What makes a conference rival? Sometimes it’s geography. Sometimes it’s similarities. Sometimes it’s on-field success and unforgettable finishes.

As UCF has grown from its humble beginnings as a Division III program in the 1979 to joining the Big 12 this year, so too has its fiercest rivalries evolved.

War on I-4

The UCF-South Florida rivalry has been the standard for the last decade.

Two proud Central Florida institutions, 100 miles apart, thrown together in the American Athletic Conference —with no other leagues foes this side of East Carolina.

The record book says the programs began competing in a 1971 baseball game between the Florida Tech Knights of the Pegasus and the South Florida Golden Brahmans. South Florida prevailed 5-1.

The schools first met in men’s basketball in 1972.  Alum and longtime season ticket holder Joe DeSalvo ’75, former Florida Times-Union sports editor, remembers a home-opening game in 1974-75 (won 75-74 by UCF) played at Winter Park High School.

While the War on I-4 rivalry was officially established in 2016 across all sports between the programs, ABC and ESPN helped cement the status of the football rivalry three years earlier by making it a regular Black Friday nationally televised event to end the regular season.

Though the teams have played only 14 times overall (and never until 2005 when it was Big East vs. Conference USA), their football meetings have produced notable fireworks — most recently in 2022 when a favored UCF squad needed a highlight-reel end-zone grab by tight end Alec Holler to ensure a spot in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship Game a week later.

There have been other headline-making contests — a 49-42 Knight home win in 2017 that finished off a perfect regular season, then a crazy 58-46 UCF victory in Tampa in 2020 that featured 646 yards by the Knights and 577 by South Florida.

“The great thing about the South Florida situation is that it was a rivalry for many years even when the two teams did not play,” says longtime UCF radio play-by play voice Marc Daniels. “UCF had a very young program — and then South Florida announced it was starting a program. The thought was, ‘Does UCF want to play them?’

“But it’s a game that should have been played.

“By the time it happened in 2005, (head coach) Jim Leavitt had South Florida rolling. The 2007 game wasn’t close (64-12 in favor of South Florida). It began as a four-game series, South Florida won all four — and they had their ‘We’re No. 2 in the country’ moment in 2007.

“But there was no guarantee the teams were going to play again after that until UCF joined the American in 2013.”

In fact, AAC commissioner Mike Aresco talked often about the need for his league to build more interest via rivalries —and used the UCF-South Florida version as the conference’s best example. UCF took home the inaugural War on I-4 trophy in the all-sports competition and its never left Orlando since.

UCF in 2023 has moved into the Big 12 Conference, and there currently are no more football meetings between the Knights and Bulls on the books. Any future games in any sport will be of the non-conference variety.

Before the War

There was a meaningful rivalry with Stetson in basketball and baseball — two of ±«°äčó’s earliest sports established — because of the proximity of the schools. The Rollins and Florida Southern series (in the Sunshine State Conference starting in 1975-76) flourished in the ’70s and ’80s when Torchy Clark was the UCF men’s basketball coach.

“Remember, in Florida at that time, there was no one (in pro sports) except the (Miami) Dolphins and (Tampa Bay) Bucs— no hockey, no baseball, no Orlando Magic, and no UCF football until 1979.

“Torchy had a competitive basketball team — and when they would play Rollins in the Winter Park High School gym (in 1976) it was the biggest sporting event in Orlando,” Daniels says.

Knight fans have seen plenty of football shifts — based on UCF beginning as an NCAA Division III program in 1979, elevating to Division II (1982), FCS (1990), FBS (1996), the Mid-American Conference (2002), Conference USA (2005), the AAC (2013) and now the Big 12 (2023). That doesn’t count the handful of other conferences other Knight teams participated in.

Considering Daniels has called every Knight football game since 1995 (the Daunte Culpepper days), the broadcaster and voice of the Knights knows a little something about which opponents over the years have fired up UCF fans:

“As UCF went through its Division II and I-AA years, people talked about Bethune-Cookman as a rival because of the geographics,” he says. “Youngstown State is often mentioned just because of the history of a (1993) playoff game in the snow.”

In DeSalvo’s view, the football aspect started in 1979: “I went to that first game — we played St. Leo right out of the gate. It was only the two games those first two seasons, but that made it a rivalry.

“And in those really early years Valdosta State (eight games from 1982-94) was a rival for us — and Georgia Southern (11 games from 1982-91). Those were the better programs we were challenging back then. Southern Miss (UCF dropped six of eight meetings between 2005-12) was always a tough game in Conference USA.

“Everybody wanted to beat UCF. We seemed to have a big target on our back. Maybe it was partly because we were a big school from a big city. In their minds, we were the city slickers from Disney World.

“It made it more of a challenge, but history shows we were up for it.”

Rivalries with Longevity

Veteran Knight fans talk about the days when games against Tulsa (three of the teams’ meetings have been C-USA title games—in 2005, 2007, 2012) and East Carolina qualified as red-letter calendar dates.

The Tulsa rivalry was fueled by four straight Golden Hurricane wins (2015-16-19-20). The Knights have played more football games (21) against East Carolina than any other opponent and own more triumphs over Memphis (15) than any other foe.

And Daniels is quick to point out, don’t forget about Marshall — and old foe from the MAC who went on the ride along with UCF to C-USA.

“In my mind, Marshall was the first big rivalry because of how it happened,” Daniels says. “UCF went from independent to the MAC. Marshall made the move from dominating in I-AA to the MAC and they were having success.

“That leads to the first time we played which was 2002. UCF had played at Arizona State two weeks before and (quarterback) Ryan Schneider injured his ribs. After a bye week we went up to play Marshall and (quarterback) Byron Leftwich and they were just ready for us. It was as if they were saying, ‘Who is this new kid on the block from Florida?’ ”

Marshall won 26-21, but the Knights earned some respect, in part due to Schneider’s warrior-like approach. UCF actually had the ball at the end on Marshall’s side of the field until the drive stalled. Marshall won the first three games of the series.

“That brought us to 2005 and UCF had a 17-game losing streak, the longest in the country, including all of George O’Leary’s first year (2004),” Daniels says.

UCF beat Marshall 23-13 — and Knight Nation tore the goalposts down in the old Citrus Bowl.

“Fast-forward into a series that had been owned by Marshall and that UCF then began to dominate,” Daniels says. “The two teams played in the Gasparilla Bowl after the 2019 season, and that brought back a lot of memories. There were good things about the Marshall series as far as turning UCF fortunes around — and that made it special for Knight fans.”

“There were certain schools you had to get up for—you had to win that game. Marshall became one of those,” DeSalvo says.

Memphis is next on the list and extended beyond football.

Keith Clanton led the UCF men’s basketball team to its first win over Memphis, 68-67, in 2012 in front of the then-fifth largest crowd in school history — who rushed the court to celebrate the milestone. In women’s soccer, UCF and Memphis appeared regularly atop the C-USA standings — and the Knights headed into the AAC with momentum by shutting out Memphis in the 2012 C-USA tournament en route to its first C-USA tournament title. The teams’ series evened out, 6-6, during their AAC era.

In football, the Tigers beat UCF back in 1990 and then the Knights won 13 straight. The 2005 UCF victory (38-17) saw All-America UCF running back Kevin Smith (164 yards) outrush DeAngelo Williams (136) when Williams was the leading rusher in the country.

Adds Daniels, “That game was noteworthy because at that time UCF didn’t have all that many wins over name programs.”

In 2013 there was the UCF kickoff with the game tied and less than two minutes to go—resulting in a big hit and forced fumble by the Knights’ William Stanback. Drico Johnson picked it up and scored—and UCF won 24-17.

The teams played four times combined in 2017 and 2018, though the regular-season meeting in 2017 almost didn’t happen because of a hurricane. The conference title game in 2017 was a 62-55 UCF double overtime win that pushed the Knights to 12-0. McKenzie Milton threw for 494 yards and five touchdowns in the highest-scoring FBS conference title game in history (including 1,479 combined total yards). At one point in the first half, Milton completed 15 consecutive passes for 266 yards and three TDs.

Then in 2018, UCF was down 16 on the road in the rain and came back to win 31-30—partly via a fourth-and-one TD play (a 71-yard run by Taj McGowan). UCF backup quarterback Darriel Mack did the job in the 2018 AAC title game with 348 passing yards and four rushing TDs–after Milton had been hurt the week before.

“Those were four incredible games. In fact, there was another one, that UCF lost 50-49 in 2020 after gaining 798 yards, that was an incredible football game as well,” Daniels says.

Daniels puts Cincinnati on the rivalry list with South Florida, Marshall and Memphis — and says he will never forget the 2015 game versus the Bearcats.

“UCF lost 52-7 in the winless season,” he says, “then turned around and beat them in Scott Frost’s first year in 2016. The ESPN College GameDay meeting in prime time in 2018 was an amazing week in so many ways as far as overall branding for the football program and for UCF in general.”

