Under the lights of Spectrum Stadium, the CFP’s 11th ranked UCF Knights took advantage of the national spotlight by dismantling the 24th ranked Cincinnati Bearcats 38-13 to extend their nation’s longest winning streak to 23 games. With the win, the Knights clinch the East division title of the American Athletic Conference for the second straight season and will be the host team for the upcoming AAC Championship game on Saturday, December 1st. The center of the college football world descended on Orlando as ESPN’s College GameDay selected UCF as their host school. Also, the game had the benefit of being the marquee primetime game on ABC. With GameDay and the week’s featured time slot involving the Knights, let’s have some knee-jerk reactions.

The College GameDay value

For UCF, GameDay served as a three-hour infomercial, highlighting the school in areas well beyond the football field. In this area, this is the most valuable day in UCF history. Last week, just under 1.8 million people tuned in to College GameDay. During the show, aside from the analysts talking up the football program with more than twenty thousand fans behind them, they aired specific pre-recorded pieces about the school.

Last Sunday, when ESPN announced that College GameDay was coming to UCF, the fan base had a buzz not seen all season. The game itself sold out on Monday with some extra standing room tickets sold on Tuesday. This has served as an opportunity to reflect on where the school and program came from and where they are going.

Unlike many FBS schools playing today, UCF is a relative newcomer in both school age and program age. UCF was founded in 1963 with their first year as a football program in 1979. In 1996, the Knights made the jump to the Division IA, now called FBS, level. Since UCF joined Conference USA in 2005, the Knights have been to nine bowl games with a tenth coming this season. They are also 2-0 in New Year’s Six bowl games.

The value of having College GameDay on campus cannot be understated. According to ESPN, the broadcast at UCF broke records for the estimated number of signs and overall attendance. The television ratings should also be a boon to the marketing exposure for the school. UCF has benefitted so much from the extensive exposure and before the game had even kicked off.

The buzz from College GameDay translated to the contest itself. The stadium was absolutely packed. With 47,795 in attendance, the venue was very loud, leading to multiple false starts and called timeouts by Cincinnati. According to Titus Davis, the Cincinnati linemen had so much trouble hearing the quarterback and each other, they had to tap each other to communicate.

It’s the Beast of the East versus the Thunder from Down Under!

The big matchup coming into this game was the UCF offense versus the Cincinnati defense. You can consider UCF here as the unstoppable force and Cincinnati as the immovable object. Entering tonight’s contest, the Bearcats had not allowed a single team to score 30 points this season while UCF came in on a 22-game streak of scoring 30 or more points.

The UCF offense’s streak prevailed as the Bearcats were unable to match the speed of the Knights’ receivers on the outside. UCF’s offense was largely pass driven behind the arm of quarterback McKenzie Milton, who went 13-for-25 for 268 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. The Knights struggled to establish the run, but that shouldn’t be a surprise with the strength of the Bearcats’ defensive line, led by sack machine Cortex Broughton. Broughton made life difficult for the Knights early with an early sack on Milton. Malik Clements also made an impact for Cincinnati as he sacked Milton in the endzone, which caused a fumble that was recovered for a touchdown on UCF’s first play on offense.

It took Milton and the UCF offense a few drives to start getting the offense rolling, scoring on their third drive. From this point forward, the offense stayed a step ahead of the Bearcats defense, generating 402 yards of offense.

UCF’s defense was on point*

Going into the game, the scouting report said to expect Cincinnati to rely on the legs of Michael Warren II. Built in the model of Marshawn Lynch, the Bearcats fed Warren often until he left the game in the third quarter and did not return. Warren finished with 81 yards on 18 carries. Expecting the game to go through Warren, Cincinnati’s hopes were on redshirt freshman quarterback Desmond Ridder to step up.

UCF’s defensive backs heavily disrupted Ridder’s passing game as he went 11-for-26 for 127 yards. With the passing lanes not being open, Ridder spent many plays tucking the ball and running. Ridder took advantage of the slower UCF linebackers to move the ball. UCF was able to adapt by utilizing more defensive backs and with the defensive line dominating Cincinnati’s offensive line. Ridder ending up running it 20 times for 70 yards.

So why the asterisk if the defense did so well? The linebackers continued to be exposed for the lack of speed. Many of Ridder’s runs were due to the linebackers being unable to hit the proper angle with enough speed to prevent chunk yardage being gained.

Special teams defense was truly something special

With a strong wind coming from the north, the kicking game was going to be affected. The special teams defense for UCF really stepped up and kept points off the board. After Cincinnati scored an early touchdown on a Milton fumble in the end zone, the defensive pressure helped Bearcats kicker Cole Smith miss the extra point. This was an omen of special team struggles for the Bearcats. Halfway through the first quarter, Smith missed a 38-yard field goal. In the first quarter’s final seconds, defensive lineman Joey Connors blocked a 41-yard field goal, which was plucked out of the air by defensive back Brandon Moore and run back 60 yards. UCF would end up scoring a touchdown on this drive to take a 14-6 lead, which as it turned out was all the momentum the Knights needed to win the game.

Random Tidbits

*UCF now has a 23-game winning streak

*UCF has won 14 straight home games

*UCF has scored 30 points or more in 23 straight games. This ties Oregon for second all time. UCF can tie the all-time record of 24 next week against South Florida. Ironically, the record is owned by South Florida.

*UCF has forced at least one turnover in 29 straight games

*With Cincinnati being shut out in the third quarter, UCF has now held opponents scoreless in six third quarters this season.

*UCF has won their second straight AAC East Division and will host the championship game for the second straight year.

*With the win, UCF moves to 10-0 and is their seventh 10+ win season.

*McKenzie Milton has thrown a touchdown pass in 23 straight games, which is second in UCF history.

*With his 13 completions, McKenzie Milton has moved up to third in UCF all-time completions at 625.

*Matthew Wright has 53 career field goals, which is tied for the most in UCF history.

*Attendance was 47,795. This is the second largest in Spectrum Stadium history. Miami in 2009 with 48,453 is the stadium record.

*The attendance is the 4th highest in UCF history.

I’ve been writing off and on since 2003, where I first wrote for Southern College Sports. After a hiatus, I returned in 2012 with The Sports Chronicles, a predecessor of NGSC Sports. After a brief stint with WBLZ in 2017, I returned to NGSC Sports before joining Blue HQ Media in 2018. Also, from 2015 to 2017, I helped run Off the Cuff, a sports program and blog with STLR Media. I have done radio and podcasts dating back to 2006 with The Student of the Game, an NFL podcast. In 2012, I cohosted TSC Saturday Night on the Sports Chronicles and The OT With Andrew G on WTMY in Sarasota, FL. I later moved the OT to NGSC Sports until 2014 where I started The College Cram, also on NGSC Sports. After a brief hiatus, I returned to radio in 2015 with both Off the Cuff on STLR and The Mad Scientist Sports Lab on The Inscriber.