The Knights (7-2) are set to play the UTEP Miners (2-7) at the Sun Bowl this Saturday November 10th at 7 p.m. ET in El Paso, Texas. The Miners enter the game ranked last in the Conference USA West division and have dropped five of their last six games while UCF currently holds first place in the C-USA East division and is riding a five game win streak.
In their meeting last year, UCF was able to beat UTEP 31-14 on an incredible 233 yard rushing effort put forth by Latavius Murray in front of the home crowd. The victory brought the all-time series to 2-1, with both teams winning exclusively at home. The Knights look to even out a 0-1 record in El Paso against a struggling Miners offense.
UCF has been carried all year by their stingy defense, ranked first in Conference USA for total yards allowed, passing yards allowed, and points against, giving up just under 21 points per game. Incidentally the Miners are averaging 19 points per game on offense, good for next to last in the conference.
In addition to a dominant defense, the run game has been vital to the Knights success, putting together a ground attack that averages 189 yards per game and has punched the ball in the end zone 21 times in nine weeks. Latavius Murray leads the team with 643 yards and ten rushing touchdowns on the year, coming into this week with three straight one hundred yard rushing games. As a whole, the offense has looked great, efficiently moving the ball with Blake Bortles under center, who is completing 66% of his passes and has a 16-7 touchdown to interception ratio.
The Miners are coming off of a bye week, but it remains to be seen if the time off will be able to fix the team’s offensive woes. Receivers Jordan Leslie and Michael Edwards lead the attack through the air, both serving as reliable targets for quarterback Nick Lamaison. The two have combined to catch 12 of the offense’s 14 passing touchdowns, and amassed 1314 receiving yards, which accounts for well over half of the team’s total.
If the Knights are able to hold off UTEP on foreign turf this weekend they will improve to 8-2, and will remain undefeated within Conference USA. The East Carolina Pirates (6-4) are currently chasing UCF within C-USA East and need to win this weekend against Tulane (2-7) to keep things close. Luckily if it comes down to any sort of a tiebreaker in the East between these two teams, UCF holds an advantage due to a 40-20 victory earlier this year.
Within the conference UCF’s biggest challenger may turn out to be the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes (7-2) who are undefeated within the conference as well and share a record with the Knights, leading the C-USA West. The Hurricanes are pitted against the Houston Cougars (4-5) this weekend, and will play their final home game in what would be a decisive meeting Saturday the 17th at home against UCF.
If these teams meet again this year it would be in the Conference USA championship game on December 1st, which has yet to have a designated location.
The winner of Conference USA will advance to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee on December 31st. The bowl game which will feature the #8 ranked team in the Southeastern Conference, who currently have seven bowl eligible teams, and two vying for a spot. Ole Miss (5-4) and Vanderbilt (5-4) play each other this weekend and are both just one game short of qualifying for a bid. It is very possible that the winner of this game will knock the other out of contention and advance to the Liberty bowl. Other possible seeds for the game, though less likely, include Arkansas (4-5), Tennessee (4-5) and Missouri (4-5).
With only three games left on the schedule, the Knights will play the Miners and Golden Hurricanes on the road over the next two weeks, and return to finish the regular season at home against UAB on November 24th. Going forward, the first step for UCF will be to come away with a victory this weekend and enter the critical game against Tulsa with every possible advantage. Saturday’s game will be broadcast on T.V. through FOX College Sports, and locally in Orlando on AM station 740. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