Cincinnati claimed three straight versus UCF (2019-20-21), making the Knights’ comeback victory over the Bearcats in 2022 all the more satisfying (and coming against a CFP qualifier from the 2021 season). UCF fans and national college football writers (Andy Staples, Andrea Adelson) believe the impact of the Knights’ 2017-18 25-game unbeaten streak paved the way for Cincinnati’s CFP breakthrough in that ’21 season.

UCF and Cincinnati have been responsible for four of five AAC football titles from 2017 through 2021.

And now the story will continue as both programs head to the Big 12.

Who’s Next?

So, where can UCF partisans direct their enthusiasm in this expanding new league?

Cincinnati may be the frontrunner, but what about Houston, where SpaceU takes on Space City? Maybe former independent BYU, part of the quartet that became Big 12 members July 1?

How will Knight Nation react to conference assignments against Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Baylor, West Virginia, Texas Tech and TCU? (Given the move of Oklahoma and Texas to the Southeastern Conference beginning in 2024, exclude that duo.)

What about the most recent Big 12 additions — Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah?

“I think rivalries are really healthy,” says DeSalvo, “and it’ll be interesting to see how they develop in the Big 12.

“Maybe Cincinnati? At least recently they were always in the way — it came down to that game.

“Maybe West Virginia. Maybe Houston. Maybe even Baylor, just based on that Fiesta Bowl game 10 years ago.

“And we have a history with Cincinnati and Houston — and they have a history with us.

“Of the schools from the AAC, there will be a little bit of competition to see who is going to do better in the Big 12.”

UCF recently recorded its first victory in its first outing as a Big 12 member in a 1-0 women’s soccer road win at Purdue.

There will be many more opportunities to come.

Check back in five years — and see how the rivalry debate unfolded.

“It’s going to be fun,” DeSalvo says.

May 24, 2023. Big 12 Business Summit. Arlington, Texas.

Eric DeSalvo ’09, UCF associate athletics director of #content, settles into his seat among the crowd of marketing and sales leadership staff from around the Big 12 Conference as the league’s commissioner, Brett Yormark, takes the stand for his opening remarks.

“He starts it off and he goes, ‘These are the four things that are my pillars: innovation, creativity, disruption and taking risks,’” DeSalvo recalls. “And I immediately think, is he talking about himself or UCF?”

Being “bold” and “innovative” and “disruptive” might just sound like hot buzz words for brands to adopt in 2023. But in ±«°äčó’s case, it’s authentic. The Knights actually are all of these adjectives because they’ve had to be.

Without the resources of longer-established universities — șŁœÇֱȄ of Florida was founded in 1853, UCF in 1963


Without a longstanding history of fandom and donor support — șŁœÇֱȄ of Texas’ alumni association was organized in 1885. ±«°äčó’s in 1975


Without decades of nationally televised games and promotional broadcasts — Ohio State has hosted ESPN’s College GameDay a record 22 times, UCF once


UCF has had to strategically rely on its youth to find ways to break through the noise in a state that boasts three other Power 5 institutions.

Enter: The benefit of big and the power of social media.

Building a Brand

Established in 1963, ±«°äčó’s meteoric rise to the Big 12 Conference makes it the youngest Power 5 institution in the country.

“It’s a modern athletic department. I think it’s the future of higher education. It’s the future of college sports,” says Zack Lassiter, vice president of athletics for Abilene Christian șŁœÇֱȄ who served as ±«°äčó’s senior associate athletic director of external operations from 2012-15.

But it wasn’t always necessarily this way.

DeSalvo knows ±«°äčó’s brand arguably better than anyone. The son of UCF graduate Joe DeSalvo ’75, he grew up going to UCF games in the mid-1990s at the Citrus Bowl and went on to graduate from UCF himself. He has worked for the athletic department since 2011 — first in communications before he transitioned to what is now known as the #content department in 2013.

He says in his youth, he would have described UCF as having “a lot of potential” and “on the brink.”

“For a long time, UCF was “UC-If” — If we only didn’t get a phantom holding call against Georgia. If we didn’t miss the extra point here. And there were so many of those games across all sports that you were like, you’re right there —  if only,” he says. “But you saw the potential. You were definitely on the cusp.”

On3 National College Football host Andy Staples, who moved to Central Florida as a middle schooler and graduated from Lake Mary High School, echoes the same sentiments.

“You didn’t think of UCF in the same way you would have thought of Miami or Florida State or Florida,” Staples says. “You’d go to the campus and you didn’t see a lot of UCF gear. It didn’t feel like a destination-type campus. We went there a lot for science fairs or somebody would be having their graduation at the arena — it didn’t feel as much like a place that people say, ‘I grow up wanting to go to UCF,’ or ‘I’ve been a UCF fan my whole life.’ You just never would expect anybody to say that back in the ’90s. Watching it change over the decades has been pretty amazing.”

“ ‘I’ve been a UCF fan my whole life.’ You just never would expect anybody to say that back in the ’90s. Watching it change over the decades has been pretty amazing.” — Andy Staples, On3 National College Football host

When former Athletic Director Todd Stansbury recruited Lassiter to join ±«°äčó’s athletic department in 2012, the west coast native didn’t have much familiarity with UCF.

Lassiter made it a point to ask a lot of questions and listen to campus counterparts, young alumni and students to gain a better understanding of how the university had gotten to where it was so quickly.

“We were young, but we were big, and so in that sense you could tell that, that was something that we could probably do better than anyone else,” Lassiter says.

Indeed, ±«°äčó’s enrollment in 2012 just tipped 60,000. Today it’s more than 68,000. The university confers more than 18,000 degrees annually, and its alumni base clocks in at more than 368,000 — nearly half of which still live in Central Florida.

Perhaps the most important stat is that the average alumni age is 42 years old. So, by the time that Lassiter joined the fold, social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter, founded in 2006) and Instagram (founded in 2010) were starting to really take off in the sports world and ±«°äčó’s biggest fan base was very active on social media.

It was the perfect combination.

“Perception is reality. And if you feel like you’re getting hit up by a bunch of UCF fans on Twitter, their reality is you are because the numbers are there between our enrollment and alumni,” DeSalvo says. “Our fanbase can celebrate the big moments with big numbers. They can pile on to somebody who shows some disrespect. They can win a Twitter poll like no other. By always showing up, they’ve backed up what is on paper.”

So, the department decided to lean into social to stand out. UCF Athletics hired a full-time social media manager, Keal Blache ’11, who served a short stint. When he vacated the position in 2013, Lassiter approached DeSalvo about the opening because of DeSalvo’s penchant for being creative with the social accounts in his role at the time as the communications contact for the volleyball and baseball teams.

“I’ll never forget — I think I’m at (former UCF basketball player and athletics staff member) Mike O’Donnell’s wedding. And Todd Stansbury’s there and he goes, ‘Hey you’re moving over to the social role, right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘Alright. Push the envelope.’ OK. Todd is telling me to push the envelope. I’ll do my best.

“I can thank Blake Bortles and Storm Johnson and J.J. Worton ’14 ÌęČčČÔ»ć Terrance Plummer ’21 and that crew for helping me push the envelope because there’s no greater year one than going to the .”

In the last decade, UCF has had three athletic directors — all of whom DeSalvo says have continued to buy-into the “push the envelope” mentality — four football head coaches and four university presidential leadership transitions. But the same voice on social media, which has benefitted UCF immensely.

“If there is somebody better at what Eric has done and what he has built, I haven’t met him. And there were a lot of other talented people that were a part of that. But I think what made him so great is he believed it,” Lassiter says. “He could do it in a way that could connect, and a lot of our folks loved that it was a UCF person doing this. That’s the authenticity of what social can be at its best — how do you become yourself in a way that galvanizes and gets people excited? He ran with it in ways that I hope 50 years from now if there’s a story about who were those individuals that played a part of that, I think Eric deserves a ton of credit for what he did. I think he had a lot of really talented people around him, and he was given kind of the keys to the kingdom so to speak, and we took off.”

Those talented people are who DeSalvo credits for the team’s ability to not only stay relevant but maintain ±«°äčó’s status as one of the best brands to follow.

“The staff is key. I can’t have all the ideas. The ideas can come from anyone — from the AD (athletics director) to the interns, and many have over the years,” DeSalvo says. “We also have a work environment to where it’s loose, but they are well aware of who our brand is. I always say, ‘There’s no bad ideas.’ I also get to say, ‘We don’t say no around here a whole bunch.’ If it’s trending and there’s a way we can insert ±«°äčó’s brand into this conversation and it makes sense, let’s do it.”

The Tweets That Made Us

Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic Senior Writer: Not everyone realized this as early as UCF, where social media is about fun. It’s about engaging and having fun, maybe going viral. But it’s about doing things that are different and not just having no personality. They always had personality, and I think that was immediately embraced by the fan base that was very online and very ready to engage on any topic.

Eric DeSalvo: The tweet was on a whim. I’m with (former Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications) Dan Forcella and I drafted it before the playoff selection show had gotten to it. We were wanting it to be Bama. And it happens, and I hit send. It really put us out there. It’s my favorite tweet I’ve gotten to send.

