We’ve been seeing Knight fans left and right here. My mind is blown. On our flight we had a guy in UCF gear, at check in another, getting some groceries a third and now at dinner another family. We’ve been here for all of two hours.

If anyone can answer this for me: I have a rental with an Illinois plate and two little letters FP vertical before the plate numbers. When I pay for parking the system asks for the license plate number. I assume include the little letters?! Lol

Scrubbed Social Media of all UCF mentions.

I had a bad feeling going into this game because i recognize even at full strength it is very hard to beat a good team twice a year let alone both times on their home field. Tulane is a really good squad. Above avg qb that can run and throw, best RB in the conference, solid receivers, above avg defense across all positions, experienced players, well coached, now 11 win team. When i factored in that JRP has been hurt now for several weeks with the hamstring really flaring up in Navy and usf leading him to have to miss the 2nd half of both games i knew that hammy was not going to be healed in a week. What makes JRP special is his legs. Worst case though we got MK and we know we can win with him but then i heard rumblings he wasnt going to play, which i really couldnt believe was true, but all that lead me to believe it was going to be a really tough game for us to win. I never thought the defense would be that bad, i just thought we wouldnt score enough but funny how the blame end up falling more on the defense then the offense...

UCF Fast:

• JRP: I know he didn't have a game stat wise worthy of a true fast but he was out their fighting the whole time. It was a gutsy performance. Even with out his legs he sat back their and figured out ways to make plays with his arm. TC came in and had absolutely nothing. TC sucked 16 plays and JRP had to come back in and got the game into 3 pts in the 4th quarter. Hopefully he earned some of the haters respect for how he handled this game. If he had is full health i think we are better then down 3 in the 4th, who knows what would have happened.
• 
  
• Bowser: Bowser had a solid game. Typical solid bowser game, dependable runner, avg over 4 yards a rush, converted several big first downs and a TD, had a great 3rd down grab. He is really unstoppable in the Wild Bowser. Gonna miss him next year.
• 
  
• Celiscar: He had no quit in him today. I really cannot blame the DL at all, i will get to the secondary later but the DL did well. Celiscar i thought had a solid game, good hustle following plays down field as well

UCF Slow:

• MK: I crushed DG when he quit on the team last year. I thought it was unthinkable that he was healthy enough to play and decided NOT to come back and watch another QB take his snaps. A QB that struggled that DG clearly could have done better then. With that said DG kind of always felt like a me guy and it didnt really surprise me deep down. MK's decision to not play today was an absolute surprise because of who i thought MK was. I get that for MK's college career it makes him more valuable to sit this game but in my opinion he just traded on everything good he has done at UCF. I gave him a fast last week for his press conference where he said "lets go win a championship" when questioned about playing. This was for a damn conference championship. This wasnt some mop up duty in some shit game that meant nothing at the end of the season. I am truly shocked MK chose not to even suit up here and in doing so he really hurt UCF. Not only did he potentially cost us an AAC championship win and a Cotton Bowl NY6 bowl but he also burned TC's redshirt in the process. I don't know how he traveled and stood on those sidelines knowing he made a decision that put him over the team. Again it is one thing when a pre madonna WR does this but when the QB does it i think it hurts worse. Personally i believe the NCAA should just give everyone 5 years and do away with redshirts completely but here MK made a big time life decision that he better hope works out where he goes because if it doesn't i think he just tainted some really great UCF goodwill he had built up. Anyone suggesting this is Gus's fault is also way off base. Gus played the QB he thought was better and the team got to a conference championship and Gus managed MK and TC so neither were going to burn a redshirt but you cannot predict injuries. When we needed MK most he wasn't there. That isn't Gus's fault. Anyone who tries to say he should have started MK the whole time and this wouldn't have happened and we would have been in a better spot is delusional.
• 
  
• TC: LOL at all the people calling for TC to come in over JRP. JRP with no legs was superior in every way to TC. That says a lot. I always say you got to give true freshman a lot of leniency as i did with MK last year but this is the 13th game of the season. TC has been here a while and had played in 3 games and i presume has taken lots of practice reps including this week. I was really disappointed in how bad he looked. He was 2 for 8 for 7 yards and -8 yards rushing on 7 attempts. My gawd. He sucked up 16 plays and aside from a well executed hand off on the Townsend TD he showed very little. Of course a huge Hudson drop didn't help but i really thought we would see a little more from TC. I don't think anyone will be calling for him in the bowl game after that. Hopefully he can grow in the offseason and make a jump next year but as of right now unless someone elite transfers in this is JRP's team next year assuming he sticks around.
• 
  
• Holler: Started off pretty slow, penalty, some missed blocks, looked slow and lost at times. Really like Holler but he struggled tonight.
• 
  
• Secondary: Next to my disappointment in MK the next worst is the secondary. We looked gawd awful today. I think Ware played a decent game from what i could see, especially early, but the entire unit was really trash. Especially Hodges. Worst game i have every seen him play. Adams and Thornton also struggled, the safeties were beat often. I had such high hopes for the secondary this season because they are all good sized long guys and played a ton when they were young but i feel like they have never really grown. If anything they may have regressed. Brown i feel used to be a stud now he is flailing out there. We have a ton of guys and no major injuries and they just never really performed all season. Just disappointing. May need to look at a new DB coach because we should be better with what we have then we are.

