This weekend was a first for me. The first time I can ever remember going to live UCF sporting events FOUR days in a row. I’m exhausted now, the voice is gone, but I’m a happy man. Here are my thoughts, pics, and some videos from the extended weekend.

FOOTBALL
Our Knights football team clinched the East Division of C-USA and secured hosting of the C-USA Championship game next week by beating UTEP 36-20. It was by far the closest game played at Bright House since Texas. In fact it’s pretty much the only game that was still in doubt in the 4th quarter all year except Texas. So that lead to some extra (nervous) excitement to say the least. Can it get anymore storybook than hosting the conference championship in the first year of our campus stadium?

How about Kevin Smith folks? Can this guy get any better on and off the field for us? He became the first player in the state of Florida to ever surpass 2,000 yards in one season. He also moved up to #4 in NCAA history for most yards in a season, and is likely to end up no worse than #2 all time. Add to that his character and class off the field and you have a special player. He is always putting the team first and deflecting praise to this offensive line. So humble for a man with so much talent, refreshing to see…

And finally after an early bizarre absence of Zombie Nation, when it finally played in the 3rd quarter I think it was the best yet. The students decided to just start doing it on their own with pockets around the stadium joining in, then BAM they finally blasted it and it seemed there was 100% participation, the place went NUTS and the team never turned back rolling on from that point.

Here are some pics from the UTEP game and tailgate

Here is a great video from MODSquad of Zombie Nation during UTEP

Here is a video of the team celebrating the victory with the band and student section

BASKETBALL
Kirk and the boys won for the first time ever over a team from a conference that belongs to the BCS when the beat Penn St 70-59. It was a great win coming off two close losses to Top 20 teams in the Old Spice Classic which was surely the most difficult tourney we’ve ever played in. The Knights fought strong against #19 Villanova with the game in doubt all the way to the end, then they took #20 Kansas St to overtime before losing. The Kansas St lose was especially hard because we were on the free throw line with 4 sec to play in regulation and the game tied, but we missed. All in all, considering the competition I think we showed we are going to be a great team this year!

Unfortunately we didn’t have near as many fans on hand as I hoped, especially on Sunday. However at this point all I can do is hope that once we get back home we get that straightened out.

Here are some random pics from the Old Spice Tourney

Here is a video of the Oviedo High band playing Zombie Nation (it can be done Marching Knights!)

Here is an ESPN clip of Jermaine Taylor’s nasty alley-oop dunk to tie Kansas St game (from xmatt)

Here is a sweet half court bounce pass from Chip to Jermaine for a poster’izing dunk (from xmatt)