This Thursday will be the end of the road for the UCF Knights’ seniors as they take on in-state rival USF (7-4, 5-2 American Athletic conference) for the final game of the 2015 season. The Knights will honor seniors: Isai Cetoute, Tarik Cook, Joey Grant, Lance McDowdell, Thomas Niles, Joseph Puopolo, Domenic Spencer, Brendin Straubel and Cedric Thompson.
As you can imagine it will be an emotional game for the Knights; for some of the seniors it will be their last football game.
“It’s sad knowing that it’s coming to an end,” said redshirt senior H-Back Joseph Puopolo. “When you’re a freshman here, you never really think like It’s gonna come to an end. It’s just crazy to think that it’s here right now.”
“All the things that we’ve been through, the championships, the wins and just ending it like this. It’s crazy to think about,” added Puopolo.
These seniors were a part of the Knights teams that won the BCS Fiesta Bowl in 2014 against Baylor and back to back conference titles in 2013 and 2014 seasons.
“My favorite memory is for sure the Fiesta Bowl,” said redshirt senior H-back Cedric Thompson. “It was just a surreal experience. Everybody counted us out…we did a great job preparing and we got the result that we wanted.”
“It was fun, to go out there and actually show that we can play with anybody,” said redshirt senior defensive end Thomas Niles. “The whole year [2013] shocking people, taking down top 10 teams like Louisville, playing with South Carolina when nobody really gave us a chance in that game either. Just that whole year [2013] was just great.”
The seniors are used to winning and they do not want to have a 0-12 season and end their UCF careers with a loss.
The Knights want to go out with a bang, win against their rivals (USF) and knock them out of contention to win the American East conference. UCF plans to blackout the Bulls as they will be wearing all black for the first time since 1995.
Everyone remembers their last game, a point touched on by UCF interim head coach Danny Barrett.
“Cause of the love for the game, you never want it to end,” said Barrett.
