UCF Football: How will Brandon Moore’s injury affect Knights?

UCF football’s Brandon Moore is one of the best cornerbacks in the AAC and losing him to injury could have serious implications for the Knights.

UCF steamrolled Florida A&M 62-0 on Thursday night, but UCF had a troubling injury in the second half.

Late in the third quarter of UCF’s first game against Florida A&M, star cornerback Brandon Moore was taken off the field with a leg injury. While no reports have surfaced yet, seeing Moore taken off in the air cast does not look good.

Moore started all 13 games his senior season for the Knights, and was apart of a defense that was one of the best in creating turnovers and defending passes in the country. Moore’s signature play was a 97-yard interception return for a touchdown in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl versus LSU.

With Moore’s injury, the UCF secondary remains one of the most experienced and strongest in the country, with junior safeties Richie Grant, UCF’s interception leader last season, and Antwan Collier, plus senior cornerback Nevelle Clarke.

For the second cornerback position, the next two players on the depth chart are junior college transfer Tay Gowan, who finished with six interceptions last seasons, and came into the season as ESPN’s no. 9 rated junior college cornerback. The other cornerback is redshirt sophomore Zamari Maxwell, a former three star recruit who made two tackles in a small role last season.

So while they have options off the bench, the Knights on the bench are very inexperienced, and replicating Moore’s numbers and productivity will be difficult for the rest of the season.

On the immediate schedule, the Week 3 matchup with Stanford becomes a little more difficult, as Cardinal quarterback KJ Costello is one of the best in the country, and the Knights only have two weeks to bring a new cornerback up to speed.

UCF has the expectations of another undefeated regular season, and has one of the most talented rosters in the group of five. Losing one of the star players quickly into the season hurts those expectations.