With 90-degree heat and an index over 100, the UCF Knights hosted their only Power 5 conference opponent of the regular season, the Pittsburgh Panthers. UCF controlled this game outside of a couple of blemishes to win 45-14. With the heat causing all sorts of mayhem, there is plenty of room for some knee-jerk reactions.

Making a statement

UCF was dogged by the College Football Playoff Committee last year due to not having enough wins against Power 5 schools. Due to Hurricane Irma last year, UCF had to cancel their game against Georgia Tech. This year, UCF’s game against North Carolina was also canceled due to Hurricane Florence. Pitt represented UCF’s only regular season game against a Power 5 opponent. The Knights had a clear mission — Win and win big. They did just that as the Knights offense performed at their usual high level despite a good Panthers defense. It was the Knights defense that really deserves major props due to their obvious improvement. We’ll talk about the defense later.

As expected, various big network talking heads have come out and dismissed the quality of UCF’s schedule. The Knights can only play who they are scheduled and they need to score a lot of points against those opponents. If it is any consolation, UCF did not get to 13th in the AP polls until November 19th in 2017 compared to September 23rd in 2018. UCF is on the minds of writers and coaches despite any bias against them.

UCF finally enjoys the big play

The Knights offense is designed to be ridiculously fast and create big plays by wearing defenses down. UCF had a major weapon they were able to use against Pitt, the heat. The home field advantage made a big difference as several Panthers defenders went down during the game. In last week’s game against Florida Atlantic, one defensive Owls player walked on the field from the sidelines and then dropped to create an injury stoppage. He was subsequently booed off the field. Considering what happened last week and a couple of oddly timed injury stoppages this week, one could make a workable thesis that some of these were intentional. This slowed up the Knights offense a bit, but not by much. At one point, the Knights offense was so fast, even the refs were not ready and they had to blow the play dead.

The Knights defense struggled late against Florida Atlantic. This came down to conditioning. With the heat being extreme and the Knights players getting up and being ready for more compared to Pitt, they really took advantage of the home field and set themselves up for other games at home.

Adrian Killins Jr. was able to break free on a 71-yard touchdown catch from McKenzie Milton. Milton also orchestrated two other scoring plays over 20 yards: a 24-yard reception by Gabriel Davis in the first quarter and a 23-yard QB keeper in the second. Milton and Killins also connected on a 64-yard reception.

Tackling: Are you not entertained?

This has been a major issue all year. As established during the season opener against UConn and in each subsequent game, tackling has been a sore spot. As noted in the reactions for the game against Florida Atlantic, there has been an improvement here, despite the high amount of criticism the defense has received due to FAU running back Devin Singletary breaking so many tackles.

It is fair to argue that Singletary was the single most talented runner UCF will see all year and the work they put in would look more like an aberration. The Knights defense put together a very solid game and dominated Pitt for the majority of the affair. There was a late touchdown pass from Pitt QB Kenny Pickett to Maurice French that had a few missed tackles, but this play was the exception more than the rule. The earlier Panthers touchdown was an 86-yard punt return that was just well executed by the Panthers. Credit needs to be given to UCF punter Mac Loudermilk for shedding a blocker and still slowing returner Rafael Araujo-Lopez, but there were no teammates in the area to help out.

The Knights defense only gave up 163 yards in the air and 109 yards on the ground. This is about par for the air defense, but on the ground, this is less than half of what opponents were averaging against the Knights. To put it in perspective, Pitt averaged 212 yards rushing coming into the game and were thoroughly shut down. The passing game would have been below their average of 148 yards if the late Pickett to Ffrench score didn’t happen.

While Pitt isn’t the best team UCF will face, they are the only school from a Power 5 conference. Putting a complete game together is going to look good…not CFP good, but good nonetheless.

McKenzie Milton continues to build a record-setting legacy

While only throwing for a slightly over 50% completion ratio, UCF QB McKenzie Milton put up yet another 300-yard multi-touchdown game with zero interceptions. One has to wonder how the big networks would be talking about Milton if he did not have the three-interception aberration against South Carolina State. He finished today going 18/34 for 328 yards and 4 touchdowns, each to a different receiver: Killins, Otis Anderson, Gabriel Davis, and Michael Colubiale. When Milton hit his first-quarter touchdown with Davis, he passed quarterback legend Blake Bortles on UCF’s all-time passing touchdown records at 57. Milton is up to 60 now. Milton also passed Bortles for the number of touchdowns all-purpose, which includes rushing and passing scores with 72. Milton also recorded his eleventh 300-yard game, which he’s already third in the team record books. As long as Milton stays for his senior season, many of the remaining records could be broken.

Random tidbits

*UCF extends their win streak to a school and conference-best 17 games.

*UCF has a 10-game home winning streak.

*The Knights have scored 30 points in each of their last 17 games.

*Today’s attendance was 44,904. This is over the stadium capacity due to the students cramming in.

*UCF has only allowed 6 points in the third quarter this year. Pitt was shutout in the third.

*Kicker Matthew Wright’s third extra point of the game gave him 160 in his career, which passes Charlie Pierce as the school’s all-time leader in extra points.

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.