Eric DeSalvo: That was designed by (former graphic designer) Channing Curtis. We kept seeing the Elmo version, and I asked him, “Hey can you just put Knightro in his place?” The first time we ever got to use it — he made it that day — we cracked the top 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Andy Staples: I use Knightro gifs pretty frequently. I think Knightro with flames behind him is a very effective way of getting your point across. Those folks are very online. They’re very savvy. They know how to get our attention in the media, and they know how to keep the discussion going. They will defend UCF tooth and nail. They will not let you get away with slandering UCF in any way, shape or form. Which I appreciate. And there are other fan bases that are like that. But [UCF] seems to be a little more in on the joke than some of the others. The more established fanbases, you get people who are just mad at you. UCF Twitter, they know what they’re doing. And they know they know what they’re doing.

Eric DeSalvo: I wasn’t at that game — I was at my mother-in-law’s. But the game was on ESPN3. You could actually rewind, thankfully. He catches that ball. I’m losing my mind.

That was the No. 1 Vine for us for a long time. That one was getting so much national play.

That’s up there because it was so iconic.

DeSalvo: I joke that my iPhone that shot Danny White saying “national champs, undefeated” should go to the (UCF Athletics) Hall of Fame.

Nobody knew Danny was going to say that. We had a plan in place where we would continue to challenge the CFP. That’s what we were doing and needed to do for our team. (Senior Executive Associate Athletics Director of Brand Advancement and Chief Branding Officer) Jimmy Skiles took precedent from when he saw the year Auburn wasn’t in the national championship game and were undefeated — they had national championship rings made for their team. It was on the front cover of Sports Illustrated. And he remembered it. If they could do that back then, why can’t we?

So, we crafted messaging for like “undefeated champions.” We didn’t straight up say national champions. (Former graphic designer) Chris Stoney made some motion graphics, “13-0. Only undefeated team, who’s next?”

We knew if we didn’t do anything by the time our game ended and the playoff game started that day, we would be kind of irrelevant in the grand scheme of games. It would be a nice win and move on.

People should know Danny looking into my phone wasn’t anything new. I kind of conditioned him to do that, especially at road wins. I would go live at Facebook right as the clock would hit zero to take fans behind the scenes. A lot of the time we’d be walking by Danny as we went to the locker room. So, it wasn’t anything new for him to see my phone get shoved in his face.

He just quickly says those magic words. Oh boy. Here we go.

Andy Staples: Don’t run afoul of UCF Twitter. That’s all I got to say. This is a very passionate, very aggressive online fan base. Which listen that will fit right in (the Big 12). The good thing about UCF is that passion will match with Kansas State and Oklahoma State and Iowa State — they are extraordinarily passionate people. They really love their teams. These are groups that will really appreciate one another.

Charging On

As social media has served as one of the tools to help define ±«°äčó’s brand over the years, one constant has been the Knights’ ability to rise up, to band together, to believe in its potential — to Charge On.

As a rallying cry, Charge On was introduced during the Stansbury and Lassiter era.

“It wasn’t as though there was one calling card that really captured the energy or the belief of a UCF fan — like ‘Go Knights!’ was something to where, well how many other Knights are there in college athletics?” Lassiter says. “And I remember thinking that in social media hashtags were really important. What is that we can do?”

“Obviously a decade later it’s become something that I feel is the perfect, simple way to describe who UCF is.” — Zack Lassiter, ±«°äčó’s senior associate athletic director of external operations from 2012-15.

And then Charge On surfaced. Lassiter recalls the idea came from an alum, who suggested it because the phrase is part of the lyrics in ±«°äčó’s fight song.

“When the idea was proposed, it seemed to make too much sense,” Lassiter says. “This describes who we are. There’s a great history behind it. It’s incredibly nimble and flexible in how you can apply it certain ways.”

So, Lassiter conducted an experiment. He walked around UCF Athletics’ main administration buildings and starting using the term without explanation to elicit genuine reactions from the staffers.

“Nobody could figure out a way to say why that wouldn’t work,” he says. “Obviously a decade later it’s become something that I feel is the perfect, simple way to describe who UCF is.”

There is still so much of ±«°äčó’s story to be written. More traditions to carve out. More pushing the envelope unapologetically.

And what makes DeSalvo and the rest of the gatekeepers of the brand excited about the next chapter is the union with the renegades of the Big 12.

“We’re finally in a league that is exactly where we should be 
 its identity is completely us,” DeSalvo says. “Not only do we get to do this stuff here and try to do it as big as possible, now we have the backing of a Power 5 league that is going to help just throw gasoline on the fire and get it out there further.”

In the spring of 1980, Linda Gooch ’85 became a member of the UCF cheer team. In August 1984 she was officially hired as the program’s head coach (the 2023 football season marks her 40th with the Knights) and a decade later the squad began competing for national titles. Since then they’ve been routine high finishers in national competitions, claiming Universal Cheerleaders Association national titles in 2003, 2007 and 2020 and a UCA game day national title in 2019. In addition, Gooch — now the longest-tenured employee in UCF Athletics — has been a key figure in the creation of mascot Knightro and the KnightMoves dance team. Her husband Alan Gooch ’84 ’89MA played football at UCF and then coached football with the Knights for 22 years. Both are members of the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame.

This is Gooch’s story on how the cheer program over the decades helped ±«°äčó’s rise to national notoriety.

I started coaching UCF cheer in 1984 — at the same time I was teaching eighth-grade history. I would teach school during the day and drive straight to campus and coach the team in the evening. Back then, to qualify for the national championship schools would send in videotapes of their teams performing stunts and pyramids. From those entry tapes, the top 10 teams in each division were invited to compete for the title. This is the 1980s and with no internet or social media. We were pretty isolated. We had no real idea what skills other teams were including in their videos. All we knew was what we saw see at summer cheerleading camp. This was a time of incredible growth for cheerleading. This was on the heels of Olympic gymnasts Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci — and you had all these little girls who had watched them.

The popularity of gymnastics exploded in the US during the ’70s, but there just weren’t enough qualified coaches. As high school programs, like mine, closed down many girls — took their acrobatic skills to cheerleading. What had begun as a sideline activity developed into a kind of alternative gymnastics. I was on the cusp of all of that.

During my first 10 years of coaching from 1984 to 1994 we submitted video entry tapes every year but kept receiving rejection letters. If you were close to being selected, you received not just a letter but a plaque. When you walk into my office today, on a shelf I have four of the rejection plaques. I keep those up there to remind me that nothing happens overnight, and you just have to stay at it. All those sayings about perseverance are really true. You just keep working and you’ll break through at some point.

In 1994 there was no rejection letter. I finally got a congratulations phone call. We had qualified for nationals. I was so pumped. I immediately called our Athletic Director Steve Sloan. I said, “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that after 10 years of trying we have finally qualified to compete for the Division I-AA national championship.” He went on and on congratulating us. I said, “The bad news is the competition is in San Diego, California, and I need $10,000 to get our team out there.” There was a long pause. Back in 1994 $10,000 might as well have been $100,000. He said, “Well, we’re going to have to find a way to get you out there.” Student Government came up with $3,000, our cheerleaders fundraised and came up with $3,000, the alumni association gave us $3,000 and UCF Athletics made up the difference.

That first year we learned a great lesson about how video works. In the ’90s the college cheerleading national championship was aired (taped delay) on ESPN. We would record the show and watch it repeatedly during all those years when we were getting the rejection letters. The teams just seemed so incredible. So flawless in their performances. What we did not know was that back then the TV show edited out all the falls. I thought everybody hit their routines perfectly.

My thought heading out to San Diego was, “We just don’t want to embarrass ourselves.” I figured, it’s our first year competing, let’s just keep everything in the air, so I gave our team a routine that I knew we could hit. Well we nailed it and came in a very close second to Morehead State șŁœÇֱȄ (in 1994). We came back to the Orlando airport and the (UCF marching) band met us at the gate. They were playing the fight song as we came off the plane and it was awesome.

We never looked back. In 1996 we moved into Division I-A along with our football team; in 1999 we finished in the top three; in 2002 we were runner up; and in 2003 we won the title. That 2003 championship truly was a David and Goliath situation because the șŁœÇֱȄ of Kentucky had won eight consecutive national championships. There were two generations of college cheerleaders who had never known another champion. For UCF to come in and do that was absolutely magical. Showing it wasn’t a fluke, we came back and won it again in 2007 and at that point UCF Athletics was really taking off. We had opened our on-campus football stadium that year with the Texas game.

There have been some incredible moments that mark milestones for the program. In the Troy State playoff game (1987) as a coach it was incredibly gratifying to get the noise penalty. After all that’s what every cheerleading coach should aspire to — having it that loud. I remember the officials walking over to (then head coach) Gene McDowell and saying, “Coach, you’re going to need to get on the PA and tell the fans to quiet down so we can get the ball snapped.” And he replied, “We’ll take the penalty.” It was great. I have one of those penalty flags framed in my office — as a badge of honor. Winning the first cheer championship (2003) and having our own documentary on WE TV after we won our second title in 2007 certainly elevated our national profile and traveling to Paris in 2013 to represent the USA in the European Open Championship put us on a world stage.

