Knights bounce back, ready for SMU

Bouncing back from a devastating loss, the Knights bulldozed Tulsa to regain their footing in the American Athletic Conference standings.

The 31-7 win was the largest margin of victory that Knights had enjoyed in conference play this season, and the biggest yardage the offense had put up in any game in 2014.

Now the Knights face an SMU team that hasn’t won a game at all this season and is 0-5 in conference play. It’ll be the last chance for the Knights to win a game at home, as they finish their final two on the road.

After beating the odds to defeat a Tulsa team that had previously won five of seven contests against UCF, the Knights now face a team that has only won one of six. The last time the Knights battled SMU, they emerged with a 17-13 victory that required a two-score comeback to solidify. That was less than a year ago, on a 24-degree field in Dallas.

Coming off a brisk but 30-degree-warmer night win against Tulsa, the Knights may have found a little redemption after losing in a bad weather upset against UConn.

Against Tulsa, the Knights struggled with offensive consistency, but dominated on defense to help themselves to a win. The Knights would gain 506 yards to Tulsa’s 201, marking a season high on offense and a season low on defense.

“That’s the one team we haven’t beaten,” linebacker Terrance Plummer said of his tenure versus Tulsa, after finally beating them. “That weighed heavy on all of us because the last time we played them they literally beat us twice in a three-week span. We never expect anybody to get us a second time so we took it very personal.”

Most of those yards came courtesy of quarterback Justin Holman’s arm, as he threw for 291 yards on a 16-for-27 performance, including three touchdowns and zero interceptions. A 77-yard relay race to Josh Reese on the first play from scrimmage after a punt gave the Knights a 17-0 lead, and the Knights would keep extending it from there.

At one point in the game UCF head coach George O’Leary felt confident enough to put backup QB Nick Patti into the game. Four handoffs, a first down and an incomplete pass later, Patti threw an interception to end his passing for the day. By then, the Knights had the game well in hand.

Relative unknown running backs Dontravious Wilson and Micah Reed shored up an injured Will Stanback’s performance with 87 and 43 respective yards. Wilson would score his first college touchdown in the contest, and add 15 yards receiving to bump his total above 100 yards for the game. Reese would end the game with 104 yards receiving and a touchdown catch that spanned the field. Breshad Perriman and J.J. Worton also hauled in TD receptions.

Now the Knights have some momentum going into what on paper is their easiest conference game of the season. The SMU Mustangs started their season losing their first four games by a combined scoring margin of 202-12.

They’ve since gone on to post significantly closer losing margins in conference play. They almost picked up their first win of the season against USF last weekend, with the Bulls needing a touchdown with four seconds left to win. Their highest scoring game, against UCF’s most recent victim Tulsa, saw the Mustangs rack up 464 yards on offense, though they still allowed Tulsa 501 yards en route to a 10-point win.

The Mustangs are on their fourth quarterback this season. Can Matt Davis play the game of his life to keep up with UCF’s offense? He’ll likely have to eclipse career numbers to make that happen, as SMU has spotted opponents an average of 43 points per game this season.

The Knights are at 4-1 in the AAC standings, tied for second place with Cincinnati and behind 5-1 Memphis, which faces the lightest schedule in the final two games of their conference season. The Knights will be looking for three straight wins to end the season with a chance of defending their AAC title.

The UCF-SMU game kicks off at noon on Nov. 22 at the Bright House, televised on CBS Sports Network.