Coming off of the bye week, UCF fans everywhere let loose a sigh of relief when they saw starting quarterback McKenzie Milton take the field to host Temple after missing action against ECU two weeks ago.. That was short lived as the Knights were locked in a back-and-forth battle that likely left Kirk Herbstreit and Joel Klatt smiling from ear-to-ear as they overcame the Owls, 52-40.

Next week, UCF is at home once again to continue to push for a American Athletic Conference Championship hosting Navy, but all that will be buzzing in the press is how the win over Temple isn’t “good enough”. A 21-game winning streak means nothing to the world at large let alone anything surrounding them leading the East division, the Owls toppling an undefeated Cincinnati team in their previous game, or how their pass defense was among the top five in the nation going into Thursday night. Instead, all you’ll likely hear is about how Temple lost to Buffalo and Villanova, how UCF’s defense gave up 670 yards, or how the Knights struggled against a team in their “weak” conference.

“We go into each game every single week expecting to win.” – Coubs More at the mic from after last night’s win 👇 pic.twitter.com/sA3VAaxdUl — UCF Football (@UCF_Football) November 2, 2018

Those who are unbiased analysts are aware that Cincinnati and USF are still on the schedule as difficult opponents and should the Knights prevail past them to make it to the AAC Championship, UCF’s greatest challenge would be a Houston team that is ranked in the AP polls, but not on the CFP. That three-week crescendo of talent to finish the 2018 season is first preceded in a contest that takes place November 10th against a Navy team that is very unique in running the triple option offense.

However, with all the critical cases made against them, UCF remains undaunted. Saying the right things and ending up ahead with the one stat that no analyst — biased or not — can argue with. . . more points on the scoreboard than their opponents. Maybe they don’t end up in the College Football Playoffs, but there’s a reason they’ll be taken seriously in any post game play they are invited to — this team acts like champions. If this is the program that the mainstream college football media wants to make villains, they may inadvertently empower them to continue to grow in stature.

And as they get more popular, maybe they’ll opt to expand their stadium to 65,000 in capacity. Perhaps that will remove the fiscal constraints for out-of-conference teams teams who are traditionally ranked to come play at Spectrum Stadium in exchange for a home game for them in a different year? Of course all of that is moot if the Knights fail to win out.

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.