In the world of cheerleading people had stopped asking “Where is UCF anyways?” They knew who we were.

One of the most gratifying moments for me was ESPN’s College GameDay coming to campus in 2018. Lee Corso has a tradition of putting on the mascot head for whatever team he is going to pick to win. Coach Corso called me (earlier in the week) and said “Linda, this is going to be epic. I’m going to put the whole knight costume on.” We knew that this could possibly be one of the most iconic video shots in all of College GameDay; something that would be played and replayed on the show for years to come. We had 90 seconds during the commercial to get Lee Corso into our Knightro costume. We pulled it off and Coach was right — it was epic.

The GameDay experience was a chance to raise the curtain. They give you five days’ notice if you are selected to host the show. If your spirit program isn’t doing a great job at your games and you haven’t created great traditions and a great game day experience for your fans, the no amount of magic is going to happen in those five days to get you ready. Fortunately, at UCF we had been preparing for this moment for most of my adult life. Now it was just a matter of raising the curtain and showing the world what we have going on at UCF.

We always said it does not matter what you’re doing at UCF; just try to be the best at what you do. We are an aircraft carrier of a university. Positioned in Orlando, Florida, right in the middle of the state, it was our geographic birthright to be competitive at whatever we applied ourselves to. Athletics is just one of those areas where we are going to excel. We knew it was just a matter of time when all of our sports would eventually be competing on a national stage. Our goal was to make sure our spirit program was ready when that happened.

When people ask about the organization of the spirit program, I tell them it’s like a football team. You have the offense and the defense and the special teams. Cheerleading is the offense; the dance team is the defense, and the mascot program is the special teams. We’re all part of one big team totaling 70-80 people and we work very hard to be unified.

In terms of mascots, in about 1986 or 1987 a yellow dragon first appeared on our sideline and that was Puff. Puff looked a little like a bumblebee, and it had black dragon chest stripes. Then came Mack the Knight, who was sort of a cross between an astronaut and a knight. He had googly eyes and a football body.

In 1994 the athletic department decided that we needed to create a real animated mascot and asked if I would manage that aspect of the program. Trey Gordon had been a cheerleader and went on to work in student government. Trey took an interest in this project and I suggested he get some drawings done. He went to Metropolis Graphics in Winter Park and the committee loved the initial drawings. We had the costume made and Knightro I was born. Knightro II was similar but had a plastic face kind of like a doll. When it needed to be remade again, someone suggested the costume needed more sparkle so we had a vendor out at Disney create Knightro III (aka Glitter Knightro). All that glitter was heavy and “Glitter Knightro” weighed 50 pounds, making game days in Florida particularly rough. In 2007 we redesigned the costume again and that brought us our beloved Knightro IV costume that we have today.

The KnightMoves dance team kind of grew organically. We already had Starlet Knights, which were the auxiliaries of the marching band — flag-bearers, baton twirlers and a dance team. The dance team wanted to participate at basketball games and we tried that. It made sense for athletics to govern that group, and so they asked me to take on that assignment, too. Our dance team began just with basketball and but as we moved to the on-campus stadium we decided to bring the dance team down on the football sideline as well. They have been a wonderful addition.

I get asked a lot, “What does it take to win at the highest level?” To win the championship you’ve got to keep everything in the air and hit your routine. It’s two minutes and 30 seconds, and you have to be perfect. There is no do-over. It’s rarely about the most talented team. It’s really about who can hit their routine in that moment on that night under those lights and with all of that pressure. It’s not just preparing them physically, it’s preparing them mentally; coaching them to be at their best when their best is needed.

It’s so important to be open to change. Nothing stays the same — strategies are always evolving. It’s the same for us. You can’t be stuck on how you’ve always done things. This is something that I have always loved about our university.

Our UCF culture embraces being the disruptors. Change is our middle name. As a young university we’ve had to be open to trying new things.

More than the championships and success, it’s my goal that members of our team leave with life skills. After college the ability to go out in the world and apply the discipline, structure and teamwork that they have learned from being a part of our team toward success in life. That is what our program is about. Learning to work together with people from different parts of the country and different backgrounds provides such an opportunity for growth. If you come in to UCF as a freshman and you’ve lived in the same town all your life and you’ve gone to the same schools, same church and been around the same friends growing up, then use college to spend time with someone different than you.

I’ve had members of our team tell me, “This program has changed my life. If you can make it four years here in this program, you can do anything.” I believe it is the camaraderie of a team environment and our emphasis on life skills that sets them up for success in life after college – it is a launching pad to bigger and better things ahead. We have hit so many milestones and reached so many goals already and we are just getting started.

Big 12, here we come. Let’s Go Knights, Charge On.

In 2017 and 2018, the UCF football team rose to the height of popularity and disrupted the college football world with its 25-0 run that spanned 745 days. The accomplishment ranks among the NCAA Division I FBS’ top 25 longest winning streaks of all time, cemented UCF as a national brand and exposed access barriers to the College Football Playoff.

The following story is the most detailed account reported of the program’s success, told exclusively by those who lived it. Read part one here.

Andrea Adelson,  ESPN senior writer: I remember sitting down with Josh Heupel in the spring of 2018 because the questions that everybody wanted to know were, “How are you going to keep this momentum up?” “What was built here, how do you keep going?” “You’re going to be changing schemes. You’re going to have a new defensive coordinator. A new staff. What are you going to do?” “Does that put pressure on you?”

He said the most important thing he wanted to do that spring was learn from the players. Because the players had done it. And he had a lot of those players coming back.

Josh Heupel, 2018-2021 UCF football head coach: I think the success that the program had the year before I came in played a huge part in wanting to be a part of it. You had everything that you needed in a program to be successful. It felt like it was a unique place and time to be able to take over a program and have a chance to go win immediately.

It’s always important that your players feel that they have a say in the program to create buy-in from your players. The circumstances in the way that the staff and I were taking it over, it wasn’t a typical year one. Knowing that we were going to fast forward coming off that season, the expectations were to go compete for a championship and play in a big-time bowl game. You’ve got to do that really quickly.

For me, it was important that from the very jump they understood that a lot of the things they felt really strongly about that helped them be successful are things that we again can incorporate into our program as we continue to build it moving forward.

Some of those things were really small — uniforms and how they travel. Some of those things were big as far as the buildup and what a Thursday and Friday looked like before you get to kickoff on Saturday afternoon. The last 48 hours, we really wanted to make them feel comfortable and feel like they were still in the same type of routine as they were getting themselves ready to play.

Andrea Adelson: I thought that was really smart of him because he didn’t come in here trying to destroy a foundation that was already built because he’s the new head coach and (say), “Now we’re going to do things my way.”

McKenzie Milton ’19, 2016-18 starting quarterback: Coach Frost and coach Heup, they’re different guys. Different personalities. I think it was a challenge in our locker room initially to welcome him in with open arms.

Josh Heupel: Relationships and trust are built over time. When I took over, I said, “I’m going to have to trust you guys and just kind of give you some (trust) without some of those experiences if we’re going to go be what we need to be as a football team when we get to next fall. You’re going to have to do that as well.” Each phase of our off-season, they got more comfortable.

Marc Daniels, longtime UCF radio broadcaster: I believe we were penalized in the preseason rankings because we had a first-time coach in Josh Heupel. If Scott Frost came back in 2018, I believe we would have started in the top 10 and the same win streak happens, it would have been really hard to deny UCF a playoff spot in 2018. If you go back and look how the first few weeks of the season began, there’s a good chance UCF would have been in the top five before October. And I don’t know if they would have denied that. But they penalized UCF because Josh was a first-time coach. I think we started 21st in the preseason poll and didn’t get the same bounce to get up there.

Michael Colubiale ’17, 2013-18 tight end and special teams: Going into that year, we knew how good we were. I think everyone else knew how good we were, too. We were getting everyone’s best game. It was, “Oh, we got UCF this week, let’s put a big circle on it.” Coming in and doing what we did versus UConn in a new system with a new coach kind of gave us a little more confidence going into the next games. We didn’t know what we were going to get. We were game planning for one style of defense and we’d come out and get a different style every single time. We had to adjust on the run, change our plays at halftime. It was definitely a grind.

This is where I feel like Heupel did a really good job. Our emphasis was 1-0 every week. We knew we won 13 straight, but Heupel, he beat it in our brains. I think I’ve said it in 100 interviews: “Our focus is to go 1-0 this week.” Heupel really did a great job of making the guys buy into that motto. That’s what I feel like got us through that season a lot.

Josh Heupel: There was so much noise surrounding our program in a positive way, and there was certainly high expectations outside of it. I thought it was important to get our players to really focus on the path of how you become successful and understand that it doesn’t just follow you. It doesn’t just happen. You’ve got to go make it happen. In our off-season, really started focusing on our daily habits and how we approach every single day.

As we got into the fall, that really became a really important motto for our football team. I thought our players bought into it and actually worked in that manner every single day and every single week. That was a huge part of our success.

