UCF Knights looking to get back on horse

After starting their season with two straight losses after more than 10,000 miles worth of road trips, the Knights are heading home this weekend and hoping to right a tailspin.

The Knights (0-2) haven’t had this bad a start since most of the current players were in elementary school, 2005, when the Knights started the season with two straight losses.

On Sept. 13 in Missouri (3-0) the Knights suffered their biggest blowout loss since Nov. 7, 2009 when they lost 35-3 to a Texas Longhorns team that would finish the season playing in the BCS National Championship and ranked No. 2 in the nation.

Since 2009, no UCF loss had come even close to being as big a margin as what the Knights suffered in a 38-10 drubbing by Missouri, which enters this week ranked No. 18/19.

The Knights, who were ranked No. 22 in the statistics-oriented Sagarin poll heading into the Missouri game, are now ranked No. 47 in that same poll. After starting the season just out of the AP poll rankings at No. 26, haven’t received a vote in any of the subjective polls since.

The Missouri game was decidedly different from the Penn State game the Knights started the season with.

Against the Nittany Lions, the Knights didn’t give up a single turnover, but stalled on offense for most of the game while letting Penn State run the field for 511 total yards. Despite the wildly lopsided first half, the Knights would bring in backup QB Justin Holman in the second half and nearly had a comeback despite only gaining 246 total yards. They lost by only three points.

Against the Tigers, the Knights seemingly were on par or even better early in the game, driving with ease to take a 10-7 lead midway through the second quarter.

Then the wheels fell off.

"They came up with a pick and then the next play, we miss a tackle and they throw a touchdown pass," UCF head coach George O'Leary told UCFKnights.com "I thought from that point on, that's when the floodgates opened up a little bit."

The Knights would let Missouri go on to score five straight times. UCF wouldn’t score again. Of the Tigers’ last five drives in the second half, four of them started with an interception or a fumble. Four of them ended in a score.

Even when the UCF defense could get the ball back from the Tigers, disaster struck soon afterward. When the Knights gave up an interception on their own 22-yard line with three minutes left in the game, the D got it back four plays later. But on the ensuing drive to try to restore some dignity in the final minute, down 31-10, the Knights, on Missouri’s side of the field, fumbled away the ball and watched as Missouri’s Duro Singleton put salt in the wounds with a 60-yard TD fumble return to put the Tigers up 38-10.

The Knights would hold Missouri to only 322 yards in that game, gaining 299 of their own, but fumbling three times and throwing two interceptions to effectively negate that yardage. Holman, who threw for 204 yards in just the second half against Penn State, threw for 209 total against Missouri.

This weekend the Knights face Bethune-Cookman, their first Football Championship Subdivision opponent since 2011, when they demolished Carolina Southern University 62-0.

The Wildcats are 2-0 and ranked No. 13 in the FCS, beating FIU 14-12 to start the season, then taking down Grambling State 36-23. Their offense is only averaging 317 yards per game, but their defense has averaged nearly five sacks per game.

UCF has never lost to an FCS team since joining the FBS in 1996. The game kicks off at 6 p.m. on Saturday at UCF’s Bright House Networks Stadium, televised on ESPN3.

Winter Park

The Wildcats finally didn’t need any magic to grab a win, walking over Ocoee with a 49-0 blowout to put their record up to 3-0 on the season. The Wildcats travel to University at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Cougars are 2-1.

Edgewater

The Eagles didn’t fare well in the Battle of College Park game against the Bishop Moore Hornets, falling 27-7 in a game that was lopsided from the start. The Hornets’ Marcus Williams rumbled to two touchdowns as the Hornets ratcheted out a 20-7 lead. The Eagles tried a late on-side kick, but that turned into a touchdown return by the Hornets to add to the scoring gap. The Eagles travel to Olympia at 7:30 p.m. Friday.