UCF football continues to blow past all challengers, running away from a talented Florida Atlantic on Friday night to improve to 3-0 on the season.
There was a moment during this game when FAU led the Knights. Midway through the second quarter the Knights had scored a measly two touchdowns and given up a pair of Devin Singletary scores and a field goal. Trailing 17-14, UCF seized complete control, scoring six of the next eight touchdowns and pulling out to a 27 point lead.
FAU fought back, but it was too little to late to stop McKenzie Milton and company from running away with another lopsided victory. The No. 16 team in the AP Poll, UCF was unfazed by an FAU squad that entered the game with wins over Air Force and Bethune Cookman.
This game was never truly in doubt after halftime. UCF head coach Josh Heupel has kept the Knights’ potent offense firing on all cylinders and it doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon.
In many ways, the big win confirmed what many already knew: UCF is an elite football team. But what else did we learn about the Knights from their big Friday night win?
1. The UCF defense is good enough to get the job done
Losing Shaquill Griffin and Mike Hughes to the NFL left two big holes in the UCF defense. Those two playmakers aren’t easily replaced, and a setback on the defensive front should be expected and forgivable.
The Knights allowed 25.3 points per game last season and through three games this season are doing an even better job. They held UConn and South Carolina State to 17 combined points before giving up 36 points on Friday night to Florida Atlantic. Still, through three games UCF is averaging less than 18 points allowed per contest. That’s going to win you a lot of games, even if you don’t have an offense as potent as the Knights’.
The test are going to get tougher, but FAU was thought to be one of the more challenging offenses in the Group of Five. If UCF was able to limit the explosiveness of the Owls, there isn’t much reason to believe that the likes of Pitt, SMU or Memphis (the Knights’ next three opponents) are going to be able to do much more. If you want to beat UCF, you’re going to have to score 50 points. So far, no one has come close.
2. McKenzie Milton can’t do anything else for his Heisman case
UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton is extraordinary in every sense of the word. Milton is responsible for 12 touchdowns through his first three games, is completing 64 percent of his passes and continues to lead an offense that can’t be stopped. After putting up 56 points against UConn on the road, UCF scored 38 against South Carolina State and 56 against Florida Atlantic.
Milton has already proved he can keep those stats up for the duration of a season. He was responsible for 45 touchdowns himself last season and is on pace to match those totals this year. But that wasn’t enough to earn Milton an invitation to New York City for the Heisman Trophy presentation and it wasn’t enough to break the cycle of rewarding the top player from the one of the best Power 5 program.
True Heisman recognition would be a long shot, but if anyone can break through the Group of Five glass ceiling it would be Milton. He’s an established winner from a well-known program that’s already taken down a blue-blood (Auburn) and is on the hunt for more. If this isn’t enough to earn Milton a sliver of notoriety, nothing will be.
3. Give UCF a chance
It doesn’t matter if they win or lose, UCF needs to be in a major bowl game. When they beat Auburn last season many wrote it off as a fluke. That’s what folks were saying about the Boise State team that shocked Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. The difference from then and now? The forum exists for UCF to play that next game.
If FCS-style playoffs existed for the FBS level when would the Knights be knocked out? Answer that question would be great theatre for college football fans and it would put to bed the unwritten rule that only the bluebloods have the right to play for a national title.
At this rate, UCF has a strong chance to finish as the top ranked Group of Five team at the end of the season. They’ll play in a New Year’s Six Bowl, and they’ll probably win. The powers that be hope the perfect storm that forces them to acknowledge UCF will never happen, but sooner or later there’s going to be enough pressure to give UCF a chance, it’s the next logical step in this progression.
For now, UCF is on the outside looking in. Whether or not that’s fair or not is moot; it stinks for college football and its fans. This isn’t a plea for the little guy, it’s a request for putting the best possible product on the field. UCF is part of that equation.