Marc Daniels: I don’t want to take anything away from 2017 but you go into 2018 and the pressure begins to mount when the win streak goes to 14 and to 15 and it moves down the line. Here’s Memphis again. And I remember everything about this. All of a sudden the clouds come in. All of a sudden it begins to rain.

Josh Heupel: It was probably the wettest day I’ve ever experienced on a football field as a coach or as a player.

Marc Daniels: We’re getting run off the field. We can’t stop Darrell Henderson. He’s running for touchdowns. Missing tackles. The offense is just sitting there, and we’re not doing anything.

Michael Colubiale: 30-17 — Matt Wright ’18 just drained a field goal right before half. We’re going into the locker room. Dudes were not looking too optimistic. I remember running to the tunnel and just waiting for everyone and just trying to tell everyone we’re still in this fight, we’re still in this fight. We’re playing with a pretty much broken McKenzie Milton.

McKenzie Milton: I was battling a grade 4 separated shoulder. I didn’t practice the whole week coming off of SMU.

Eric DeSalvo ’09, assistant athletics director of #content: I’ll never forget his shoulder after the SMU game. He took his pads off and I’m like “Ohhh!” It was purple, yellow, blue.

Josh Heupel: I thought at halftime the ability of our leadership, Pat Jasinksi on the backside, Wyatt Miller ’18, McKenzie Milton, to be able to get up in front of (the team) and understand that there’s a lot of things that have been built, this was a pivotal moment for our program and the course of this season, our ability to compete for a championship — which obviously a conference championship was the No. 1 goal that we had — those guys as much as anything were able to reset the entire locker room, bring some real calm to it and refocus us as we went out. Understand it was one play at a time. We were good enough in all three phases to go out and execute and come back in this football game.

McKenzie Milton: We were struggling to get momentum, pouring rain. We had a pass play. I scrambled up the middle, made a guy miss.

Marc Daniels: It’s 4^th-and-1 on your side of the field and you’re thinking, “OK what are we going to do at the 29?”

McKenzie Milton: I run to our sideline and I’m like looking at the (down and distance) and I’m like, “Coach, we’ve got to punt.”

Josh Heupel: The clock was starting to move in the wrong direction on us in the second half. Felt like there were a limited number of opportunities. We’re in a short yardage situation.

McKenzie Milton: He’s looking at it, and he’s like, “Alright, let’s go bone here.”

Josh Heupel: It was an aggressive call but one that I felt like we had to go execute at that point in the football game. I also had great trust in our guys and our entire football team. But in particular the guys up front. Our five bigs, our tight ends and our skill guys being able to execute in that situation. KZ looked at me and had a question in his eyes. But it was the right moment in that situation for sure.

McKenzie Milton: We hardly go under center. I’m like, “Just don’t mess up this snap. Don’t fumble the snap.” And when I did my part, handed it off, I’m like alright let’s see if this works out. At the time, I wasn’t sold on the call but luckily coach Heup, he had some big kahunas on that one. Trysten Hill made a great block, and Taj (McGowan ’19) was untouched to the end zone.

It was a huge momentum swing in the game and our season and, really, that was one of, if not the most defining play of that win streak.

Marc Daniels: You look back and you go, “How in the world did UCF pull that out?” And while we had more games, down 17 at Memphis in 2018 — that to me was the big (defining) moment.

McKenzie Milton: We gave everything in that game and we were able to be plus one. That’s a feeling I will never forget. The Peach Bowl was great, but it was also like a sense of relief, like “Okay we didn’t blow it.” But that one was all odds were against us and we found a way.

Eric DeSalvo: That was huge. But we still weren’t getting any respect for pulling out these wins. We’ve never been one to shy away from stirring things up. Our administration saw an opportunity to do that by strategically sending staff members to sites of College GameDay (Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Pullman, Washington,) with UCF flags and signs to force the conversation.

And it’s clear that it’s becoming harder and harder to deny ±«°äčó’s relevance as the win streak continues, even if the pundits are downplaying the significance of the streak. So by the time we get to week 12 with Cincinnati and it’s a top-25 ranked matchup, we knew it was going to be very hard for College GameDay not to pick us. And yet, I think there was still a bit of shock that they actually did.

Michael Colubiale: That story of the 25-0 run had to have GameDay there, right? Seeing us as the center of a College GameDay was awesome. If you would have told me that in 2015, I would have said, “Alright, get out of here.” The whole build-up, finding out that Sunday with the coming to your city video they put out.

Josh Heupel: I remember driving home Friday after work and everything is getting set up. The amount of traffic on Thursday and Friday through our campus, you could feel the buzz on campus, but you could feel it in the city too. Big moments, big games are what as a competitor you love to be in. You could feel from our players the excitement and energy, but also the focus and preparation all week long. It was an unbelievable environment.

Marc Daniels: The night before (the Cincinnati game), I’m on campus. I go to interview Josh for a pregame interview. As I am coming into the office, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, they’re leaving and it just kind of hits you like, they’re here doing this game.

Andrea Adelson: I just remember how many people were out. And all of the signs. And just the sheer joy. The sheer happiness of every single person who was there even though they probably were sleep deprived and had been lined up since the day before. It didn’t matter. GameDay was there.

I feel that it legitimized the program quite honestly. Because anytime you get that stamp of approval from GameDay when they’ve never been there before, it says you’ve made it. You’re big time. You’re important enough for us to come and travel to see you in person. And I’m not just saying that as somebody who works for ESPN — I know there are several ACC schools who haven’t had GameDay who would LOVE GameDay to be there on their campus because it just adds that credibility to your program and to what you have built.

Linda Gooch ’85, UCF spirit coach and former cheerleader: (My husband) Alan (Gooch ’84 ’89MA) and I have known Lee Corso for a long time. I get this phone call from him early in the week. I answer the phone, and he just goes, “Linda! It’s going to be epic!” I’m like, “Coach?” And he says, “I’m going to put the whole (Knightro) costume on,” and I pull into a little cubby so I can really hear him. And he goes, “I’m going to put my people in touch with you but I’m putting the entire costume on. They’re building me a stage and everything. It’s going to be epic!”

We were able to pull it off. We had I think it was 90 seconds to be able to get him into that costume and that head on. And it was epic. It was epic. Even today, when they do the intro to College GameDay, there it is.

McKenzie Milton: I just remember watching on TV in the morning and everybody getting excited. Seeing all the signs, it was cool. That place was rocking.

I’ve got to admit, there were probably only two games where I was a little nervous. It was that one and the Peach Bowl. The first play from scrimmage I get a strip sack for a touchdown so it couldn’t have started much worse. But when they came out on offense their first series and they got two pre-snap penalties, that’s still the loudest stadium I’ve ever played in.

It was the culmination of, wow we’ve really done something special here and let’s keep it going. What else can we do? I don’t want to say that was the pinnacle of the streak. But that was my last full game I played as a Knight.

Andrea Adelson: I was at the USF game that year. In 2018 basically my job at the end of that season was to keep following UCF. They’re on a long winning streak. It looks like they’re about to play for another conference championship. They’re going to get into another New Year’s Six game. I was there expecting UCF to win by two or three touchdowns. I think that’s what a lot of people expected heading into that game.

McKenzie Milton: The first time I was considering the NFL was that week. My dad calls me and he’s like, “Hey, I’ve been talking to some people, we’ve got a lot to talk about after these next two games.” 
 But coach (Mario) Verduzco would always tell me, “You want to make God laugh, you tell him your plan.” Sure enough, simple play we always ran, running the football, I take a helmet to the knee, and I got the worst knee injury in sports.

Mary Vander Heiden, ±«°äčó’s director of sports medicine and head football athletic trainer: Just like any other game we’re watching, looking for injury mechanisms. As soon as he was hit, we knew it was bad. I immediately started running. I don’t know that I’ve ever run that fast in my life but got to him. Tried to protect him. I remember telling him, “Don’t look,” and he’s like, “Too late.”

Andrea Adelson: The whole press box was silent. Nobody said a word because we were all stunned and frightened, to be honest, because it looked that bad from where we were sitting. We are objective sports reporters. We don’t have allegiances, we don’t root for teams, but we are human, and these are college athletes. Nobody wants anything bad to happen to anybody on a football field ever. … And the only thing I could think was, “Please get up. Please get up and be OK.” And I’m sure that’s what everybody around me in that press box was thinking.

Scott Frost: We were on a road trip at my next job and played a game on the road. We had just boarded the plane to fly back home and the UCF game was on. So our entire coaching staff was watching it on the little TVs on the airplane and saw it happen. Made it a tough flight home for all of the coaching staff.

Mary Vander Heiden: My role in our emergency action plan is to focus on the patient. There was a lot of chaos, so I just stayed focused on McKenzie. And then they took him. And that’s always the hardest part too I think from my standpoint — as the head athletic trainer, I couldn’t go. Knowing just how bad it was going to be and then still having to stay to take care of the rest of the team and stay focused. I think that’s a part that people don’t realize is so hard for athletic trainers.

