Grothe stars in USF's OT win

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Matt Grothe threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns, including a 25-yarder to Taurus Johnson in overtime, and South Florida beat Central Florida 31-24 Saturday night in the final scheduled meeting between the rivals whose campuses are barely 100 miles apart.

UCF's Michael Greco threw touchdown passes of 13 yards to Corey Rabazinski and 31 yards to Rocky Ross within a span of 66 seconds to make it 24-all with 1:40 remaining in regulation. The game went into overtime after South Florida's Delbert Alvarado hooked a 42-yard field goal attempt to the left in the closing seconds.

Grothe put South Florida (2-0) ahead with his TD throw to Johnson, who had six catches for 143 yards, on third down. UCF's bid to extend the game to a second OT was stopped inches shy when the Bulls' Tyrone McKenzie and Brouce Mompremier tackled Greco for a 5-yard gain on fourth-and-6 from the 21-yard line.

Comments

[Don Corleone]

Matty walks the razor’s edge just a little too much for me sometimes, but the winning throw to TJ was so money! I want to know why Richard Kelly was playing so much late?

[Amanda]

Can you please tell my why Leavitt continues to let Alvarado attempt to kick field goals? I honestly think that it would be in everyone's interest to let him continue punting and find someone else for FG.

[Bob]

I thought I read in the paper this morning that USF did not want to continue the UCF rivalry because they were not competitive enough??? They should have gotten beat

[keith]

one of the reasons obviously was UCF's lack of ability to compete at USF's level. great surge by UCF late helped go some way into dispelling that notion...though not entirely.

the more obvious and trumping reason is simply this:

UCF is a lousy brand name with no national cred. it isn't USF's job to help them up to USF's level. simple as that.

[bill]

one close game bob

gimme a break

[coach george oleary]

good job coach leavitt -

i thought i would win this game considering i have 12 years of head coaching experience at University of Southern California

[jarred]

I think the reason Kelly was playin so much so late was probably because we needed to slow the pace of the game down, eat up the clock, and take the crowd out of the game. Im not sure why we didnt use him in some of the short yardage situations when we really needed to convert, but I have a lot of questions about the coaching tonight. Typical night for Matt, a few stupid mistakes, but a few gems to make up for it in the end. We really need a new place kicker, I just dont understand it.

i will say this though...

a stadium makes a world of difference.

i think a stadium like that (with room for another 10-15k) would be perfect for USF.

hat's off to UCF. their showdown with ECU will be one to watch, no question.

[Ken]

It wasn't really close for 55 minutes--but we were fortunate to escape with a win.

[Norb]

After last year's trashing UCF pulled it together & had quite a finish to their year. After this year's OT loss I wonder how they'll bounce back.

The close game wasn't surprising, remember last time we played at UCF it also took a Grothe last drive to win the game.

[MAL]

So from what I can see, Alvarado now has a career FG% of under 60% now. Is there really no one else they can turn to for place kicking duties?

As for Grothe, he really only made one mistake, and that was the bad pass on the second interception. It was at the worst time to have a turnover, though. Hats off to UCF for taking advantage of their opportunities despite having no real running game to speak of. Through shear will they almost pulled off the upset.

Any word on injuries? Schmidt looked shaken up on one play. Hopefully he only got the wind knocked out of him since it looked like he landed on the ball.

[Blake]

That stadium can't possibly be that structurally sound. The cameras were shaking when the crowd got excited and started jumping. I would not feel safe at all.

I can't believe we played as poorly as we did and still managed to win. I'd just like to thank UCF for playing as sloppily as they did. Matt had an up and down night, he really needs to be solid for us to have a chance against KU on Friday. Also, how much does Bonani suck that we are still using Alvarado?!?

[Norb]

I took a second look at Schmidt injury, it looked like he took a hard elbow into his side by a defender (I also thought at first injury was caused by ball).

[Chris]

How long does USF have suffer with our own "Andy of Mayberry's" incredibly inept game management and lack of team discipline, (see tonight and Sun Bowl).Once again we came so close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by senseless coaching mismanagement, which consistently fails to focus USF on FINISHING what they come to do. I'm afraid with Jim there will always be more Papajohn.com Bowls then legitimate shots at any BCS appearance in the Bulls future. I still think when the next school comes knocking at CJL's door maybe we should give him a hand in opening it.

