UCF and Cincinnati have met only eight times. Yet, with the programs often battling for Group of Five supremacy as members of the American Athletic Conference, it should come as no surprise that most of the matchups have been very entertaining, meaningful, or both.
The Knights’ 25-21 win on Saturday in Orlando qualified as both in the final regular season meeting between the teams before moving to the Big 12 in 2023.
While the teams first met in 2015, they have built a nice little history between them in which they have split the eight games. In 2017, Luke Fickell’s first season guiding the Bearcats, the visiting Knights scored on all eight possessions in a 51-23 win that was called with a few seconds left in the third quarter and following a one-hour weather delay. The win lifted UCF to 4-0 in what was a perfect season.
“To me any team that has beaten us, any team that embarrassed us like they did in (my first year), that was something that will never go away from me,” said Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell, in his sixth game on the UC sideline. “In my own mind and my own heart, it has been a rivalry since then.”
ESPN GameDay set up shop in Orlando in 2018 for a matchup of top 20 teams. Josh Heupel’s squad charged on to a 38-13 victory for its 23rd consecutive win.
Nineteen was the magic number in 2019 as No. 19 UCF entered the game at Nippert Stadium with a 19-game conference win streak. Sauce Gardner’s 16-yard interception return with five minutes left in the third quarter gave the Bearcats a lead they would not relinquish in a 27-24 win that halted the Knights’ streak.
Back in Orlando in 2020, the Knights checked in at No. 7 before Cincinnati prevailed, 36-33. Last year, the Bearcats rolled to a 56-21 victory as the nation’s third-ranked team and on their way to cracking through the glass ceiling to become the first Group of Five team to reach the College Football Playoff.
UC entered Saturday afternoon’s matchup at UCF as the highest-ranked Group of Five team at No. 20 and having won six straight after losing the opener at Arkansas by seven points.
It looked like the Bearcats’ win streak over UCF might reach four after Ryan Montgomery’s 39-yard touchdown run with 3:04 remaining gave them a 21-18 lead. Prior to that score, the senior running back had one yard on two carries and the Bearcats had 16 yards rushing.
Gus Malzahn’s Knights were not done, however. Quarterback Mikey Keene, a savior off the bench in relief of the injured John Rhys Plumlee and seeing his first action of 2022, guided UCF on a seven-play, 75-yard drive capped by R.J. Harvey’s 14-yard pinball run to the end zone.
It was the third lead change in a 3:48 span within the final five minutes of the game, an emotional roller coaster that concluded when UC went backward with what little time remained on the game’s final possession.
“We had our hands full,” said Malzahn, whose team checks in at No. 25 after the win, with UC dropping out. “That’s a championship program. They are not used to losing. They lost to Arkansas and could have easily won that. They were in the final four last year and are one of the best teams in college football.”
The teams could meet again in the conference championship. In order for that to take place, both would have to get past Tulane while running the table. At No. 19, the Green Wave are now the highest-ranked Group of Five team.
While Cincinnati and UCF have won four of the last five American titles, it might come as a surprise that they have not met in the championship game. Wouldn’t it be something if they did in what would be their final conference game prior to leaving for the Big 12?
Indeed, a rivalry that has been building in a Group of Five conference will resume on the larger stage next year.
“Whether it has become a rivalry because they were the champs and then we ended up knocking them off a couple of years ago, all rivalries are created differently,” said Fickell. “As everything moves forward, I think you are going to see that this (rivalry) is going to stay.”
This latest installment was highlighted by Keene’s performance after taking over for Plumlee, who departed late in the first half after colliding with defensive back Arquon Bush. Plumlee had his bell rung, something that was visible when he stumbled before members of the training staff assisted him off the field.
Keene, who took over the UCF offense last season when Dillon Gabriel broke his clavicle on the final play of the Knights’ final non-conference game at Louisville, had not taken a snap since closing out his true freshman season in last year’s Gasparilla Bowl win over Florida.
Malzahn wanted to redshirt Keene this season, and still may depending on Plumlee’s condition, but he turned to a young quarterback who looked like he last played as recently as the previous week and not 10 months ago.
“The way he has approached every practice, he approaches them like he is going to play,” said Malzahn of Keene, who completed 15-of-21 for 176 yards with no sacks and no turnovers. “For him to step up in that moment, and seize the moment that last drive, that dude’s a winner with a capital ‘W.’”
While two third-quarter drives deep into UC territory ended on fumbles by Harvey and Isaiah Bowser, the Knights would not be deterred as Keene kept leading them up and down the field until Harvey’s TD almost knocked the Bounce House off of its foundation.
That 19-game conference win streak of UCF’s that UC snapped in 2019? Well, the Knights returned the favor by snapping the Bearcats’ 19-game conference win streak. Somehow, that seems appropriate given how these two programs have battled in the American and will continue to battle in the Big 12.
The Link LonkOctober 31, 2022 at 10:42PM
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UCF, Cincinnati Will Take A Nice Little Rivalry To The Big 12 - Forbes
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