What a great year for the Knights, winning their 2nd C-USA Championship on a beautiful sunny Orlando day. Not just a great overall year, but an incredible week when combined with the basketball victory over UF…it’s a week that likely could be considering the best in UCF Sports history!

In the Championship game the defense, lead by Bruce Miller and Josh Robinson, played their best game in well over a month to help deliver us back to Memphis and this time for a New Years Eve Bowl Game! Ironically the Liberty Bowl will pit the two best Freshman QBs against each other with Jeff Godfrey trying to lead us to our first bowl victory and Aaron Murray trying to lead the Bulldawgs to a winning season.

Here are a few pics from the tailgate and some crowd shots at game

Additionally here is a not so great video mash of Fox 35′s Jim Van Fleet catching Knight Fever & giving us some love the day before the game and then some celebration clips I took at the end of the game. Sorry for the crappy sound at the start.

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

UCF’s Marcus Jordan escapes the shadow of his father

When word got out that Michael Jordan’s son was going to play basketball at the University of Central Florida, the news spread quickly around campus. But very few students knew what he looked like, which allowed Marcus Jordan to enjoy a sense of anonymity he had never experienced in Chicago, where his NBA legend father is still considered royalty.

He remembers sitting on a bench outside a classroom last fall, overhearing people talking about Marcus Jordan, not realizing they were sitting right next to him. He smirked. Those days are over.

The UCF Knights are 8-0 for the first time since the school went Division I in 1984, Jordan is a big reason, and he can’t hide anymore. There is a buzz on campus, and crowds of 6,000 fans (including Michael Jordan) are showing up at games.

Continue reading here…

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

Wohoo! So I had to replace my home desktop with a new PC as it went rogue on us and we off course that is the PC I use to update the site in terms of pictures so I’ve been a little out of luck. Finally got the new desktop ordered and running and I just uploaded a swarm of pictures since my last update. Here are some back logged football pics:

Southern Miss (final regular season home game)
http://www.ucfpride.com/pictures/2010/FB-USM/index.html

Tulane Road Trip (Nawlins fun!)
http://www.ucfpride.com/pictures/2010/FB-NewOrleans/index.html

It’s been an incredible run this year with the Championship, 10-3 record, and Top 25 standing. Looking back at these pictures the USM game was a real disappointment, but to be honest I had a bad feeling going in. Hopefully the team learned a lesson from that game about remembering what it took to get them to that ranking in the first place.

The trip to New Orleans for the Tulane game was an absolute blast. Nawlins is absolutely one of my favorite cities in America! Sure Bourbon St is good times, but I love what we found beyond it! We hit two new major things on this trip with the live music on Frenchman St, which was simply brilliant and then we also hit the WWII Museum which was one of my favorite museums ever.  Can’t wait to make it back to both those places, not to mention the delicious Cajun food! Never hurts when your team wins by 47 either…

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

Polls came out today and our 7-2 Knights have been ranked in the 25 for the first time in history and in both official polls. In the USA Today Coaches Poll we are the top ranked team in the state of Florida at #23, just edging the Florida Gators who are at #24. In the AP Top 25 Poll we just squeaked in at #25!

Very rewarding for those Knight fans like myself that have been around for 20+ years and used to watch the Knights play in Division II in stadiums smaller than many high schools. It’s been a long and sometimes difficult journey, but it only makes the rewards that much sweeter! The best part is this is JUST THE BEGINNING as are best times are surely ahead and I believe in the near-future!

Thanks to all the coaches and players for their hard work, …now get back to work and let’s BEAT USM! We need to win out and host the C-USA Championship!

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

Last two C-USA teams undefeated in conference play. Latest a pair of undefeated teams in conference play have ever squared off in C-USA. A heated and hatred rivalry alive and cooking on message boards. The top two teams in C-USA in terms of attendance and overall fan support.

Yes this is a game of great anticipation as the 5-2 Knights face off against the 5-2 Pirates of ECU this Saturday at Bright House Network Stadium. A comparison of national stats shows one of the top ranked offenses (ECU) squaring off against one of the top ranked defenses (UCF) who are top 15 in 4 major statistical categories.

