USFNation Game Balls & Top Performers: UCF

The Bulls game against the Knights had plenty of late drama and wasn't quite what USF fans expected, but USF came away with a gut-check win on Saturday night to stay undefeated. Find out who the staff at USFNation picked as the top-performers.

Player of the game:

• QB Matt Grothe did it all for the Bulls against the Knights, including a 25-yard strike to Taurus Johnson in overtime to quite the raucous sold out crowd. Grothe completing 23-of-40 passes for 346 yards, and three touchdowns with two interceptions, and led the team with 54 yards on 20 carries. The 43-yard completion to Carlton Mitchell was also the longest play of the season, and the 346 yards is the fourth highest in USF history

Game Balls

• WR Taurus Johnson had a monster game and was Grothe’s primary target gaining 143 yards against UCF, including hauling in a 25-yard score in overtime to end the Knights furious fourth quarter rally. T.J. also had 6 catches for 87 yards and two scores against UCF last year, and now has 1,089 career receiving yards and looks poised for a breakout season.

• TE Cedric Hill caught two huge touchdowns, an 18-yarder in the second and a 27-yarder in the third to put the Bulls up 24-10. Hill was the second leading receiver for the Bulls and this is the kind of game where Hill was an x-factor and showed how he can cause mismatches for opposing defenses. His two touchdown receptions matched a career high. He also scored twice against FAMU on September 10, 2005.

• RB Moise Plancher started his second career game against UCF, and scored the first points of the game on a 15 yard run in the first quarter. Moise led all USF backs with 55 yards on 9 carries (5.6 yard avg) on an emotional night where UCF paid tribute to his cousin, Erick Plancher who died this past spring.

Other Top performers

• Tyrone McKenzie was all over the field and finished second with seven tackles including two tackles for a loss. T-Mac was in on the fourth down stop in OT with Brouce Mompremier to secure the Bulls victory.

• Jerome Murphy led the Bulls defense with nine tackles and help limit the UCF passing offense for most of the game.

• The Bulls defense held UCF in check for three and a half quarters and limited the knights to 69 yards of offense in the first half. Except for the 2-scores in the final 3 minutes, the Bulls defense only gave up 3 points.

• UCF CB Joe Burnett- is the real deal as a DB, but whre he really made an impact was on special teams, as he had a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter, and blocked a field goal attempt in the third quarter to keep the Knights in the game. Also had a nice return to set up UCF's last score and recorded four tackles on the night.   

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