St. Petersburg, Fla. ? 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, the Bulls and their dual-threat quarterback answered with a dominating performance in the first St. Petersburg Bowl.

Grothe moved ahead of West Virginia’s Pat White as the Big East’s career total offense leader, throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns to on the way to a 41-14 victory over Memphis on Saturday.

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 total offense. White has 10,142 in 49 games, and Grothe, who also rushed for 82 yards on 15 carries Saturday, 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 game.

Memphis’ Arkelon Hall threw for one TD and ran for another. But 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 a lopsided loss in last year’s Sun Bowl.

Grothe threw TD passes of 26 yards to Taurus Johnson, 13 to Ben Busbee and 24 to Dontavia Bogan before being replaced by Grant Gregory with USF leading 34-14 late in the third quarter.

Bowl roundup

Arizona 31, No. 17 BYU 21

Willie Tuitama threw for 322 yards and two touchdowns and Arizona won the Las Vegas Bowl — its first bowl victory in 10 years.

The Wildcats stifled BYU quarterback Max Hall throughout the game, forcing him to scramble often, lose a fumble and throw an interception.

Arizona improved to 8-5, while BYU fell to 10-3.

Colorado State 40, Fresno State 35

Gartrell Johnson rushed for a career-high 285 yards and scored two touchdowns as Colorado State rallied for a victory in the New Mexico Bowl.

Johnson sealed Colorado State’s first bowl victory since 2001 on a 77-yard touchdown with 1:46 remaining, igniting a celebration by fans who made the seven-hour drive from Fort Collins, Colo.

Wake Forest 29, Navy 19

Riley Skinner found a perfect way to obliterate the miserable memory of Navy’s 24-17 upset of Wake Forest earlier this year.

Skinner went 11-for-11 and threw the go-ahead TD pass to Ben Wooster with 7:52 left, leading Wake Forest to a comeback victory in the inaugural EagleBank Bowl.

Skinner had 166 yards passing and earned the MVP.