• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

South Florida seeks another impressive win over UCF

Sep 6, 2008 - 11:41 AM ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- South Florida posted its most impressive win of last season against Central Florida.

The 18th-ranked Bulls face Central Florida again on Saturday, and this time the Golden Knights will be without running back Kevin Smith, the nation's leading rusher last year who opted for the NFL draft.

Last season, Matt Grothe passed for two touchdowns and ran for two other scores as South Florida crushed Central Florida, 64-12, to improve to 6-0 and climb to No. 2 in the national rankings.

Talk of playing for a possible national championship turned out to be premature, however, as the Bulls went on to lose their next three Big East Conference games to Rutgers, Connecticut and Cincinnati. They rebounded to win their next three, but suffered a 56-21 loss to Oregon in the Sun Bowl to complete a 9-4 campaign.

The Bulls (1-0) opened this season with a 56-7 rout of overmatched Tennessee-Martin of the Football Championship Subdivision. South Florida scored a school-record 28 points in the first quarter en route to a 35-0 lead and held Tennessee-Martin to 96 total yards.

This week, South Florida faces a second tune-up before stepping up in class to host xx-Kansas next week.

UCF opened with a 17-0 win over South Carolina State, also a member of the Football Championship Subdivision.

Ronnie Weaver, one of three freshmen running backs who will see time following the departure of Smith, rushed for 83 yards and fellow freshman Latavius Murray ran for two touchdowns.