- April 19, 2024
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After one of the tougher conference games on their schedule, the Knights hit the road last week for what was expected to be the easiest, with a shot at taking sole possession of the AAC title. They were wrong.
A year after handing UConn their biggest blowout of the 2013 season, UCF fell in an upset shocker that shook up the AAC standings and left the Knights searching for answers.
The UConn Huskies dominated the Knights Nov. 1 in a rain-soaked game that set precedents for UCF losing to a winless conference team and giving up interceptions. UConn, which went into the game as a predicted 12-point underdog and hadn’t scored more than 21 points all season, won 37-29.
“It was a game of mistakes,” UCF head coach George O’Leary told UCFKnights.com after the game. “You can’t do the things we did out there.”
Knights quarterback Justin Holman threw a career-worst four interceptions for 72 yards, coupled with a missed Shawn Moffitt field goal, to give UConn two of their scores in the game. Those scores would prove the difference.
Holman would complete just more than half his pass attempts for 228 yards, while running back Will Stanback had a career day, posting 141 yards on the ground.
The Knights’ defensive failings seemingly were the most glaring, giving up the most points they have all season except in their blowout loss to Missouri on Sept. 13, and allowing the turning point in the game. At one point in the third quarter, when the Knights led 21-17, the Knights’ defense fell apart, allowing three unanswered UConn touchdowns in the span of less than seven minutes of field time.
A 50-yard drive in the fourth quarter capped off by a two-point conversion boosted the Knights’ hopes of a second comeback in the game. But after forcing a punt and getting the ball back with a short field, the Knights were felled by an offensive pass interference call that destroyed 15 yards of momentum and put them at third down with 20 yards to go. Justin Holman pulled off a short pass, but couldn’t connect with Josh Reese on fourth and 16.
The unexpected loss dropped the Knights out of sole possession of the conference lead, putting them at 5-3 overall and 3-1 in American Athletic Conference play. They also snapped numerous winning streaks in the process. The Knights had never lost in an AAC game.
The Knights’ win two weeks ago against Temple was the biggest of the year for the Knights, who went into their fourth American Athletic Conference game on top of the conference standings. They'll now be looking for a way to recover after the UConn loss.
UConn was at the bottom of that same AAC ladder; they’re now at 2-6 overall and 1-4 in conference play. UConn’s only win this season before the Knights was 19-16 against FCS school Stony Brook.
Had the Knights beaten UConn, they wouldn’t be in a five-way tie at the top of the AAC as they find themselves now; they would have the led outright, with three of the AAC teams with the worst combined records facing them in the next three weeks with the luxury of a throwaway loss available to them.
Instead, with the AAC’s strongest standings leaders Cincinnati and East Carolina facing each other on Nov. 13 — and either winner having a lighter schedule going forward — one more UCF loss would shift the mathematical odds of the Knights winning an AAC title outright (and getting the conference’s top bowl bid) strongly against them.
If the Knights have another AAC loss by the time they face ECU on Dec. 4, their AAC season may already be over. Having already defeated Houston, and barring late-season collapses by Cincinnati and ECU, if the Knights can defeat their next three opponents, based on AAC tiebreaker rules, they’ll likely still have to beat ECU to gain the BCS bid.
The Knights’ best shot mathematically at winning the championship now rests on them defeating Tulsa, SMU and USF in succession and then facing their biggest game of the year on the road at ECU and winning.
The Knights have a bye week this week before hosting Tulsa at 8 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Bright House.
