Let’s take a quick and dirty look at N.C. State’s upcoming bowl opponent, the UCF Knights (UCF dropped ‘Golden’ from their nickname in 2007).
Note: for discussion and relevant info on the Wolfpack’s selection to the bitcoin Bowl please visit this thread. Or head to the forums for even more discussion and opinion.
UCF finished in a three-way tie for first in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), posting a 7-1 league record along with both Cincinnati and Memphis. The Knights missed out on being able to claim the AAC crown outright by virtue of their loss to UConn … a stinging loss as it was UConn’s only league victory of the season. Depending on your perspective, UCF was either fortunate or unfortunate in the fact that they did not play either of the teams they shared first place with – Cincinnati and Memphis. The AAC fielded 11 teams this season, disallowing the conference from holding a conference championship game.
From the aforementioned bowl selection thread (linked above), member ‘JasonP’ offers the following insight and opinion:
… Legit NFL talent at WR with a capable QB. Inexplicable loss at UConn, but other losses were Penn State in the first game and then @ Mizzou. They beat an improving South Florida team 16-0, which was our only common opponent.
Don’t care what O’Leary did in the past. He’s paid his dues and had to serve in purgatory at Central Florida. He’s a heck of a coach and word is he’s going to retire at the end of the season (68 y/o). That means they’re going to be playing hard to give their coach one last win. If our D-Line repeats the perforance they had against UNC, that should put their QB under enough pressure to give us an edge.
For some numbers, cbssports has the Knights listed as follows:
FBS RANKING OFFENSE DEFENSE
Rushing 132.2 (97th) 97.4 (5th)
Passing 230.7 (63rd) 185.4 (11th)
Overall 102nd 3rd
For a thorough rundown, here is a pretty cool site for you ‘numbers’ guys and gals: cfbstats.
The bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl will be the 7th overall bowl contest for UCF (history). They enter the game with a 3-3 all-time overall bowl record … this includes winning the 2013 Fiesta Bowl last season over Baylor in the last iteration of the ‘BCS’ bowls.
Please feel free to share your thoughts on the upcoming match-up.
Apologies to any ECU fans, but I wanted to add a video … it’s not over ’til it’s over:
