After a demoralizing last minute loss to the worst team in Conference-USA last week, it would be easy for the UCF football team to have a pessimistic outlook for the rest of the season.
The Knights suffered a 26-24 loss to a previously winless UAB team on a last minute field goal by a freshman kicker, dropping them to 3-4 overall, 1-2 in league play and far under this season’s expectations.
Despite the recent struggles, the Knights have remained optimistic about the rest of the season, and are continuing to put in hard work in order to correct the mistakes they’ve made.
“The mood has been a bit up the last couple days. We realized that we made some mistakes thus far, but we’re coming everyday with a positive work attitude, knowing we can’t change anything from the past,” senior tailback Ronnie Weaver said Tuesday.
“We just got to take our mistakes and learn from them and go forward into the future.”
Moving past their recent defeats and keeping a positive attitude for the remainder of the year is something that senior co-captains Ronnie Weaver and Josh Linam have stressed to the team over the last few days.
“Sometimes seniors take it upon themselves to keep everybody together, to keep everybody level headed because sometimes the young guys haven’t gone through a situation like this before,” Weaver said.
“The seniors got to take the upper hand and explain to them what’s going on and make sure they’re still positive, and make sure they’re working hard everyday because things can turnaround. It’s not time to hang there head.”
Emphasizing that the team can still turnaround its season is crucial as the Knights still have five games left that can change their fate.
At 1-2 in C-USA, UCF currently sits in third place in the East Division of the conference, with Southern Miss and East Carolina ahead of them at 2-1. Fortunately, the Knights play both the Golden Eagles and the Pirates over the next few weeks, meaning they can still control the fate of their season and get back to the conference championship.
“I think it’s good to have everybody with the same mindset on the team because you can’t have guys on the team that are giving up and thinking the season is a waste now,” senior MLB Josh Linam said.
“We still can accomplish all our goals if we win five games, but we got to take it one game at a time and win this game against Memphis.”
Last season, the Knights didn’t face much adversity, winning eight of their final nine games, en route to the C-USA title.
This year, it hasn’t been as easy, and a lot of players on the team have yet to experience the adversity that UCF has faced recently.
Being seniors, both Weaver and Linam have seen their fair share of success and hardships at UCF, which they use as examples for the younger guys.
“Some people have only been here for a year or so and have only seen the success side of things, and haven’t really gone through the hardships that we have as seniors- being here for five years now, ” Weaver said.
“It’s up to us to set the example, and tell them we have a chance to still be successful this season.”
And fortunately for the Knights, they will play two consecutive games in the comfort of Bright House Networks Stadium, where they’re a perfect 3-0 this season.
It couldn’t come at a better time for the team.
“We’ve definitely been doing well at home, so we’re ready to get back home and get back on the right track,” Linam said.
UCF will host Memphis, who they are 6-1 all-time against, this Saturday at 4 p.m.
If the Knights can fix the issues that have been plaguing them over the last few weeks and beat Memphis, they will put themselves in prime position to accomplish their goals and still have a successful season.
“If we do win out, we have the ability to fulfill our goals and dreams that we had at the beginning of the season. We (the seniors) just want to take command and drive that point home to everyone else,” Weaver said.