The one really big benefit of that day was that we were in an NFL stadium. If it would have happened anywhere else, I don’t know that we have the same result. You have three hours to save a limb once you’ve lost vascular. He was in surgery in less than an hour under the top vascular doctor in the state at Tampa General.

Marc Daniels: He’s taken off. There’s the emotion of him being carted off. You don’t know the severity of it. And you’re like, “What does it do to these guys?”

Darriel Mack comes in. At the time it wasn’t a big offensive game plan for him, and yet UCF responds. Greg McCrae has an incredible game. ±«°äčó’s defense plays well and they win the game comfortably, 38-10.

Mary Vander Heiden: The next hardest thing was probably postgame, having to tell coach Heupel because I was not updating him throughout the game. Immediate shock, grief came over his face. I said, “I will tell the team if you want me to, if you don’t have the words.”

Michael Colubiale: I just remember being in the locker room after the game and tears were flowing. People were circled up praying. 
 He kind of shaped those past two seasons.  For him to not be there after the win or knowing he wasn’t going to be there was tough.

Mary Vander Heiden: I went back to Orlando on the team bus, and then turned right around in my car. I think I got back to Tampa at like 4 in the morning. I remember that was a rough car ride. I was by myself. Just praying. McKenzie comes from a very faith-based family, and at that point really that was all you could do. He was in the best hands, but it was still not guaranteed. It’s like less than 10% even walk again normally.

There was a lot of anxiety (at first) because he didn’t have movement in his foot. He had a drop foot, which is very common for that injury. I think that was the most scary (feeling) for McKenzie — not being able to move is just a different level of anxiety. But he had blood flow. Dopplers were really encouraging, strong heart beats. So that was really positive there.

The next best thing we saw was he wiggled his big toe. We were so excited. And I think even then, he was like, “What the? It’s a big toe?!” I’m like, you don’t understand what that means. We have a chance.

There’s not many that are built that could have made it through all the things that he had to do (to take the field again three years later).

Josh Heupel: It was really hard for everybody. Coaches and players. But certainly the players. Just in the entire week to be able to handle the emotion of one of the great players and certainly the leader of the program, the locker room, having a horrific injury. Somebody that was so pivotal in all the success that had transpired as a football program in recent history.

And then you look at a young player (Darriel Mack ’20) that has not started a football game that is going to get thrust into a conference championship setting.

Michael Colubiale: We needed to finish off what we started. Our last game playing here officially. Conference championship. The 10hana. There was a lot going on that week. It was unbelievable. Everyone in the stands knew we were playing for McKenzie Milton.

McKenzie Milton: Guys came and actually saw me the night before. Coach allowed them to come out past curfew and see me. Gabe (Davis), Bam (Brandon Moore ’20), DJ (Darriel Mack ’20) and those guys. They said, “We’re going to handle business.”

My mom was at the game. My dad was with me at the apartment. Obviously I was heavily medicated, but I knew exactly what was going on in the game. It was frustrating because you just want to be there with your guys to encourage them. I couldn’t play but you just want to be there to support them — like “C’mon guys, we got this.” I was going a little stir crazy in the apartment not being able to be there with them.

At halftime, I was just telling my dad, “Turn this off. I can’t watch this anymore.” And then obviously halftime goes around and 10 minutes go by and I was like, “Alright, turn it back on.” They came out in the second half lights out. Defense shut them out, Trystan was unstoppable and DJ willed the team to victory and took over.

Marc Daniels: I’ve seen some magical performances over my years of broadcasting games and I can’t explain how Darriel Mack found a way to that moment in that night to rise above it all and have this unbelievable performance. Made me flash back to think about Daunte Culpepper — this guy that was just physically better than everybody and willed his team.

Hard to imagine that you went from the heartache of watching McKenzie go down and here a week later celebrating another championship knowing he’s still fighting. What a rollercoaster of emotion but also incredibly proud because of how the community came together and team and students and what it meant.

McKenzie Milton: Those (FaceTime calls postgame) are some of the best memories. I was proud of those guys, the way they fought. That just shows the heart and soul of that team. We always played for each other. I always played for my teammates, the brother to my left and the brother to my right. They always did the same.

Marc Daniels: It was tough to watch it (the win streak) end the way that it did. Because the (Fiesta Bowl) game starts and you get a pick 6 and (LSU quarterback) Joe Burrow may be still the hardest hit he ever took from Joey Connors ’17 ’19MA — and by the way he never lost a college football game after that. But you’re thinking, “Oh yeah, we’ll find a way.” And we didn’t. It ended in a hard-fought game. LSU was a better team that day. And in a way, it was OK.

Michael Colubiale: Looking back now, and seeing how much talent LSU actually had on that field and competing the way we did with DJ who hasn’t been our quarterback all year, was amazing. That game could have easily been a shutout by LSU. The talent, Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Devin White, they go down the next year — it’s them or the Miami team as the best college football team ever. Just being in an 8-point ball game with them is something to be proud of ourselves.

I remember not wanting to take my pads off. Just reflecting on how special the season and that our run was.

I remember leaving the game and talking to coach O (Ed Orgeron) after the game. He was just saying that we had an amazing team, an amazing run, we were one of the toughest games they had been in all year. Really, some respect from a guy that has been around college football for a while. Obviously, a bummer we lost our last game but a lot to be proud of.

Marc Daniels: You would have liked to see it continue, but I think you look back at the two-year journey of the win streak and UCF had established its brand as that school that was more than just a fluke of 2017. That backed it up in 2018 and there are probably bigger things that lie ahead.

Josh Heupel: One of the things that I learned through my football journey but also as a coach having been through a bunch of seasons is, it’s not just the end destination that matters. That does matter and everybody is pushing towards that goal, but the journey is the greatest part of it. And just tried to convey (in the post-game locker room) I was so proud of what they had done in the past 12 months with our staff, what they had built.

It’s a legacy that’s going to last forever. That’s why you guys are doing this interview right now. It’s a really special group of guys that restaked a claim on the future of UCF football.

McKenzie Milton: I think trendsetters, trailblazers, whatever you want to call it, that’s what we were. That’s what UCF is going to continue to be.

Andrea Adelson: In my view, those two seasons really set the stage not only for playoff expansion but for UCF to join the Big 12. Without those two seasons, maybe UCF is attractive, but maybe not. I mean you can look down the road on I-4 at another school (South Florida) that’s in the state of Florida that hasn’t really had football success and is kind of left out right now of the power conferences and UCF isn’t. And a big reason why is because of the success they’ve had on the football field.

But in my view what they did in 2017 and 2018 — they showed and they proved that “We can play with anybody.” And I also believe that those two seasons allowed Cincinnati to make the playoff. Without UCF leading the way, I don’t think Cincinnati is ranked as high as they were in the playoff in the season that they made it.

Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic writer: The fact that it was so difficult and it took so many things to align for Cincinnati — after everything that had happened with UCF — to get an invite to the 4-team playoff, I think all of that fed into this whole conversation we’ve had about access. And what it means to start the college football season with a chance to be part of the marquee event, the postseason that everyone wants to be a part of. So, UCF really brought all of that to the forefront.

I think what my mind goes to as someone who covers the College Football Playoff piece and that off-field issue and the expansion issue, was how much they pushed that conversation forward and helped us get to the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Andy Staples, On3 national college football host: (UCF) kind of exposed the system for the closed system it was. And the system is changing now. There’s at least a small part of that due to what UCF did.

Andrea Adelson: I feel like UCF has done a lot to help change college football, to help change the perception of UCF but also to prove to people, forget about a label. A label doesn’t matter. What can you do?

I think we learned that anything is possible at UCF. It doesn’t matter what your conference is, where you’re recruiting your players from, all that matters is getting your teammates, your coaches, your players, the administration to believe. That’s why I feel like those two seasons should be held up as these models for inspiration because that was a team that was really easy to root for because they were a team. They were an absolute team.

Shaquem Griffin: That’s what UCF is all about — believing in yourself, believing in your people, believing in your team, and knowing that the whole nation of UCF loves you, how can you lose? Like, really, how can you lose with that?

Scott Frost: You can use this or not use this. I hope UCF keeps climbing. I think there will be some challenges ahead going into a new league, but if there’s one university that’s positioned to overcome those challenges and become a great, elite program, it’s UCF.

In 2017 and 2018, the UCF football team rose to the height of popularity and disrupted the college football world with its 25-0 run that spanned 745 days. The accomplishment ranks among the NCAA Division I FBS’ top 25 longest winning streaks of all time, cemented UCF as a national brand and exposed access barriers to the College Football Playoff.

The following story is the most detailed account reported of the program’s success, told exclusively by those who lived it. ESPN, when you’re ready to greenlight the 30 for 30 documentary 
 you’re welcome.

Scott Frost, 2016-17 UCF head coach: It’s hard to win a game, much less all your games. I think there’s got to be some magic.

McKenzie Milton ’19, 2016-18 starting quarterback: The story of the win streak — I think it’s got to start in 2016 with coach (Scott) Frost coming in.

Shaquem Griffin ’16, 2013-17 linebacker and team captain: I feel like that story started with coach Frost at the time where you were starting to see the dynamic and the culture of UCF change.

