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Grothe, South Florida rip into shorthanded NC State

Sep 28, 2008 - 4:47 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Matt Grothe and South Florida easily dispatched of undermanned North Carolina State.

Grothe completed 20-of-29 passes for 259 yards and a touchdown to lead the 14th-ranked Bulls to a 41-10 victory over the Wolfpack on Saturday.

Jamar Taylor, Mike Ford and Moise Plancher each ran for a TD as the Bulls (5-0) rolled up 520 total yards of offense against a Wolfpack defense without injured linebacker Nate Irving - its leading tackler.

"I thought our players played really well tonight," South Florida head coach Jim Leavitt said. "I was really happy with all three phases of our game."

The Wolfpack (2-3) were also without quarterback Russell Wilson, who suffered an undisclosed injury in last week's 30-24 overtime upset of then-No. 15 East Carolina.

The injuries to Irving and Wilson made NC State ripe for the picking, and Grothe happily obliged.

"We got beat by an excellent football team tonight," Wolfpack head coach Tom O'Brien said. "We couldn't make plays against them, and they made a lot against us. This one is over. We can forget about it, go back to conference play next week and see what we can get done."

It was over early as Grothe, who also carried nine times for 68 yards, led South Florida to a touchdown on each of its first three drives. The Bulls held commanding 31-10 lead at the break.

"I know coming in to tonight our coaches thought we could throw the ball on them," Leavitt said. "We had a lot of things open up underneath that we noticed and were able to exploit. Matt (Grothe) had a pretty good night and our backs all ran hard. I'm proud of all of them."

"Their quarterback is something special," O'Brien said. "He's the real deal."

Maikon Bonani kicked three field goals for South Florida, which ran for 240 yards compared to just 22 for NC State.

"They had much more speed and they were more powerful up front," O'Brien said. "Their offense is pretty efficient at what they do."

Taylor opened the scoring with a 1-yard plunge with 11:33 left in the first, and Grothe made it 14-3 with a 9-yard TD toss to Carlton Mitchell with 4:37 left in the period. Ford ran in from 1 yard out, and after a pair of safeties and a field goal, the rout was on.

Andre Brown scored the lone touchdown for the Wolfpack, who managed just less than a yard per carry as a team (28 carries, 22 yards).