and shutting out the Tigers in the second half.

"We could not tackle their quarterback," West said.

Grothe completed 17-of-24 passes for 235 yards and also rushed for 83 yards on 15 carries. His 26-yard TD pass to Taurus Johnson opened the scoring and he added a 13-yard scoring strike to Ben Busbee in the second quarter and a 24-yarder to Dontavia Bogan to make 34-14 in the third quarter.

''I think when I go out there and just play football, I play well, Grothe said, "and I think the team is the same way -- when we go out and just play and not worry about what people are saying and what happened the week before.''