Andrea Adelson, ESPN senior writer: Remember the situation that Scott Frost inherited. You’ve got a winless team, and a locker room that’s in disarray. Nobody knows how to win. And that might sound simple to say, “Oh, we just get together and win.” That’s a hard thing to do when you have 100 guys in a locker room who may all be thinking about something different.

Scott Frost: One thing I will tell you, they were 0-12 the year before but coach (George) O’Leary left a lot of really good players there. Sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t, and when they don’t, they can really go off the rails. But I give him credit for the players that were in the program and that I inherited.

Andrea Adelson: I was at Scott Frost’s introductory press conference. I remember that very vividly. I remember talking to (UCF vice president and director of athletics) Danny White and to Scott and having this sense that there’s going to be something different here now. A lot of those press conferences are just formulaic and cliches. But there was just a different sort of energy in that room.

Scott Frost: The first thing we wanted to do was create a brotherhood with the players that they would play for each other and love each other and love the coaches and show them an environment where the coaches would love them and really get them to believe again.

Shaquem Griffin: It was more of, “We’re here for each other,” not the other way around. I feel like in certain ways, when I first came in (to UCF), football was more like a business. We had to do this and we should just be grateful [to be there] — as opposed to, “I’m doing it because I care about you and I know that we care about each other.”

Marc Daniels, longtime UCF radio broadcaster: [The story of the win streak] kind of starts during 2016. Scott is in his first year. Makes the decision to start McKenzie and people kind of wondered about this undersized kid from Hawaii that they didn’t know much about. And yet I think people remember the double overtime loss to Maryland at home — we battled Maryland toe to toe, and you felt like it could be kind of interesting to watch the journey.

Scott Frost: We grew a lot that year. I don’t think the next year would have happened without 2016. Once you start 0-12, 6-6 seems pretty good. And then we got embarrassed in the (Cure) Bowl game. That’s a really good improvement from where we started, but I wanted the guys to set their sights higher. I told them that I was tired of people congratulating us for going 6-7. I wanted to make sure that the goals in the guys’ mind were as high as the goals in my mind and the coaching staff’s mind.

Michael Colubiale ’17, 2013-18 tight end and special teams: I think the story of that 25-0 run really starts in the offseason going into that 2017 season. If you would have asked anyone on the team if you thought we would have ran the table for not just one year but two years, they would have probably called you crazy just because of all the stuff that was going on that offseason.

McKenzie Milton: I had a good spring ball but just really wasn’t in a good mental space. Honestly considered quitting football and moving back home. It was around finals week where I just had a mental breakdown.

Andrea Adelson: He’s thousands of miles away from his home in Hawaii here in Orlando, and that 2016 season was rough. He got booed (by UCF fans at the Cure Bowl).

Scott Frost: We didn’t start him at the beginning of the season because we knew he had some growing to do, just like the rest of the team. I don’t think he was quite ready when he came in (for injured senior Justin Holman ’16). He made some spectacular plays. But he also made some bone-headed plays, which when you’re a freshman in college, that’s going to happen.

But he led us to that (2016 Cure) Bowl game. He didn’t play great in that bowl game, but we didn’t play very well around him either. And inevitably it’s the head coach and the quarterback that get most of the praise, and it’s the head coach and the quarterback that get most of the blame when things don’t go well.

McKenzie Milton: Going through my freshman year, like a lot of college kids when they leave home for the first time, they want to go out, have a good time and things like that. I just feel like there’s no room for that 1) if you’re professing God and 2) if you want to be a world-class athlete — it just doesn’t add up to what you’re saying you want to be. I think it was more so just an identity crisis in terms of putting a lot of my identity into football, and really, in all honesty, some substance issues, too, off the field. Really just taking a look at myself in the mirror and was professing one thing but not really living like that.

And I think Twitter didn’t help. You’d read the positive and the negatives. And there were a lot more negatives that year, and all that fills your mind. That self-doubt starts to creep in and part of you doesn’t feel wanted in a way.

I turned off my phone. Got off social media. Wasn’t in contact with anybody on the team really. Kind of fell off the face of (the) Earth and not a better place to be than Hawaii when you want to do that. I was in contact with coach Frost and (UCF Director of Sports Medicine) Mary Vander Heiden, just giving them updates on how I was doing. If it wasn’t for the help of Scott Frost and Mary Vander Heiden, I definitely wouldn’t have made it back to UCF during that time.

Michael Colubiale: We showed up day one (of offseason strength workouts) and he wasn’t there. We had a leadership council that I was a part of, and we had multiple meetings on just kind of where he was and what was going on. McKenzie was friends with a lot of dudes on the team and (his) phone wasn’t working. Not returning texts. Like his calls weren’t even going through. Frost let us know that he was back home in Hawaii. We were kind of sitting there not knowing what was going to happen going into the year.

McKenzie Milton: I was just doing some soul searching and at the end of the day, always put my faith in Jesus Christ. I got baptized. And that was really it for me. [I had a] conversation with my dad where he said, “The first grown man decision you made was to not stay home here, and decommit from Hawaii and go play football at UCF. You’ve never been one to quit.” So really it was my dad pushing me to see it through. That is the reason my mom came out here (to Orlando). I don’t think a lot of people know that either. I needed that support system. So my mom started living with me and that made it a whole lot more comfortable to come back. I’ve got to thank my parents for sacrificing time away from each other for a long time.

Michael Colubiale: We [the leadership council] had keep-it-real meetings in the summer before fall camp.

Steve Seay, UCF director of Leadership and Career Development Strategies, and leadership council oversight: I still have those meetings pop up on my calendar. Tuesdays at 4 p.m. What was rewarding was that we set out a framework of; If you’re going to be a championship team, everybody’s got to be pulled together. If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk. That council was able to hold the rest of their teammates accountable because they first held each other accountable and to a higher standard. And they would — for the most part in a diplomatic way — be able to bring up issues and it was handled at a level that didn’t involve yelling, screaming or anything like that. It was handled very professionally. The athletes in that room made a difference. That was leadership. I was quite uplifted with the way they interacted.

Michael Colubiale: I remember having a vote with the leadership council on if we wanted to bring McKenzie back. It was a tight vote to bring him back. I think this why we were who we were — we didn’t care who you were, we were going to try to hold you accountable.

McKenzie Milton: I had to earn the trust of the guys back. I started with meeting with the leadership council. Just, “Guys, I was in a very bad headspace, and for me to be the best I could be for you guys, I had to get myself right first.” There was definitely some that welcomed with open arms, and some that were like, “Dude, we’ve been here the past month and a half busting our butts, why would we want you here?”

Michael Colubiale: He knew that trust was hard to earn, and he had to start over again.

McKenzie Milton: I just had to control what I could control. And it was hard. There were practices where I’d go into coach Frost’s office and be like, “Coach, man, nobody really on the team wants me here, I’m done.” But having a guy like (junior offensive lineman) Tyler Hudanick ’19 waiting outside coach’s office until I got out to make sure I was good, having teammates like that (helped me get through it).

I think more than anything, the guys could always tell I tried to be as genuine as possible with every interaction with them. I always came from a place of love and trying to understand where they were coming from.

Michael Colubiale: I think he showed his commitment in practice. He showed his commitment in the locker room with the guys during camp because camp is a grind. You’re with those dudes all day every day. Just win the respect there — show up early, obviously playing how he played on the field, he just kind of earned it during that first couple weeks of camp and ran away with that starting job. I think he knew that all his commitment needed to be to 1) earning our trust back and 2) being who he was on the field.

Scott Frost: I think anytime you’re going to accomplish a lot, usually it helps to have gone through something pretty hard. And sometimes those things that we go through that are hard are the things that shape us into the person that’s capable of taking on something great.

It was just a unique year. We were able to start camp earlier because of an NCAA rule so we started it as early as we could and we gave guys a bunch of days off during camp that I think helped keep them fresh.

Michael Colubiale: The (first game) FIU game we came out and put up basketball numbers —63 points — on them.

Scott Frost: We had a team (Memphis) fly to Orlando and then get on a plane and fly back out, and we didn’t get to play. And then a hurricane where the guys helped (the National Guard) with filling sandbags, and that kind of brought us together but we missed another game (Georgia Tech).

So it wasn’t easy in a sense that everything was laid out and structured like a normal football season. We kind of had to overcome a lot and adapt to a lot, and again I think that helped make the team better.

Michael Colubiale: We played like eight or nine straight after that with no bye week so we had to be locked in. We had to be playing for not only ourselves, but the brothers next to us.

Andrea Adelson: The players to me were really the key to what happened. They were the underdog story, not just from a “Group of Five” perspective but from a player perspective, right? You have a team filled with players that were overlooked their whole lives and a university that has been overlooked in the state of Florida their whole life, and a football program that has been overlooked by the entire country for their whole life except for maybe a Fiesta Bowl season with Blake Bortles. Starting to find this energy but also this chemistry that made them feel invincible. And you could see that every time they lined up. This team never felt like they were going to lose. That no matter what happened in a game, they were going to win.

