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Grothe, Ford power South Florida in rout of UT-Martin

Aug 31, 2008 - 7:04 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- One season after exploding onto the college football scene, South Florida is proving not to be a one-hit wonder.

Matt Grothe threw for two touchdowns and Mike Ford rushed for two more scores, leading the 21st-ranked Bulls to a 56-7 rout of Tennessee-Martin on Saturday.

Building on its unexpected success from last campaign that included a 9-3 regular-season record and Sun Bowl berth, South Florida scored on each of its first four possessions, jumping out to a 28-point lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Bulls needed no more than five plays to complete any of their four scoring drives.

"The thing that I'm happiest about, sometimes when we play a team like that and we haven't done the thing that we are supposed to do and we just haven't played real good football," South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said. "I am proud of our players. They did what they came out to do, what they needed to do, and I think we did a pretty good job."

Grothe went 6-of-8 for 97 yards before giving way to backup Grant Gregory after throwing his second TD pass late in the second quarter. Ford left after the first series of the third quarter, finishing with 60 yards on 15 carries.

After the Skyhawks (0-1) punted on their opening drive, Grothe led the Bulls (1-0) to their first score when he connected with Jessie Hester on an 18-yard TD pass with 9:58 left in the opening quarter.

Following two more unsuccessful possessions by Tennessee-Martin, Ford scored from 3 and 6 yards out on the next two drives for South Florida to increase the bulge to 21-0. Benjamin Williams finished the first-quarter flurry with a 13-yard TD run.

With 1:55 remaining before intermission, Grothe found Hester again from 22 yards out to stake the Bulls to a 35-0 halftime lead.

"It feels great to finally get a chance to play against a different opponent and get out of two-a-days," Hester said. "That was three weeks of hard work. It's finally time to show what we put into it . It felt really nice going back out there."

With the game well in hand, Moise Plancher broke loose for a 35-yard scoring scamper in the third quarter.

The Skyhawks managed their only score late in the third quarter when Dontell Miller scooped up a fumble from reserve quarterback B.J. Daniels and returned it 72 yards for a score.

"It wasn't just the offense, it was the defense and special teams as well. Let's face it we were overmatched and we didn't help ourselves," UT Martin head coach Jason Simpson said. "We missed a lot of tackles, didn't block, didn't catch. We just got beat sourly, what can you say?"

Theo Wilson continued the Bulls' domination in the fourth when he returned a punt from Adam Ivey 67 yards for another score to increase the lead to 49-7. Plancher completed the rout with South Florida's fifth rushing TD with 2:20 remaining.

As impressive as their offense was, the Bulls were every bit as dominant on defense, forcing the Skyhawks to punt on 13 of their 14 possessions while holding them to 96 total yards - including 39 yards passing.