UCF football gets much-needed tune-up game vs. Florida A&M in Week 1

UCF football begins its new season hoping to get back to winning ways after dropping last year’s Fiesta Bowl and Florida A&M comes to town.

Last year, UCF extended their winning streak to 25 games before it all came crashing down against LSU in the Fiesta Bowl. Throughout last season the Knights coped with injuries and still managed to play their SEC opponent within a single score on neutral turf.

Winning the American Athletic Conference and getting to a New Year’s Six bowl game is the primary goal for the third straight season in Orlando. For the Knights, that journey begins with a visit from Florida A&M, a historical black university that has long been a stalwart at the FCS level — and once even tried to transition from the FCS to the FBS just as UCF did in 1996.

This year, the Rattlers will try to stay more consistent after dropping their last three games of 2018 following a 6-2 start. With quarterback Ryan Stanley back in the fold, Florida A&M has a potential game-breaker who can help get FAMU back to contention in the MEAC.

Can the visitors shock the country and steal a statement for the FCS against the gold standard of Group of Five programs over the past few years? Keep reading to find out how you can watch all the action on Thursday night live from Orlando.

Date: Thursday, Aug. 29
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Location: Orlando, Fla.
Venue: Spectrum Stadium
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: ESPN | FuboTV

Keys to Victory

UCF needs Brandon Wimbush to step in and offer the same sort of dynamic quarterback play that has been the purview of McKenzie Milton over the past few years. With Darriel Mack Jr. also injured heading into the new year, the buck now stops with the transfer from Notre Dame. If UCF is going to lose, it will be because Wimbush makes mistakes in his first game as a Knight.

So if Florida A&M has any chance of stealing a statement upset for themselves and for the MEAC, it will be heavily dependent on the Rattlers secondary. If they are unable to make stops and keep the Knights offense off the field, it will only have a multiplier effect. Managing an effective defensive rotation will be critical for FAMU to have any chance of writing a new Cinderella story.

Betting Odds

Line: N/A
Over/Under: N/A

Prediction

If you are looking for an FCS-over-FBS upset, there are far better candidates in Week 1 than this mismatch between a team that is likely third-best this year in the MEAC and a team that has been the Group of Five representative to the New Year’s Six each of the past two seasons. Look for Wimbush to have a big game against the Rattlers, and for the Knights ground game to shoulder a bulk of the load.

By halftime this thing is going to be over. The only pertinent question at this point is whether the Knights defense can hold Florida A&M scoreless. Here’s guessing the Rattlers get a garbage-time score to kill the shutout bid.

Final Score: Florida A&M 7, UCF 62