Now that former UCF assistant Troy Walters is coaching at Nebraska, there's no need to continue the Knights' offseason battle cry as college football's 2017 national champions.

Walters, a finalist for last year's Broyles Award, posted a photo of UCF's national championship ring Tuesday on Twitter, with a caption that caught many of his UCF holdover followers by surprise: "My PEACH BOWL & AAC CHAMPIONSHIP ring came today. Honored to be a part of a Blessed team and season #13-0 #Glory2God."

Notice there's no mention of national champion in Walters' tweet. His message was met with hostility from many UCF fans, who screen-shotted previous tweets from Walters indicating otherwise from January.

Walter responded to his initial take more in-depth a few moments later.

"Personally and professionally speaking, I am a national champion when I win the National championship game. I wish we could have had this opportunity because we were playing at a high level. If someone else wants to proclaim and pay me as a national champion, then that’s on them."

Bingo.

It is UCF's athletic director Danny White's prerogative to push the mythical national title if it means more exposure for the Group of 5 champion, who wasn't shown enough respect — in the eyes of those in Orlando — from the College Football Playoff selection committee.

White estimates January's social media noise from UCF boasting about being the "only unbeaten national champion" created more than 100 million social media impressions nationally and gave the Knights platform to tout their brand to its max.

UCF pushed it to the extreme with multiple championship parades, banners and signage, and even paid its assistants national championship contract bonuses, to which Walters alludes to in his tweet.

"There’s a compelling case that our team deserves to be national champions absent a system, an expanded playoff, that truly decides it on the field," White told 247Sports in January. "I feel like as a leader and athletic director, it’s my job to always prioritize our student-athletes. I always will. And I’m going to fight for them when appropriate and I feel like it’s appropriate to fight for them right now.”

UCF (13-0) finished No. 4 in the final 2017 AP Poll and garnered four first-place votes. Top-ranked Alabama (13-1), which beat Georgia in overtime in the CFB Playoff National Championship Game, picked up the other 57.