In 2007, the UCF Knights trotted into Raymond James Stadium to take on the USF Bulls, getting completely demoralized in a 64-12 blowout.
That was then, this is now.
Seven years later and the Knights have three bowl wins under their belt, looking to return to Raymond James as the little brother who grew up to be much larger than their older sibling.
The Knights (7-3, 5-1) have their sights set on a second straight American Athletic Conference championship, the Bulls (4-7, 3-4) are hoping to spoil UCF’s season.
The Knights, who have been having trouble with consistency this season, have finally put together two impressive back-to-back conference wins. In the past two games, the Knights’ defense has been stifling, stopping opponents on 17 of 23 third down attempts.
The Bulls have shown flashes of putting together a quality win, but have yet to do so. They threatened East Carolina’s previously undefeated season and played a quality game against Maryland, but have yet to beat an FBS opponent this season with a winning record.
USF Rundown:
The Bulls are sitting at the bottom of the middle-tier of the American Athletic Conference. With bowl hopes and conference titles out the window, the Bulls’ are hoping their silver lining of the season will be ruining UCF’s campaign.
There is no doubt that the Bulls are coming into this game with a chip on their shoulder. USF head coach Willie Taggart admitted that he has been re-playing the USF wins against UCF on repeat all week.
If the Bulls want to threaten UCF’s season, they will need to hope for a sloppy game from the Knights. That means winning the turnover battle and making plays on special teams.
The Knights have shown to be a little flimsy on piecing together clean field goal attempts and Holman can be little interception-prone as he has thrown 12 this season.
Other than that, the Bulls have a bright spot in freshman running back Marlon Mack, who has rushed for 100 yards four times in his first season. He’s averaging an impressive 5.3 yards a carry, but will be facing off against UCF’s 11th ranked rushing defense in the nation.
The Bulls will need Mack to establish that he can rush against the Knights’ front line and start to run some play action to open up looks for QB Mike White to connect with WR Andre Davis.
Final Thoughts
Although the rivalry is strong, UCF shouldn’t have much trouble dispatching the Bulls this season. The UCF senior oriented defense has been firing on all cylinders and it’s not looking like they will go out with a loss to the Bulls.
Expect to see a balanced UCF offense against a USF defense that has been nothing more than average this season.
Final score prediction: UCF 28, USF 13.
