Knights ready for Penn State in Ireland

The Knights have won their last eight season openers, regardless of where, when, and against whom. But they’ve never done it in Ireland. And they’ve never done it against Penn State. And there’s never been a volcano involved.

What looms ahead this coming Saturday is one of the most anticipated season starts in program history, if only for the novelty alone. They’ll kick off at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time in Dublin’s Croke Park. Over there it’ll be 1:30 p.m. Irish Standard Time — just about right for a Saturday afternoon kickoff.

The opponent is a familiar one. In their most successful season in team history en route to a 12-1 record last year, the Knights won eight of their games by a margin of 10 points or less. Their 34-31 Sept. 14 upset of Penn State in University Park, Pa., will likely go down as one of the greatest. Quarterback Blake Bortles would throw for 288 yards and three touchdowns to lead his team to the win.

By the time that season was over, the Knights were ranked No. 10/12 in the nation depending on which poll you looked at, attaining that rank only after obliterating Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl.

Take a look at the polls today and despite not having played a game since the most storied bowl victory in school history, the Knights have dropped out of the rankings entirely, likely helped largely by the early exodus to the NFL by Bortles.

Against a Penn State team that returns its star quarterback, the Knights will have a brand new one in Pete DiNovo, the standout who set Pinellas County records in high school. No UCF freshman QB has started a season opener since Daunte Culpepper.

The game is already predicted to be one of the top-10 games on NCAA football’s opening weekend by the sports blog SBNation.com, putting a spotlight on a game that features a new quarterback for UCF, a new head coach for Penn State, and a possible volcano getting in the way.

The Bardarbunga volcano in central Iceland is threatening air travel as it has caused alerts to hover between red (indicating imminent or current eruption) and orange (meaning a heightening potential for eruption) and could cause the game’s location to change continents. That unprecedented action could mean that the exotic game on the “Emerald Isle” that UCF and Penn State had been hyping since June of last year could end up being played at UCF’s Bright House Stadium. The date of the game at this time is not expected to change, even if the location does, according to UCF officials.

Iceland is no stranger to high-profile volcanic eruptions that have grounded a hemisphere’s worth of airline flights. In 2010 the Eyjafjallajokull volcano caused more than 100,000 flights to be canceled when it erupted, sending ash clouds into the stratosphere and threatening jet engine damage.

Stranger things than even a game-ending volcano have happened to the Knights in the last twelve months, following a season that hinged on games won by back-to-back fumble recovery touchdowns, 10 points scored in 66 seconds in another — capped off by one of the greatest touchdown catches in NCAA history — and an improbable goal line stand in yet another wild win.

They’ll enter the Penn State game wielding a five-member receiving corps with a cumulative 7,000-plus yards receiving in their careers. And on the ground, they’ll have William Stanback, who’s angling to be the next Kevin Smith with highlight reel plays of his own.

Looking for a place to watch the game nearby? Wackadoo’s will be as close as it gets on UCF’s campus at the Student Union. Friendly Confines at 3088 Aloma Ave. in Winter Park will open early, as will Graffiti Junktion at 310 Alafaya Trail in Oviedo. Mikki V’s grill at 156 Tuscawilla Road in Winter Springs will open at 8 a.m. Staying home? It kicks off on ESPN2 at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 30.