For the past 2 years, they’ve been directly in the middle of College Football and they’ve had the attention of fans, media, and other College Football teams. No it’s not Alabama. It’s the University of Central Florida Knights. The past 2 years for Knight fans have been like living in a fantasy. And although to some, they are a true underdog story, others disrespect UCF and call their FBS-leading 20 game winning streak a fluke. Let’s recap the last year and a half of magic which has been UCF football.
UCF started out not going below 38 points in their first 5 games, steamrolling teams like Maryland, Memphis, and Cincinnati. They would continue winning beating out Navy and SMU by just 10 and 7. Powerhouse teams even don’t have their best days, but find ways to win and that’s exactly what UCF did. As they got later into the schedule, it started getting more and more difficult. UCF got into an absolute shootout with Quinton Flowers-led South Florida for a shot to go the American Championship on their home field on a late Friday night.
A game that went back and forth throughout including an insane final 3 minutes that featured a 83 yard Touchdown from Quinton Flowers to Darnell Salomon. Flowers would finish with over 500 total yards and 5 touchdowns in an amazing effort. But, All-AAC Cornerback and eventual NFL Draft pick, Mike Hughes would take the kickoff 95 yards to the house to give UCF the lead with 1:28 left in the ballgame. UCF would hold on and head to the American Championship with a chance at a New Year’s 6 bowl game. This game also caught the attention of the rest of the nation in that, What if UCF went undefeated? What would the Committee do? Another question that came out of the USF game is, can UCF beat Memphis again?
Memphis is loaded with offensive talent in QB Riley Ferguson, HB Darnell Henderson (who currently leads the FBS in Yard per Carry with a little over 10 yards) and first round draft pick, Anthony Miller. This was not McKenzie Milton’s cleanest game as he did throw 3 interceptions. UCF looked to be in control for the first quarter jumping out to a 17-7 lead with 2 Milton touchdown passes. Ferguson would respond with 2 of his own in the second quarter as well as Milton throwing one and the score being 31-24. Milton would continue to take shots down field and finding Tre’Quan Smith and Dredrick Snelson. Ferguson would find Anthony Miller with 4:13 left to tie the game up and the score would remain at 48 a piece. Anthony Miller would catch another in the First OT to give him 198 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns in the game. But it would be UCF pulling it out in the end with a Riley Ferguson in the end zone in the 2nd Overtime by Tre Neal.
Every year, there is a Non-Power 5 that gets the national spotlight and 2017 wasn’t the first time Central Florida had that. In 2013, they faced Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl and was led by Blake Bortles, Breshad Perriman, and J.J. Worton. They were 17 point underdogs in that game and pulled off what was the biggest upset since Oklahoma-Boise State back in 2007. They would score 52 points on the Big 12’s best defense that year and for the first time, put their name in the record books of upset wins.
Just 4 years later, UCF had a chance to do it again. This time against a National Powerhouse in the Peach Bowl. With all of College Football watching. In an instant classic, UCF prevailed against Auburn and set the entire nation on fire with them being left out of the playoff, beating a team that had defeated Alabama that same year. But with attention, became an opportunity to take advantage of it and that’s exactly what they did by claiming the National Championship and selling merchandise claiming that they were National Champions with their Peach Bowl win. At the time, UCF just looked like a one year wonder with some of their talent going pro and Scott Frost heading to Nebraska, it seemed like UCF’s 5 seconds of fame has come to a close. Well, not yet.
Although the schedule continues to get ridiculed, UCF continues to win football games as they will really get tested in the last 2 weeks with 6-1 Cincinnati and once again, ending the year with a very good and very talented, South Florida team before playing for the American Championship. A lot of people bash UCF and a lot of people are on the bandwagon. In the end, you can’t shy away from the fact that what they’ve been able to accomplish these past 2 years have truly been astonishing and will forever be traced into UCF Football and College Football forever.
