The Knights were down 28-14 on the road in the third quarter amidst the biggest comeback in school history against then ranked No. 8 Louisville.
Heisman candidate Teddy Bridgewater took the field to extend the Cardinal’s national championship hopes and put away the Knights team that was down three touchdowns earlier in the game.
Music started blasting throughout the sold-out Papa John’s Cardinals Stadium, but it wasn’t the Cardinals players who were jumping around getting hyped up.
The Knights defense, comprised almost entirely of underclassmen, started to jump around to Louisville’s music before the drive, setting up a fumble which turned into another Knight’s touchdown and the rest was history.
Experience is something that most college football coaches think helps their team out, but it hasn’t exactly been the case for the Knights this season. The audacity the Knights had to hype themselves up like that against a hostile Louisville crowd on the road is almost the exact type of naivete that has helped the Knights win seven games this season by less than seven points.
“Sometimes you look at experience as helping you out. The young kids didn’t know any better but to play with great effort for 60 minutes and good things were going to happen,” UCF Head Coach George O’Leary said.
When the Knight’s BCS hopes looked to be over against Temple, J.J. Worton made a catch that was considered one of college football’s plays of the year. The Houston Cougars had a chance to beat the Knights on a game winning drive on homecoming night, however, the Knights didn’t falter and stopped them at the goal line. The South Florida Bulls stymied the Knight’s offense all game, but a fourth-quarter Bortles bomb downfield once again gave the Knights a victory.
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Some UCF fans call it destiny, some say that the football gods are on the Knight’s side. By the end of the season it got to the point where UCF fans started to expect some type of miraculous Knights comeback. However someone wants to look at it is their own prerogative, but there is no denying the almost palpable, youthful energy that has developed within this Knights squad.
The Knights aren’t the most highly recruited guys coming out of high school. Freshman standout Will Stanback was a zero-star recruit and UCF was his only D-1 school offer. Junior quarterback Blake Bortles played in the shadow of crosstown rival Jeff Driskel in high school and was often overlooked in quarterback recruiting camps. Now scouts are saying he is a top NFL prospect.
“I think a lot of kids come to UCF with a chip on their shoulder, maybe they’re a little mad they didn’t get recruited by the bigger schools. I think that’s what makes us have a little edge on other people…that’s the attitude we have,” Bortles said.
George O’Leary loves to reiterate that he doesn’t recruit based off of the star-system and instead bases his recruiting off of looking at tape.
“I think the key to recruiting is to take kids that fit into the culture of your program. Chemistry-wise is so important on the football field as far as the program is concerned,” O’Leary said.
The Knights will be playing in the Fiesta Bowl on New Years Day, one of the biggest games in college football. The guys recruited ahead of them at Florida will be sitting at home, and the guys at Miami just got blown out by the same Louisville Cardinals the Knights beat.
The Baylor Bears are favored to beat the Knights by 17 points, a bigger spread than any other bowl game.
Just like the Knights like it.
