Good Knight at the Fiesta Bowl

Actually it was a Great Knight but the title was just to honor the saying on the shirts the winning team put on after the game.  I can't even imagine how it can get any better than this.  I suppose if we had won a national championship then I guess it could be better than this.  No one gave us a chance at winning against the Big 12 champion Baylor Bears and their record setting scoring offense.  Well actually the only person to give us a shot at winning was Lou Holtz who said UCF under George O'Leary would come to the game ready to play and would actually win.  Thanks Lou for believing in the Black and Gold.

The start of the game would set the tone for the night as we took the football the length of the field on the first possession to take an early lead in the game.  On Baylor's first possession of the game I witnessed something that had been mostly absent most of the season for our defense and that was we actually got some pressure on the quarterback including a sack on third down to cause the great Baylor offense to go three downs and out.  We then proceeded to take the ball down the field once again and put it in the end zone.  After the extra point the Knights of UCF were winning 14 - 0 over the Baylor Bears.  Together both teams would make it an interesting game as we would have a short stretch in the game where we turned the ball over three times in consecutive plays.  Once again this season the team would face and then overcome adversity as the third of those turnovers would actually end up with Bryce Petty throwing an interception into the end zone so Baylor was unable to capitalize on that mistake.  We would then grab back the momentum in the game by turning that touchback into a touchdown and take a lead of 21-13.  After that we would trade touchdowns with the Bears going into halftime with the Knights up 28-20.

The second half would see Baylor tie up the score and make it 28-28 and perhaps a new ballgame.  Unfortunately for the Bears our offense would finally throw it in fourth gear, step on the gas pedal and then pull away by scoring on all of the four next drives while holding the great Baylor offense to only two more touchdowns.  After Shawn Moffitt kicked a 36 yard field goal with 4:44 minutes left in the game I started thinking in my head - "Oh my God, we are going to win this game".  Of course that last four minutes and 44 seconds were the longest I can remember and when J.J. Worton grabbed the ball on a failed attempt at an on-side kickoff by Baylor, the game was over and the UCF Knights would tell all of the so called experts to suck it.

We just out-scored the highest scoring offense in college football is all and we were 17 point underdogs?  The way the Baylor team played it appeared as though they believed that because they were 17 point favorites in the game then all they had to do is show up.  The Bears had 17 penalties called against them.  To me that shows they were not focused on the game and did  not expect much of a fight from that unknown school from Central Florida.  Here's what some "experts" predicted:





Well we came out and smacked them in the mouth in the opening quarter of the game and although they tied up the game eventually I think they were expecting us to just fold and not finish the game. To roughly quote Blake after the game "Nobody outside of Central Florida gave us a chance, we came here and showed everyone what UCF football is all about."  The latest and greatest victory in UCF Football history without a doubt.

Go Knights! Charge On!

Check out the stats recap of the game here



Here is another video from local (Phoenix) television?




Postgame celebration




Here is video from another local (Phoenix) station.