Quinton Flowers passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more to lead South Florida past UCF 44-3 Thursday night.
USF (8-4, 6-2 American Athletic Conference) won for the seventh time in its last eight games and still has a chance to play in the conference championship game if UConn beats Temple Saturday night. UCF (0-12, 0-8) finished the season winless for the second time in 11 years.
Flowers completed 14 of 21 passes for 176 yards and had 87 yards rushing on 18 carries. He had scoring passes of 26 and 1 yard to Sean Price and a 4-yarder to Chris Barr. Flowers scored on runs of 3 and 5 yards.
Marlon Mack picked up 102 yards on 18 carries for USF, his fourth straight game over 100 yards. Emilio Nadelman kicked field goals of 41, 43 and 44 yards.
UCF scored on its first possession, a 28-yard field goal by Matthew Wright, but didn't threaten again. The Knights, ranked last in the FBS in offense this season, had just 203 total yards and were 2 of 12 on third-down conversions.
USF's offense, meanwhile, ran and passed as it pleased for most of the game. Flowers had two scoring passes and a 3-yard TD run in the first half when USF ran off 24 straight points to take a 24-3 lead.
The Bulls final possession of the first half started on their own 28 with 35 seconds left in the half and needed just three plays to get a 44-yard field goal from Nadelman.
D'Ernest Johnson ran 18 yards on the first play, Flowers hit Johnson with a screen pass good for 14 on the second play and Flowers scrambled for 14 yards to set up Nadelman's field goal attempt as time expired.
USF scored touchdowns on its first two possessions of the second half to push the lead to 41-3. Flowers scored from five yards out to finish off 75-yard drive, then hit Price for a 26-yard scoring play to finish off a 67-yard drive.
The sophomore quarterback sat out the fourth quarter.
UCF quarterback Justin Holman hit just 10 of 26 passes for 116 yards with two interceptions. Tre'Quan Smith had seven catches for 102 yards.