- March 29, 2024
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The Knights are the ones riding a wave as they wait for Tulane to flood into town Saturday, having just escaped BYU to extend their winning streak to three games.
An overtime thriller for the history books put the Knights 3-2 on the season and sent BYU home in a tailspin. But a few minutes into the third quarter, the game was anything but the Knights'.
The stadium was dead quiet but for chants of “BYU” from a surprisingly large contingent of fans who took over the north end zone seats by the thousands. Their motivation came in the form of three straight third-quarter UCF miscues that led to the Cougars scoring three touchdowns in less than three minutes.
BYU quarterback Christian Stewart would haul his team out of their early 10-0 deficit and hang 24 points on the board before UCF responded. By then it was deep into the third quarter and UCF was in trouble.
Suddenly the Knights were at the beginning of a comeback story.
It started with a kickoff return by Rannell Hall, just seconds after the Knights’ fans were at their most deflated. Hall would race for 57 yards to ignite cheers again and regain momentum for UCF. The next 25 minutes of playing time would see a comeback for the ages.
"I've never seen a game like that in my life," UCF quarterback Justin Holman said after the game, in which the Knights would score three unanswered touchdowns to edge the Cougars 31-24 in overtime.
Despite being responsible for every one of UCF's turnovers on offense, Holman also played the game of his career. The sophomore threw for 326 yards, two touchdowns and a long pass of 37 yards on a wild diving catch by a heavily covered Josh Reese in the end zone.
Eight Knights would catch double-digit yardage in the game, with Reese and Breshad Perriman leading the way with nearly 90 yards each, with some big highlight reel catches along the way. Perriman found holes in the BYU defense to drag tackles for several more yards on nearly every play. And Will Stanback, stifled in the run by BYU's strong defense at the front, caught two of the most important passes of the game.
Coming into a crucial role yet again was background player from 2013 Justin Tukes, who picked up three receptions, two of which would advance the Knights to crucial first downs on their comeback drive.
It was Stanback who Holman would find in the end zone to give the Knights the decisive score in overtime. A confident, unstoppable drive was finally the Knights' after so many stalled attempts. Then when BYU attempted to counter, with their shot at extending the game relying on a touchdown, they found themselves stopped short in dramatic fashion by a UCF goal line stand for the ages.
Defense, led by Terrance Plummer with 17 tackles, kept the Knights in the game when the offense and special teams were at their low points. Crucial stops that forced BYU to punt over and over again in the fourth quarter gave the offense a shot at tying things up, which they did before scoring in overtime. Then, down 31-24, as Stewart desperately tried to connect with a receiver from less than 10 yards outside the end zone, he found himself stifled again and again by defenders Brandon Alexander, Jaryl Mamea, and Jacoby Glenn to knock BYU’s chances out of the sky.
The final play would see Stewart's pass fall in the end zone as the Knights leapt into jubilation and the field was mobbed. Former Knights stars Daunte Culpepper and Kevin Smith were there to see one of the most dramatic wins in the history of the Bright House.
That win will propel the Knights on a three-game win streak going into their game against the Tulane Green Wave at noon Saturday. The Green Wave enter the game 2-4 on the season after defeating a 1-3 UConn team in the lowest scoring game of the week, a 12-3 win in which they scored a touchdown, a field goal and a safety.
Despite that low score, Tulane amassed 302 yards in the game, with most of them coming courtesy of the Green Wave’s top two rushers, Sherman Badie and Lazedrick Thompson, who racked up 77 and 73 respective yards on the ground. Tulane QB Nick Montana threw for 135 yards.
The Knights enter the game with a 4-1 all-time record against Tulane. The only time the Knights have ever lost to the Green Wave was during November 2006 when they finished 4-8 on the season a year after going to the team’s first ever bowl game. They would let Tulane put up 10 points in the second quarter and ride that score out for the rest of the game as the Knights failed to enter the end zone, relying on Michael Torres’ kicking foot for three field goals to come up a point short. That game was punctuated by a missed 35-yarder by Torres with three minutes left, and a fumble 35 yards from Tulane’s end zone in the final two minutes.
This week’s game kicks off at noon Saturday at the Bright House, televised on ESPNU.