Knights fall to 0-4 after South Carolina loss

Picked as almost certain losers against South Carolina, the UCF Knights nearly pulled off the improbable. But after taking a 14-8 lead midway into the third quarter against the Gamecocks Saturday, the Knights watched an unlikely upset become a massive comeback loss.

The Gamecocks would score 20 points in the span of just the second half of the third quarter as they went from a misfiring former juggernaut to a return to offensive form in a blink. The Gamecocks would span the field for 168 yards on three drives in just four and a half minutes to make the score 28-14. A Fry Elliott field goal would make it 31-14 in the fourth quarter.

By then it was far too late for the Knights, who at one point led the game 14-5, stunning a South Carolina team that, until that moment, was the 14.5-point favorite. South Carolina had never lost to the Knights in four prior meetings.

After the barrage of scores erased that UCF lead and made it a Carolina ballgame, the Knights' offense, at one point inspired and more potent than it had been all season, fell apart. On back-to-back Knight drives to answer South Carolina scores, quarterback Bo Schneider, in for injured first-stringer Justin Holman, threw two interceptions, both in just the third play of each drive.

Those late fizzles were a stark contrast to the most successful drive of the game for the Knights in the second quarter, when they would blast downfield 93 yards on seven plays, with Schneider going 5-5 on passes. His final pass of the drive, landing in Tre'Quan Smith's hands, would span 30 yards to the end zone.

The two scoring drives of the game for UCF would end up being among just three times the Knights ever crossed the 50-yard-line. A fumbled punt at the South Carolina 1-yard-line followed by backup quarterback Nick Patti's run gave UCF their other TD.

"We got some stuff going early," Patti told UCFKnights.com after the game. "We had a little juice...having a lead at halftime is big."

In the second half, they would enter South Carolina territory just once, in a doomed late third quarter drive. The Knights were down 28-14 at that point, when they went for it on fourth-and-six and watched a final pass gain no ground at the 36-yard-line.

That hybrid drive, with UCF Head Coach George O'Leary platooning Schneider and Patti, would fool the Gamecocks for a while. But short passes with no yardage after the catch did little to help the Knights find the end zone again.

The Knights' offense would finish the game having gained 230 yards of total offense — historically low numbers, but better than their performance against Stanford Sept. 12, when they managed just 181 total yards. They would gain just 26 rushing yards, gaining just 1.1 yards per run, and concede a safety when running back Taj McGowan was tackled in UCF's end zone.

Forced back onto the field by that series of rapidly stalled UCF offensive drives, the Knights' defense, holding back South Carolina all game, collapsed. Drico Johnson and Jerod Boykins, both defensive backs, had the majority of solo tackles in the game, at 7 and 6, respectively, echoing the amount of South Carolina plays that blew through the UCF front line. The Knights would collect five tackles for loss, and allow 400 South Carolina yards.

Now the Knights are faced with the continuation of worst start they've had since the infamous 0-11 2004 season, part of a 17-game losing streak that began before O'Leary's tenure, but continued most of its run during his first two seasons.

The weak start has featured UCF leads in the second half during three of their four losses, despite historically low offensive numbers.

Last season, led by Holman at QB, the Knights averaged 363.6 yards per game. Going back to 2013, when the Knights finished 12-1 and shocked heavily favored No. 6 Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl, they averaged 441.5 total offensive yards per game.

Brent Key, who ascended to the UCF offensive coordinator role this year, has presided over offensive output that has been cut nearly in half compared to two years prior. In their first four games, the Knights have averaged just 243 yards of total offense per game — the worst in the 128-team FBS by a nearly 50 yard gap compared to second-worst Utah State. And they're behind FBS-leader Baylor by 523.2 yards per game. That output is worse than even O'Leary's first season in 2004, when the Knights gained 280 yards per game and didn't win any of them.

They face Tulane on the road to start American Athletic Conference play this week. The Green Wave have a 1-2 record. Their ambitious early schedule featured back-to-back blowout losses — 37-7 to Duke and 65-10 to Georgia Tech — before they beat FCS team Maine 38-7 on Sept. 19.

Against Maine Tulane gained 497 total yards and averaged 4.9 yards per rush, finding the end zone four times on the ground.

Against Georgia Tech, Tulane gained 248 yards — more than UCF gained against a much worse-ranked South Carolina. And their defense hasn't managed to make up for their lackluster offense in the overall rankings. On SBNation's most recent ranking of all FBS teams the Knights, who started the season nearly in the top 50, started the week at No. 95, just ahead of No. 98 Tulane.

Both teams will be looking for a first conference win after lackluster starts. The Knights will also be looking to avoid conjuring the nightmare of 2004. The game kicks off at noon Oct. 3, broadcast on ESPNews.