College Football Rankings 2020: Projected preseason Top 25 sans Pac-12, Big Ten
By Zach Bigalke
12. UCF Knights
- Where they were ranked in the 2019 preseason: 17th (410 points)
- Where they were ranked at the end of 2019: 24th (78 points)
- Where they were in our way-too-early Top 25: 25th
- Where they ranked in the preseason Coaches Poll: 21st (232 points)
Last year UCF slumped to second place in the AAC East standings and missed their chance at playing in a third straight New Year’s Six bowl. The Knights lost three road games by a combined seven points, though they still sneaked into the final spot of the 2019 AP Top 25 at the end of bowl season. (It certainly helped that UCF obliterated Marshall 48-25 in the Gasparilla Bowl to reach 10 wins.)
Even after ceding turf to Cincinnati in their division and handing over the conference crown to Memphis, though, UCF is likely going to enter 2020 as the top-ranked Group of Five team in the polls. They already earned that distinction in the preseason Coaches Poll, starting the year at No. 21st in that poll. Eight of the teams ranked ahead of the Knights have already dropped out of the fall season before a single snap, leaving UCF to fall somewhere right in the middle of the Top 25.
A stacked offense brings back quarterback Dillon Gabriel as well as a backfield loaded with stars like Otis Anderson and Greg McCrae. Top receiver Gabriel Davis is gone, but Western Kentucky transfer Jacob Harris could step up as a legitimate deep threat after averaging 24 yards per catch last season and both Tre Nixon and Marlon Williams are back after starting last year.
Look for UCF to once again have a top-five offense in the country as they make a renewed case for inclusion in the College Football Playoff rather than just the crumbs of a New Year’s Six berth.