ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — This was for anyone who thought it might be difficult for Matt Grothe and South Florida to get excited about playing what amounted to an extra home game.

After floundering the second half of the season, the St. Petersburg Bowl gave them a chance to feel good about themselves again.

"I think the last few weeks we were trying so hard to win a game that we forgot how to play football," Grothe said after throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns on the way to a 41-14 rout of Memphis yesterday.

Grothe moved ahead of West Virginia's Pat White as the Big East's career total offense leader.

Grothe and White, a senior who will finish his season in the Meineke Bowl on Dec. 27, are the only players in league history to amass more than 10,000 yards of total offense. White has 10,142 in 49 games, and Grothe, who also rushed for 82 yards on 15 carries yesterday, finished the night with 10,214 in 39 games.

USF (8-5) scored on four of its first five possessions to build a 24-14 halftime lead, forcing Memphis (6-7) to play catch-up and essentially taking 1,000-yard rusher Curtis Steele out of the Tigers' game plan.

"The bottom line was we couldn't tackle the quarterback," Memphis coach Tommy West said. "They beat us pretty good on both sides of the ball."

Arkelon Hall threw for one TD and ran for another, however Steele was held to 48 yards rushing on 12 attempts by a stout run defense determined to redeem itself this postseason after giving up 253 yards to Oregon's Jonathan Stewart during USF's lopsided loss in last year's Sun Bowl.

MEMPHIS 7 7 0 0—14

SOUTH FLORIDA 14 10 10 7—41

FIRST QUARTER

USF—Johnson 26 pass from Grothe (Bonani kick), 13:58.

USF—B.Williams 3 run (Bonani kick), 4:28.

Mem—A.Hall 3 run (Reagan kick), 2:09.

SECOND QUARTER

USF—FG Bonani 23, 11:18.

USF—Busbee 13 pass from Grothe (Bonani kick), 4:15.

Mem—Calhoun 2 pass from A.Hall (Reagan kick), :08.

THIRD QUARTER

USF—FG Bonani 37, 8:36.

USF—Bogan 24 pass from Grothe (Bonani kick), 1:50.

FOURTH QUARTER

USF—Plancher 2 run (Bonani kick), 12:40.

A—25,205.

               Mem USF

First downs 15 29

Rushes-yards 30-66 49-232

Passing 172 264

Comp-Att-Int 18-35-0 20-30-0

Return Yards 0 29

Punts-Avg. 8-42.1 2-36.0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1

Penalties-Yards 3-25 7-70

Time of Possession 25:16 34:44

RUSHING—Memphis, Steele 12-48, Ross 7-11, A.Hall 3-6, Williams 1-2, Robinzine 1-1, C.Jones 2-1, Toney 4-(minus 3). South Florida, Grothe 15-83, Ford 8-34, Plancher 7-31, J.Taylor 4-30, Gregory 6-21, B.Williams 6-18, Johnson 1-11, Love 1-5, Team 1-(minus 1).

PASSING—Memphis, A.Hall 15-31-0-154, Toney 3-3-0-18, Black 0-1-0-0. South Florida, Grothe 17-24-0-236, Gregory 2-5-0-14, T.Wilson 1-1-0-14.

RECEIVING—Memphis, Calhoun 6-39, Black 4-23, Onarheim 3-15, Singleton 2-32, Steele 1-49, Ross 1-14, Williams 1-0. South Florida, Mitchell 4-60, Johnson 4-40, Bogan 3-51, Busbee 2-34, B.Williams 2-21, Hester 1-22, Grothe 1-14, Hill 1-11, M.Edwards 1-8, Richardson 1-3.