Big game, in fact John Denton puts it up there with Texas stadium opener, 2007 C-USA Championship Game, USF 2008, Miami 2009, and Houston 2009. I’d have to agree and I think I’d rank it 5th on that list above the Houston game just because of the implications to win another C-USA title are really on the line. Here’s hoping we draw a crowd fitting for significance of the game!

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

I’m a little late with this as my home desktop is having HW issues, but here are tailgate pictures and crowd shots from the UAB @ UCF Wednesday night ESPN showdown. I have to give it up to the UCFAA that filled the place up very well for a midweek game by pushing the student angle hard. Well done!

As for the team, you have to love back to back beat downs on national TV the past two weeks. The defense is looking nasty while the offense seems to be clicking, although the loss of Rob Calebrese could be a big blow as he was really playing well in the Wild Knight role. A big four weeks are coming up with Homecoming vs Rice then the 3 games that will determine our season: ECU, Houston, and USM. ECU is coming off a big victory over NC State at their place so it looks like they are going to be a tough touch challenge. I think this team will be up for it, but first we need to beat Rice who took down Houston in a surprise upset this weekend.

UAB @ UCF Tailgate & Crowd Pics

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

That was a heart breaker. Ranks right up there with other terrible last minute road losses I witnessed in person, like Auburn ’98, Georgia ’99, and Ga Tech ’00. Definitely a tough pill to swallow considering how we dominated KSU in many areas of the game, especially on the line of scrimmage. What can you do…

Beyond the game I was pretty impressed with downtown Kansas City, MO where we stayed (2 hours east of KSU campus in Manhattan, KS) this trip. It’s got a very friendly and small city type vibe, but it has a bunch of districts with different food/bar/entertainment options. Very clean and accessible, loved the Power & Light district which was a few blocks from our hotel and presented us with many options at night. Additionally we had some delicious KC BBQ during our stay, with the favorite being a Oklahoma Joe’s which is setup in an old gas station. Place was packed when we went there with a line out the door and winding through much of the interior but the wait was worth it! Neat place, I’d definitely go back on next trip!

We didn’t spend much time in Manhattan considering we were staying in KC, of course had we won the game we probably would have stuck around a bit longer. The rolling hills though leading to Manhattan from the Interstate was beautiful and it seemed like the campus had a nice setup. The fans were extremely friendly and if I only got a dime for every time I heard a “Well welcome to Kansas” during the weather delay! Definitely a road trip I’d do again in a heartbeat.

Here is a link to pictures with comments from the trip

And here is a photo I took of the crazy cloud formations that caused the delay:

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

This will be our first meeting with Kansas State and the 3rd team we have faced from the Big 12 conference. I’m extra excited for this game considering I’m going to be there in person, flying out Friday morning to enjoy some Kansas City BBQ and a big victory! For those that can’t make it to the game it’s televised by Fox Sports Net which will be picked up on channel 50 on Bright House and of course available on DirectTV. Also you can hit the Moat Sports Grille to watch it with a packed house of UCF fans, but be sure to arrive early for the 12:30pm EST kickoff!

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

Gotta love Godfrey, he is already becoming a UCF fan favorite for quotes between his “Follow Me” from the NC State and now this gem today. O’Leary made an exception to his no interviewing Freshman players rule to allow the media to interview Jeffry Godfrey, which I think was a smart move. Looks like he was surrounded from a good amount of media and seemed to handle things with the cool and calm demeanor that he plays with on the field. The best though was when he was asked about what his plans are to put UCF on the map by Mike Bianchi and he responded “UCF is already on the map”. Take that Mike!

Here is a full session video via Orlando Sentinel…

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »

The Orlando Sentinel also now published a highlight video, with this one you get the benefit of the Marc Daniels calling the plays:

This one is courtesy of brahmanknight (well done!)

Tags: Football by jay
No Comments »