— By David Walsh
TAMPA, Fla. — Central Florida is known for its high-powered offense, but the Knights showed they can make big plays on defense, too.
Richie Grant and Tre’mon Morris-Brash had first-quarter defensive touchdowns, freshman quarterback Dillon Gabriel led three third-quarter scoring drives and UCF beat Marshall 48-25 in the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl on Monday at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
UCF ran its winning streak against the Thundering Herd to nine straight and wrapped up its third straight season of double-digit wins (10-3). The Knights won eight in a row when they were in Conference USA along with Marshall. UCF calls the American Athletic Conference home now.
Marshall (8-5) would go on to have four turnovers in the first half, two of them returned for touchdowns. It was such a fast start for the Knights that it left Marshall a little stunned as the UCF defense added a scoop-and-score to the pick-six in the haymaker of a first quarter.
The debacle started when quarterback Isaiah Green had a third-down pass intercepted on the third play of the game and Grant returned the football 39 yards for the pick six. Green connected on a 45-yard pass to tight end Armani Levias on the first play of the ensuing possession, but Levias fumbled the ball away. UCF would go on to score on a 26-yard run by Greg McRae.
Marshall turned the football over again as Morris-Brash did a 45-yard scoop-and-score when a throwback pass by the Herd ended up being a lateral. That put the Knights up 21-0 and by then, the damage had essentially been done.
“When you’ve got the play the caliber of team we just played you’ve got to take care of the ball,” Marshall coach Doc Holliday said. “We didn’t do that. Give a team five extra possessions, you probably will get beat.”
This is the first loss for Holliday in a bowl game (6-1). Marshall is now 12-3 overall in bowls.
UCF built a 31-7 lead in the third quarter before Marshall started moving the ball consistently.
“We finished the season the right way,” UCF coach Josh Heupel said. “The turnovers were critical. I thought defensively we started about as fast as you can.”
Huepel’s career mark at UCF is now 22-4.
In the second half, the teams just traded scores. UCF racked up 587 total yards to 351 for the Herd.
Gabriel, the MVP of the game, threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Otis Anderson, connected on a 75-yard score with Marlon Williams, and added a 3-yard TD run as UCF went ahead 45-22 with 6:39 remaining in the third. The southpaw completed 14 of 24 passes for 260 yards.
Green went 9-of-23 for 173 yards with a TD and had a rushing touchdown. The TD pass was a 70-yard strike to Willie Johnson. Running back Brenden Knox, the C-USA MVP, had 103 yards on 26 carries. He also lost a fumble on the first play of the second period at the UCF 16.
UCF’s big stumble came in the second period when No. 2 quarterback Darriel Mack Jr. had a pass picked off by the Herd’s Micah Abraham and returned 75 yards for a score to cut the lead to 21-7. Abraham’s father, Donnie, played his home games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1996-01).
The game was a bit testy in the second half as Big Ten officials had their hands full. Marshall’s Darrius Hodge was ejected from the game late in the third quarter after coming off the bench to get involved in some verbal jabbing at the end of a play. It was his second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of the game, which results in an automatic ejection.
Making his ejection unique was the fact Marshall was on offense at the time. The two teams combined for 18 penalties and 167 penalty yards with a handful of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties distributed to players on both teams.
UCF’s three losses this season were by a total of seven points, 35-34 to Pittsburgh), 27-24 to Cincinnati and 37-34 to Tulsa.
Despite the inclement weather (periodic rain), it’s the highest-scoring game in Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl history. The previous record point total was 69 scored by Rutgers and UCF in 2009 (Rutgers won 45-24) when the game was called the St. Petersburg Bowl.