[Jon]

Hats of to the UCF QB who was a magician in eluding the Bulls pass rush. Don't know if he can pass at all but his pocket presence and scrambling ability is amazing.

[gobulls]

"still think when the next school comes knocking at CJL's door maybe we should give him a hand in opening it."

Chris,

This was almost funny. Let's get rid of a coach who got the program to where it is. That's a bright idea and such a bright outlook you have. maybe you could apply for the opening after we dump CJL. That would be funnier.

[BiggMAN]

Hey Jim Bob: Remind your team that the game lasts 60 minutes (4 quarters x 15 minutes each.) The Boys quit playing (football, that is,) after three quarters. The Knights didn't, and almost pulled it out. Quit utilizing the "play just good enough and long enough to barely win" strategy, will ya, Jim Bob???

[Ken]

About the stadium: That was my first time to see it. It is a good stadium, for which UCF can be justifiably proud. It is on campus and great for school spirit, and holds 40K+. It would not be at all suitable for us. Both schools play in stadia that are best for them now.

I'm not an engineer, but I can't imagine that the stadium was designed to have 40K people jumping up and down in unison. The stresses caused by that have to be considerable, and if current fans aren't in danger, surely the useful life of the stadium is being greatly reduced. You know the old story about the long linie of troops marching in step across a bridge and setting up some sort of wave or something that brings the bridge down, and now troops break step on bridges. If I'm at all right, I have no idea why UCF fans would want to engage in behavior that threatens their nice, new stadium and themselves--bizarre behavior.

[Ken]

I'm with biggman about playing 60 minutes--I thought we coasted in the second quarter too when our offense was moving the ball seemingly at will, and our defense controlling their offense--why not run it up some more? Fortunately, and I was afraid about this, we were able to get our A game back for the overtime.

[TTguy]

UCF: Beautiful campus
Stadium: Giant erector-set design
Parking/traffic control: horrendous
Fans: jerks (worst than WVA)
Drive home: sweet

[UCF KNIGHT]

To TTGUY - if by jerks you mean...fans with unbelievable school spirit who make sure the team feels their support and the opposing teams visiting fans know who's stadium they are at...then yeah...I guess we're "jerks".

[DELdaBULL]

GA,
I see you were doing some live blogging. Too bad I could not pick you up from the stadium. The areas surrounding the stadium were nice. The stadium itself needs some work. PA system was bad. The lil lady did not feel safe with the whole place shaking. I applaud UCF for trying to come up. Like I've said when and if you get into a BCS conference or the NCAA puts us in a place where both programs are putting the same thing on the line, look us up. It was fun.
Bu-bye

[Miles Lamoureux]

UCF Knight:

Every 4 out of 5 UCF fans that I passed on the way to your stadium, felt the need to say F*** You to me and my friends. If that's not fans being jerks then I don't know what is.

[To Miles]

Give me a break. I was there and the Bulls fans behavior was disgusting. I heard a group walking in front of the student affairs building saying f ucf...and f this f that...this place sucks...this place is a f'n dump. USF fans are notorious for their ghetto like behavior. I guess having your campus in the middle of the ghetto will have that effect on a person.

[Ken]

T. M., I'm afraid I have to say that both UCF and USF have some pretty obnoxious fans--in both cases, though, they are in the small minority. The only thing I wonder about with UCF is why the fans feel the need to jump up and down in unison and cause the stadium to shake--you're wrecking your own stadium, as surely it isn't designed to handle those sorts of stresses over the decades--surely it is going to require expensive retro-engineering or early replacement, or some day it will fall down with all of you in it.

[USFFan]

Loyal Fans??? UCFKNIGHT By loyal fans do you mean the 10,000 who left when we went up by 14 points... This "rivalry" can't continue because USF has nothing to gain and everything to lose, just like last night if we won it was supposed to happen and if we lost UCF fans would rush the field forgetting about the 3 previous butt kickings and they get to be on ESPN for beating a ranked team. So it's to be expected that UCF fans will cry about us ending this cute little game we were forced to suffer through once a year and god bless UCF they fought their little hearts out but it just doesn't seem logical for USF to keep playing it... but if we do 5th times a charm right UCF?