Located on the main campus of the University of Central Florida near Orlando is the FBC Mortgage Stadium, aka The Bounce House—getting that name as it was found to be susceptible to considerable shaking when the home crowd jumps in unison. As Chris Boyle pointed out in the Daytona Beach News-Journal; “The [UCF] Knights entered the weekend [against Arizona] mired in a five-game losing streak dating back to late September, with [head coach Gus] Malzahn having relinquished play-calling responsibilities [after firing the] defensive coordinator Ted Roof just five days earlier and played a fourth round of quarterback roulette by handing redshirt freshman Dylan Rizk his first start at quarterback. Sometimes change can be good and it certainly was in this case as the Knights tuned up the Wildcats 56-12 who now have a five game losing streak of their own going.
After missing a field goal to start the game, UCF scored a TD on the next five possessions of the first half and two possessions after the break to have a 49-12 lead about half-way through the third quarter. Arizona also picked up six points in the second and third quarters, both on Noah Fafita TD passes to Junior WR Tetairoa McMillan and Junior TE Sam Olson with the PAT and 2-point conversion attempts failing. The Knights would score one more—the last score of the game—at the end of an 8 play 57 yard drive on Dylan Rizk’s TD pass to Randy Pittman Jr. to make it 56-12 with just under 2 minutes remaining.
As far as the Knights go, they lit it up. Their freshman QB Dylan Rizk, in his first college start, was surgically accurate connecting on 80% of his throws for 294 yards, 3 TD’s and no interceptions while also rushing 9 times for 55 yards. Senior WR Jacoby Jones and Sophomore TE Randy Pittman Jr. were the recipients of 5 passes each for 186 of those yards and all three TD’s. The Wildcat run defense was non-existent with the Knight’s Senior RB RJ Harvey rushing 22 times for 184 of the team’s 308 yards and 3 TD’s of their five on the ground with Junior RB Myles Montgomery and Sophomore QB Jaccuri Brown picking up the other two.
For Arizona, Sophomore QB Noah Fafita was 24-of-33 for 256 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions. UCF’s solid run defense,10 tackles for loss, prevented any kind of running game for the Wildcats who rushed 25 times and only gained 5 yards—you read that right—an average of 0.2 yards per carry. Arizona freshman RB Kedrick Reescano actually rushed 8 times for 20 yards but once you add in an addition 9 positive yards by others and 24 negative yards by mostly Fafita running for his life you end up with 25 for 5. With an overall record of 10-3 last year, 7-2 in conference, the Wildcats are now 3-6 overall with just three games left to become bowl eligible. As head coach Brent Brennan said after the game; “Anytime that that kind of number shows up on the score board and total yards, that’s a negative for your football team. That’s the harsh reality we all have to deal with. We have a lot to fix.” They’ll get a bye week to figure it out as their next game is back home against Houston on Friday. November 15th.