Knightmare start: UCF looks for first win

A nightmare loss that built over two and a half quarters on the field in Stanford is now a part of the worst start UCF has had in a decade. With a 31-7 score hanging on the board early Sunday morning, the Knights left the field beaten in more ways than just points.

It's been a very long time since UCF lost two games to start a season: dating back to the most notorious season of all time.

Many Knights fans might remember the infamous 2004 season, when after then-new head coach George O'Leary announced, "We will win games," the Knights lost every single one. But what fans may forget is that those 11 losses were bookended by losses at the end of the 2003 and start of the 2005 season, combining to become a 17-game losing streak that at the time was the longest in NCAA Division 1 football.

But what came next could serve as a point of light to guide the Knights through the fog of their loss in the San Francisco Bay: After the first two losses of that 2005 season, the Knights made a historic turnaround that would take them all the way to the Hawaii Bowl — the first bowl game they had ever played.

For the Knights to replicate that historic turnaround, they'll have to overcome a loss that the 2015 team couldn't have imagined: Their starting quarterback.

When the Knights left the field after a disappointing three-and-out series to lose their first drive of the Stanford game Saturday night, fans may not have noticed that series took starting QB Justin Holman with it. By the next drive, the damage was clear: A hand injury took out Holman in only his second season at the helm of the Knights, landing UCF's fate in the hands of a pair of backups with zero field time between them.

The results were devastating, with the Knights, whose defense held them close to a struggling Stanford through much of the first two quarters, never finding a rhythm on offense.

For the defense, forced onto the field too often between drives, they weakened over the course of the game.

"We hung in there in the first half," UCF Head Coach George O'Leary told UCFKnights.com after the game. "There were so many poor plays on the defense's part in the second half."

The vast majority of UCF's yards came on just two drives; one in the first half that spanned most of a field for 60 yards and ended in a William Stanback fumble, and their last of the game, when redshirt freshman Tyler Harris, plucked off the sidelines just minutes earlier, connected with Tre'Quan Smith for a 36-yard TD strike at the end of a quick 56-yard drive.

Tallying up effectiveness between two backup quarterbacks, one of which will almost surely be the next Knights' man under center: Harris, who came in a few minutes into the fourth quarter, was 7-for-15 with 105 yards and a touchdown, being sacked twice. In those two sacks, though, he lost 43 yards. Bo Schneider, who played most of the game, connected for 46 yards in a 7-for-19 effort.

Holman, according to O’Leary Monday, will be out two to four weeks. Leary also pegged Schneider as his likely short-term replacement at quarterback. More bad news: Joey Grant, one of the Knights’ most experienced players, who was starting center against FIU, is reportedly out for the season.

A bright spot for the Knights: four receivers caught 20 or more yards worth of passes.

On the ground, six Knights netted just 30 yards, with much of those negative, dragging down Taj McGowan's 67 yards on 20 carries.

On the game, the Knights averaged 2.8 yards per play to Stanford's 6.9.

The Knights (0-2) host Furman at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Bright House, with a date with SEC powerhouse South Carolina waiting the week later. The Paladins (0-2) were crushed by Virginia Tech 42-3 Saturday. The Knights haven’t played the Paladins in more than 30 years.