Dell:  Grothe growth paying dividends

[Brad]

Grothe growth paying dividends

Freshman quarterback leads Bulls to big win over state rival Central Florida.

BY ALAN DELL

CORRESPONDENT

ORLANDO -- Matt Grothe has this love–hate thing going with the University of South Florida offense. The redshirt freshman quarterback says he loves leading the Bulls to comeback victories, but it would be awful nice to play an easy game.

Nothing came easy for USF against Central Florida on Saturday.

For the third straight week, the Bulls trailed at halftime, but managed to pull out a win, this time a 24-17 victory over the Golden Knights before 46,708 fans.

It was the third largest crowd to watch a UCF game at the Citrus Bowl.

"I hate it, but I love it," Grothe said about the comebacks. "I hate it because every time you walk, you think you are going to fall over because you are shaking so much. I love it because it seems to bring out the best in me. I seem to play better in these situations. I wouldn't mind if all the games were this way because people are saying we are the 'comeback kids.'"

After fighting its way back from a 10-7 halftime to deficit to take a 17-10 lead early in the fourth quarter, the Bulls seemed to be in control, but couldn't handle the prosperity. A special teams botch for the third straight week gave new life to the Golden Knights (1-2).

USF punter Delbert Alvarado dropped the snap and tried to kick the ball on the run. Blake Carter blocked the punt and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown to tie the score at 17 with 7:14 left.

It could've led to a big deflation for the Bulls, especially when USF was backed up on its own 10 yard line on the ensuing kickoff. But Grothe then took the Bulls on a 90 yard touchdown drive that ended with a 27-yard touchdown pass to Ean Randolph on a third and 14 situation with 3:20 left in the game.

"Ean wasn't supposed to be my receiver, but our other guy was covered. I looked off a couple of them and Ean managed to get open," Grothe said. "We could've settled for a field goal, but wanted to be in a position where they would have to score a touchdown just to tie us."

Grothe was nothing short of sensational for USF, accounting for 375 of the Bulls 433 yards of offense from scrimmage.

The just-turned 20-year-old completed 21 of 31 passes for 302 yards and gained 104 yards on 21 carries. His net rushing yardage was 73 because of two sacks, his first two of the season.

One of the best things about the Lake Gibson graduate is that he got so many people involved, completing passes to 11 different receivers.

Randolph led the receiving corps with five catches for 126 yards, including the touchdown.

"What can you say about Matt. You have to talk about him as a quarterback, not a freshman quarterback," Leavitt said. "He does so many things well and we had a lot of dropped balls. I was worried about him getting tired because of all the running he did."

The USF defense has yet to give up any points in the second half and for the second straight week made a big play on defense in the final minutes, this time in the final seconds.

After USF went ahead 24-17, UCF got the ball on its own 20 with 3:16 left. The Golden Knights were successful on three third down conversions and drove to the USF 14 where they had a first down.

UCF quarterback Steve Moffett had a fourth and sixth from the USF 10 when Chris Robinson knocked the ball loose and the Bulls recovered to end the threat with 22 seconds left.

USF tied the game at 10-10 on the last play of the third quarter when Mike Benzer connected on a 30-yard field goal. It was the first field goal of the sophomore's career after five misses (two this season.)

With the game tied at 10 early in the fourth quarter, the Bulls got the ball on the UCF 48 after a short punt.

From the 32, receiver Amarri Jackson took a handoff and threw a 31-yard pass to Amp Hill, who caught it on the one. Two plays later, Grothe hit Benjamin Williams for a touchdown to give USF a 17-10 lead with 11:05 left in the game.

"The pass was supposed to go to Grothe, but I saw a gold jersey there and had to go somewhere else with it," said Jackson, who played quarterback at Riverview High. "I saw Amp open, but I had to throw it on a line and fortunately I was able to do that. I should've thrown it a little deeper and got it in the end zone, but it worked out. Almost all of our receivers were quarterbacks in high school and all of them have great hands. Any one of them could've thrown the pass."

Story Link

[E.T.]

"The pass was supposed to go to Grothe, but I saw a gold jersey there and had to go somewhere else with it," said Jackson, who played quarterback at Riverview High. "I saw Amp open, but I had to throw it on a line and fortunately I was able to do that. I should've thrown it a little deeper and got it in the end zone, but it worked out. Almost all of our receivers were quarterbacks in high school and all of them have great hands. Any one of them could've thrown the pass."

Watched this develope most of the game ... great job by Amarri.

Go BULLS !!!

[snarling Bull]

I argree great job Armari with that pass to Amp

[smazza]

that was some throw and catch

[bulls96go]

we need velcro for the wr...two drops that would have been TD's

but also some real nice grabs

i'll take the w

if we play well we should beat kansas

[Rabbi Bull]

interesting thing pointed out in the last paragraph, almost all of our recievers played qb in high school

[windbane]

good read, terrible pass...lucky that Amp Hill was 20 yards open and that the defender barely didnt make it in time.

[Velcro]

we need velcro for the wr...two drops that would have been TD's

but also some real nice grabs

i'll take the w

if we play well we should beat kansas

I know I'm good, but I don't have any eligibility left.  Sorry 96.