This seems like a seaon of what ifs, i guess they all are really but for this season had we not biffed the ECU game we could have had game day. If JRP isnt hurt against Navy we may win that and may have ended up hosting Tulane. In the end a hurt JRP and TC sucking up 16 plays we were still with in 3 pts halfway through the 4th at Tulane so hard to convince me we wouldn't have been able to pull it out at home with a healthy JRP but you can always what if yourself to death. I hope whatever bowl game we get is far enough out that it lets that JRP hammy get closer to 100%. We use the time to get some young guys some practice and we have a good bowl game showing and get to a 10 win season. A 10 win season and an AAC championship game is not horrible. I get we all expected more but considering how bad our secondary was, the JRP injuries and the MK quitting i am not sure we could have realistically expected better. At least we didn't lose to usf, that is what i keep saying to myself. Now i am eating shit as my wife sends me photos from the wedding i skipped of my daughter catching the bouquet all so i could watch this game. Worth it. GO Knights!!!

Think this game is gonna go late?

Made this thread in case anyone is lame like me and my wife and watching football on the couch on NYE

Login to view embedded media

Rivals recorded the last couple minutes of his media availability. The main theme: Why didn't you go to Florida? How close were you to flipping to Florida?

I made it back home early this evening. I was admittedly nervous about the Southwest situation, but my MCO-BWI route was never impacted. The only hiccup was an hour delay leaving Orlando. Everything else was smooth sailing, including the rental car pickup at BWI with National.

Every flight I was on seemed to have at least six Southwest crew (pilots, flight attendants) as passengers in order to position staff. After cancelling around 60 percent of their flights Monday through Thursday, there are zero cancellations for Friday currently.

UCF only got to experience two games at Navy during our time in the AAC (2017, 2021), but I do think it was always the best road trip in the league. You obviously have the proximity of DC and Baltimore and Annapolis itself is a neat historic town.

The crowd was probably 3-to-1 Duke to UCF. I'm not sure how much the Southwest stuff impacted UCF travel - I'm sure it did, but to what degree I can't say. Annapolis is only a 4+ hour drive from the Raleigh-Durham area and I bet Duke has a lot of alums in the DC region as well.

It did seem fan enthusiasm for bowl travel was down, which can't be surprising when you factor in stuff like the late season slide, the transfer portal, opt-outs and wondering which teams really want to be there, etc.

The weather was about as good as one could hope for given the time of year. Game temps were in the 40s with plenty of sun. It got chilly in the second half when the sun was going down, but not unbearable. Didn't have to worry about snow/ice either for any part of the trip.

The bowl was pretty cool in terms of the in-game stuff. They obviously showcase their military connection.

I didn't have a great feeling about this game, though my fears were more defensive-based. That group was like a sieve in the AAC Championship game vs. Tulane and you're subtracting Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste and Davonte Brown due to the portal, then Tre'Mon Morris-Brash was out with an injury.

Even with the depth issues and injuries, the defense did enough to give the offense a chance - especially in that second half.

With the four weeks or so to heal up, I was hoping we'd see a healthy John Rhys Plumlee behind a dominant offensive line. All the offensive weapons - except for Ryan O'Keefe - were available.

As for the offense, it was hard to watch. How much was UCF missing Chip Lindsey? Gus and Chip's relationship was always a collaboration - while Gus maintained public control, there were always whispers that Chip had a bigger role at certain points in terms of in-season play calling, pivoting to different ideas in game (such as Temple second half), etc.

How will the 2022 season be remembered? Probably one of the most frustrating and disappointing "successful" seasons that I can remember (if we consider nine wins successful). The quarterback debate dominated the narrative for the entire season and was frankly exhausting.

Given the expectations, UCF should have closed out their run in the AAC with a championship. The most disappointing thing is UCF still couldn't figure out how to beat a bad Navy team, killing the chance to host the CCG. And also wasted a game appearance for Mikey Keene.

I'll chalk up usf to fluky turnovers, but that was an emotional roller coaster that didn't need to happen. Still a win though.

If UCF is hosting Tulane for the CCG with an available Mikey Keene, UCF is in the Cotton Bowl IMO.

Lots of issues to be sorted out this offseason, beginning with the OC hire and QB situation. We'll see what ultimately happens with the OC, but there is a sense from people around the program that he is willing to concede control. Again, we'll see.

