After the past week’s 31-30 heart-stopper on the road against Memphis, the UCF Knights found themselves not moving up in the polls for the first time since the season began. Knights head coach Josh Heupel stayed on company line none the less declaring that he and his football team would continue to work to “control what we can control”. . . but it feels like this week, we got something more.

During this week’s press conference, Coach was asked if he could understand how his team might be inclined to check out during preparation. After all, they are only facing a comparatively unremarkable East Carolina team on Saturday with a bye the following week approaching.

“I don’t understand how that would happen”, Heupel responded without any snark in his tone. “You only get 12 chances to go out and play that are guaranteed– that’s it. . . and we lost one to weather. We work eight months for only those few opportunities. . .”

“You continue to fight and find a way to win those games. Good teams…championship teams…do that. ” -Heup More from Coach, KZ and Gabe Davis from Monday’s presser 👇 pic.twitter.com/MQSFtalxz8 — UCF Football (@UCF_Football) October 15, 2018

That sentiment lets in more light in on how UCF’s signal caller keeps his squad going week-to-week, in my humble opinion, than anything else we’ve seen or heard this season. A culture where glory or accolades for the program may be a goal, but the purpose is the experience of playing the games themselves. That the time locked in competition weighs more in value to these student athletes than a truckload of metals, trophies, or rings could ever afford them.

According to the players and Coach’s impressions of what the Pirates of East Carolina bring, that kind of focus will be necessary to prevent a trap-game loss. Defensive tackle AJ Wooten gave his insight on what to expect from the Pirates on offense. “They have a good offensive scheme. Same as a lot of spread offenses you see in the country”, he said. “We just got to do our job; Make sure we do the little things right and we’ll be fine”.

Kyle Nash, known as The Student of the Game, covers UCF Football for SportsMediaPass.com and is a special contributor for Break the Fourth. He’s a also a writer for the DolphinsWire of USA Today and co-host of the DinnerTime and Default Assault podcasts.