The UCF Knights (3-1) squandered another great opportunity to bring the organization into the national spotlight when they relinquished a 10-0 halftime lead, losing 28-25 to the #12South Carolina Gamecocks (3-1).
“I thought it was a game of two halves,” UCF Coach George O’Leary lamented, “In the second half, if you can’t stop the run, you’re going to have a tough time staying in games.”
South Carolina RB Mike Davis did what he does best, posting 167 yards and three TD’s, dragging defensemen across goal lines and breaking tackles left and right.
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UCF QB Blake Bortles had an eventful afternoon, going 25-of-36, 358 yards, with two TDs and two INTs.
UCF LB Terrance Plummer led the team in tackles for the 4th straight weekend. He registered 14 tackles and forced a fumble that took USC QB Conner Shaw out of the game with a sprained right shoulder early in the first quarter.
After the Knights went up 7-0 with a touchdown on their first drive, the offense proceeded to go stagnant, scoring only one field goal before half. The Gamecocks responded in the second half by scoring on their opening drive, and on several more drives to follow. The 28 point unanswered onslaught put the Knights in a hole just too deep to crawl out of, despite their best efforts.
“There’s no quit in us, I knew that they would never quit,” O’Leary said, “we came back and we just ran out of time.”
The Knights started a 4th quarter rally with 10 minutes left, scoring 15 points which included a 2-point conversion, as fans had already started leaving the stadium. With 1:54 left, down 28-25, the Knights tried an onside kick but did not capitalize on a bounce that had everything you could ask for from a kicker.
Coach O’Leary joked that he’d like to get back to the tape and see what happened to the hands team on the left side coming down the field on the onside kick.
With no timeouts left, all the Knights could do was watch as South Carolina took a knee and managed to sneak out of Orlando with a victory.
Willie from Duck Dynasty picked UCF on College Gameday to take the upset, which Jeff Godfrey took as a green light to lob a duck across his body and across the field on a double pass that was not only picked off, but sucked enormous steam out of the UCF offense that had just got some momentum going.
On the bright side, UCF’s attendance was 47,605, which is the second largest is Bright House history. Also Jadeveon Clowney did not kill anybody, being limited to two assisted tackles and one quarterback hurry.
UCF squares off against Memphis next week, embarking on a two game road trip that ends against the top-10 ranked Louisville Cardinals.
