Hail Perriman!

Like most away games I was watching the game from the comfort of my living room that evening and could have never guessed how the game would unfold.  We were in a good position going into that Knight game for a chance to win a share of the AAC football title.  In our way was an ECU football team that played very well throughout the season with the exception of a few bumps in the road (namely Temple and Cincinatti).  They were playing for pride and for the opportunity to be a spoiler for our season that turned out very well.  Everything went well for us through most of the game until the guys in purple got a big momentum swing along with 21 points in the fourth quarter.  They continued to ride that wave now with a lead all the way to the ten second mark left in the game.  That is until the game clock read 00:10.  I'll admit it, I had almost completely given up at that point (almost that is, maybe 98%) after seeing us cruise through three really strong quarters only to see our championship hopes wither away as the game clock progressed toward the end of regulation play.

There our offense was, on the field in Greenville North Carolina with only an absolutely slim chance of pulling off a last second desperation heave towards paydirt.  One thing I never doubted for a second was the ability of Justin to be able to reach the end zone with his strong arm.  I was doubting our ability to give him the type of protection that he needed to buy him enough time to make the type of pass required to win the ball game given the poor execution in the previous couple of drives by the offensive line.  From our own 35 yard line with ten ticks of the clock left, would he heave the ball from here or would we try some sort of gadget play to get us in the end zone? Remember though at this time I was pretty disgusted with the turn of events that put us in the situation but as a loyal Knight I am always with the team all the way to the end so I sat and watched.  Holman drops back to pass and finds Josh Reese with a perfect pass and catch on an out pattern to move us 14 yards closer to the destination.

Five seconds left (00:05).  Having no timeouts left we line up quickly, Holman one last time of the night drops back to pass, not much pressure on him he steps up and launches the ball into the cool night air. I'd already played this down over in my head a couple of times by now and the outcome was the same: the ball gets knocked down by a group of defenders or just falls harmlessly to the ground.  It is a play that all football fans have seen many times before and the result is almost always the same, incomplete pass, game over.  As I expected, a group of three defenders were standing in and around the end zone waiting for the ball to come down.  As they jump up to reach for the ball, Breshad gets just behind them at the goal line and comes down into his waiting grasp and his momentum carries him into the end zone for the final play of the game.  TOUCHDOWN!!!  OH MY GOD!  OH MY GOD! DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN???!!! KNIGHTS WIN!!!!

What an incredible way to end a game and a season.  It will join all of the other greatest plays in UCF Football history and give us another trophy to put in the case at home.





Let's go Bowling!

Go Knights! #ChargeOn   - Never Yield!

Shutout in Tampa

No still it was not the type of score that I had been wanting for the last couple of years but I will take it any day of the week. The most interesting stat of the game was five (5) yards rushing for the bull turds. I had listened to the hype that was coming out of Tampa during the year that usf had a legitimate running threat and I was hoping that we would be able to contain him. We more than contained him though - we pretty much shut him down, allowing him only 32 yards rushing on 11 caries. Their QB's were caught behind the line for about -30 yards in losses which hurt their total yards for the game. Our offense looked good at times and their defense looked good at times but in the end we scored enough points to win - 16 and the Knight faithful could enjoy a happy trip back to Orlando (or wherever they call home). One of the memorable plays from the game was the attempt by their field goal kicker late in the first half. The bools had been moving the ball well on that drive only to implode by making some mistakes that only allowed them a field goal attempt.  Well within the range of their kicker, the kick was up, long enough and then "Klank!" - it hits the upright giving the Knight faithful something else to cheer about.  The second half did not see any scoring by either offense but our "D" got two points for the safety in the third quarter to put us on top 16-0 for good.  The rest of the game was all about trying to preserve the shutout which we accomplished.  Hey bull turds! How does that doughnut taste?

Really looking forward to next years match-up!

Go Knights! #ChargeOn