With a new OC - plus the level of competition increasing with UCF entering the Big 12 - from a football perspective you obviously would want JRP all in for spring ball. I know Jameis Winston at FSU played baseball, but he was an established starter.

We'll see how that works through. Can he practice in the morning and then join the baseball team in the afternoon/night? Except for a couple midweek road games, UCF Baseball is home for every weekend during the typical spring practice calendar except for one weekend in early April at ECU.

Depending on JRP's status for spring, that leaves only two scholarship QBs available- Timmy McClain and Thomas Castellanos. Dylan Rizk won't arrive until the summer. Maybe JRP figures it out, McClain turns out to be a stud and/or TC surprises, but I agree with others you may need a little more experience for that first season in the Big 12.

Anyway, I'll be getting to the photos/videos and PFF from the bowl.

It wasn’t 60-70 yards, but he looked like he released it from his 29 and Mike Evans caught a ball at about the 17-18 yard-line

53-54 yards wasn’t exactly a duck


Login to view embedded media

Simpkins decommitted from G-Tech tonight. He has two schools he is focused on now, and UCF is one of them.

My buddy lives in Fernandina and I live in boca. Any recommendations of where we can meet for a long weekend to go fishing. I have an 18’ deep V.

1. Softball
2. Volleyball






*

Ended up with two, so I have an extra. Free to first good home to reply + DM mailing address.

I didn’t realize how big these guys are becoming, because seem to be opening locations all over FL and in multiple other states now (TX, CO, TN, NC, ect.). Must be due to the relatively low franchise entry cost. I know everyone I’ve had try it absolutely loves it.

Do they have strong ties to UCF? Let’s hope so if they end up becoming the next nationwide quick service chain. We need more strong corporate financial backers like some other programs have.

Say whatever you want to say about his "4-play" playbook.

Dude lost his Heisman contending QB to an ACL tear, Biletnikoff winning WR skipped bowl to prepare for NFL draft and multiple guys left for portal AND still delivered an astounding win over Top 10 Clemson.

Heupel's go fast offense is dominating the SEC. He must be doing something right...

I was really impressed with their offense. Beyond the missed tackles and loose coverage, the motion and the fake screen passes really seemed to keep our defense off-balance. I haven’t seen anyone else utilize the fake screen pump fake so effectively. Anyone else notice that? Did they run that with Jeff Scott or are they just pulling out all the crazy stuff for their last game?

I think we got used to the fast pace of Heupel, and I’ve been pretty frustrated with the lack of pace compared to previous seasons. This is the first game that I realized, once again, I’m an uneducated fool. Gus is playing checkers, and trying to control the clock while confusing the defense. If his offense can continue to be multiple *gag* then this pace is fine for me. Our defense doesn’t hold others to under 20 points 9 straight games with Heupel’s offense.

Anyone else getting more on board with his time management/subbing strategy on offense?

Here was last year's thread, which honestly didn't get a lot of traction. Nobody predicted Big 12 or Power Five, just a lot of Heupel-based predictions though one predicted DW would leave.

If you’ve not ever seen Houston play before, you are in for a surprise...they are especially adept on defense. UCF has not seen defensive pressure as intense as they’ll face against the Cougars.

Click here for more on UCF at #3 Houston in Men's Basketball on Saturday.

Maybe one of the best business deals in world history went down:

On this Day in 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for the St. James’s Gate Brewery, Dublin. The cost? Just £45 per year in annual rent.

Thank you Arthur!!!

Really hoping TCU finds a way to pull out the victory.

2 great games where a couple of things were very apparent. In addition to all teams scoring 40+ points, they were extremely physical. For our players, strength and conditioning is an area that we have to continue to improve and especially important for our OL and DL. We must be physical in the trenches for 4 quarters to compete with those teams. If not, we'll get dominated at the next level. For our coaches (and their chosen skilled players), significant improvement is needed. Starting with our schemes on both O and D and ability to handle and apply pressure. When the QB's last night weren't under pressure they picked apart the defenses. They could throw the ball accurately from the pocket. So, all of the teams had to turn up the pressure. And the Offenses adjusted to the pressure and still scored a lot of points. Could we have done that? If we scored 13 points against Duke, how many points would we have scored against those defenses and their schemes? I guarantee you they would have scored 40+ against us. It's obvious that a lot of work is needed, and both the coaches and the players have to take this program to the next level. We're not far away but we've plateaued and it's on Gus as the CEO (and that's what he needs to be) to move the program to the next level by getting the right OC, DC and S&C in place. He has to turn the daily activities over to them, focus on all moving parts, and ensure they are running on all cylinders on game day. It's time....

Happy New Year UCF family! Here's to the BIG12, making the NCAA Basketball tourney, getting an OC who is a great recruiter and likes the forward pass, and more crazy banter, takes and memes in the Dungeon!