Scott Frost: I remember the TV announcer at Maryland, the night before, he said, “How do you think this is going?” I said, “Honestly if we win this one, we’re going to go on a run.” That set the stage, that one. 
 I’ve talked to McKenzie about this. There were about five games that season that were one-score games that could have gone either way. To be honest, coaches don’t really win those games. Players win those games. Because in those moments a play has to be made to help win the game, and all coaches can do is set the stage and try to train and prepare the athletes to go make it happen.

From a defensive stop at SMU to Bam (Brandon Moore ’20) causing a fumble at Navy to Tre (Neal ’18) getting an interception at Memphis to Mike Hughes returning a kickoff against USF — the spirit that McKenzie and Shaquem had kind of permeated our team, and they were confident, and they went out and made all the plays that mattered at the right time.

Marc Daniels: That’s what made 2017 into 2018 so fun — those teams just found a way to win.

Scott Frost: The most nervous I was was SMU. I’ll be honest, I probably called my worst game of the year in that game. My wife was due on a Tuesday and that game was on that Saturday and I remember some of the supporters of the program were kind enough to me to have a plane waiting in case my first child was going to be born. I had been at the hospital half the week.

It got to the end of the game, and we were only up a score, and SMU had the ball and they had been moving the ball pretty decent against our defense. I remember looking out on the field and they were playing a song. Usher, “Yeah.”

Shaquem Griffin: So we played (NBA) 2K. And there’s something called the intimidator badge. And it was like, “What can we do to intimidate them?” I was like, shoot, we’re going to go out there dancing. They’re going to think we don’t care about fourth down. You’re going to go for it? We’re just going to stop y’all.

So we started dancing and you could see them looking at us. You could see the offensive line and the team looking like, “Oh, they are too hype.” It wasn’t (a feeling of) OK, we got to get a stop and we were all tense. It was like, loosen up because we’re going to give it to these guys. That was fun.

Scott Frost: I was nervous, biting my fingernails off trying to make sure we held onto the undefeated record. I went over to coach (Erik) Chinander and I was going to get him to have them stop dancing and he goes, “Let ’em be, coach, let ’em be.” Just like the rest of the games they got it done. That’s how confident our guys were.

Michael Colubiale: I remember being a part of a lot of big games in ±«°äčó’s history. The lead-up and the anticipation to that (2017) USF game was bar none the most must-win game we had to have, in my opinion, in UCF history. I don’t think we are sitting here today if we lose that game.

Our biggest rival. Conference championship implications on the line. At home, senior night. Not sure if it’s our last game in the Bounce House. Not sure what our coach is going to be doing (with head coach job openings). So winning that game, that was a grind.

Scott Frost: That (USF) game is so interesting because we were on the way to really winning big, I think. Offense was clicking early in the first half. We put up a bunch of points. They basically changed their defense and ran something that they had never run — put a bunch of DBs on the field to try to match our speed, went to kind of a 3-3 stacked type defense. We practiced against it, but we weren’t expecting to see it in that game, so all the lead-up to that game we hadn’t really prepared for it. And it took the guys a while to adjust. I give USF credit, they fought back into the game, and it became just an unbelievable contest and football game.

Marc Daniels: I do remember a couple times during a commercial break saying to myself, “Holy smokes, what am I watching here?”

Scott Frost: Got to the end and we scored on a little screen to Otis (Anderson) to take the lead and in my mind I kind of thought that’s it. And then we had a busted coverage, and they threw a long touchdown pass.

Marc Daniels: I remember turning to my color analyst Gary Parris before the kickoff to (Mike) Hughes and I said, “There’s still so much time for both teams to do things here.”

Scott Frost: I’m not sure I had completely recovered from the shock of them scoring fast. I had my head buried in a play sheet trying to figure out a set of four or five plays that I thought would get the ball down the field and get a field goal to win the thing. Jovan Dewitt was our special teams coach, and I’ve heard him tell this story about 20 times, but Mike came up to him right after USF scored, and I’m sure we all had stressful looks on our faces, and Mike told Jovan, “Don’t worry about it, I got ya.”

Marc Daniels: They had a kicker who could kick into the end zone. When they kicked it to Mike I was really surprised and when he made the second cut, I saw the angle and he’s gone. I’m watching Mike, and in the corner of my eye that’s where I saw cabanas, and that’s where I came up with the “reservation for six.” But I’m also able to see our sideline explode. And as Mike is jetting down the field, I could see Scott Frost with two hands up in the air almost like, “Good, because I didn’t want to start calling plays again.” Although I think he had faith in McKenzie. But it was an unbelievable moment.

Michael Colubiale: The place just erupted. If you were to define UCF in one play, I feel like it would be that single play.

Marc Daniels: And still you’re holding your breath because South Florida had the ball marching toward midfield with time left on the clock.

Andy Staples, On3 national college football host: I can tell you right now (what is the defining moment of the win streak). I was there. I could feel it underneath me as I’m in the press box on Black Friday when Mike Hughes runs back the kickoff and he’s not. supposed. to. score. Because if he just takes a knee at the 1, they kick a field goal and walk off the field. But instead he scores and they have to make it extra dramatic, and Richie Grant ’20 has to punch the ball loose and Shaquem Griffin has to jump on the fumble. And the place was bouncing. It was really bouncing. You could feel everybody jumping up and down. It was incredible.

I’ve covered a lot of really good football games. I was at the Vince Young Rose Bowl. I was at the Boise State Statue of Liberty. A Michigan State-Wisconsin game that ended with a Hail Mary in overtime. I’ve been at some of the best games in college football history. That’s one of them. UCF over USF on Black Friday in 2017 is one of the greatest college football games ever played.

Andrea Adelson: My brother-in-law was in town for Thanksgiving. And he’s from Michigan so he’s got preconceived ideas about, “What is UCF? Let’s just go to this game and see what this is all about.” So he went with my husband Eric, who is now a professor here at UCF. The two of them sat in the stands, and I was at the game covering as a reporter. 
 When we get in the car at the end of the game, UCF has won, my brother-in-law turns to me and he was like, “That was the most fun I’ve had a football game in quite some time.”

And remember at that time in 2017, UCF was ranked behind a three-loss team in the playoff ranking. Seven two-loss teams. I think they were like 15th going into that game. So people like my brother-in-law, who were from Michigan, didn’t think UCF belonged anywhere near the conversation. But after he watched that game, his mind changed a little bit. And that to me is just a great example of how UCF won people over in 2017.

Shaquem Griffin: When we beat USF, we knew who we were fitting to play.

Michael Colubiale: We knew what we had on the line. We had a New Year’s Day game on the line. We knew we were getting the best of them (Memphis). The whole coaching situation (Frost potentially accepting another head coaching job) was in our heads as well. I don’t know if that was a little bit of a distraction. But maybe, sort of kind of.

Marc Daniels: It’s the week of the Memphis championship game. And Scott had for the most part made up his mind. No one knew publicly where the story is going. [I saw him] outside of the student center. He was sitting in a golf cart. 
 And we just sat there talking. He opened up. I don’t know why. The stress had obviously piled up. And I asked a question, “Why are you going, if you’re going?” And he goes “Well, it’s kind of complicated. My dad always wanted to see me coach Nebraska. And could I not have my dad see that if the opportunity is there?”

Shaquem Griffin: We knew (Memphis) would do whatever it takes to win because we already beat them before. I know some people were like, “Oh, well, It’s hard to beat teams over and over again.” I feel like it’s hard to be disciplined and do the same thing over and over again. It’s not about who you’re playing. It’s about who is going to be firing on all cylinders and is going to handle their business and be disciplined to what they need to do. And we came in ready to do that. Everybody was dialed in. We are in the moment. This is now. I protect you. You protect me. I got you. You got me. We got each other and let’s finish this. That was the mentality.

Michael Colubiale: I just remember it being a shootout. I think that’s a good word for it. It was just a story of quarters, really. We’d beat them one quarter, they’d beat us the next. It was a fun game. We kind of showed why maybe we belonged in the conversation for the playoff I think because of how much talent was on the field that day.

McKenzie Milton: In double overtime we ran a triple option, and I got to about the 2-yard line, tried running over the corner and right when I hit the corner, I separated my throwing arm, like my shoulder. I was just thinking, “Oh, no.” We were on the 2-yard line, trying to score. So I think we handed the ball off one or two more times. Otis (Anderson) punched it in, and I’m on the sideline like, defense just get a stop here, just get a stop. Because I’m trying to throw and it feels like somebody is stabbing my shoulder.

Michael Colubiale: It was a storybook ending. Shaquem Griffin — a story himself — just makes a play at the end of the game.

Shaquem Griffin: I was just running at the quarterback. They didn’t bump me at all, and I was like I’ve got to get to him as fast as possible. That was probably the hardest I ever tried to run. I was like, I just have to put my hand in front of his eyes or something. I wasn’t even worried about the tackle. I just had to blind him some way, some how.

When we ran into each other, I’m looking back like, “Where’s the ball, what’s happening?” I see Tre Neal with his hands up.

McKenzie Milton: Tre Neal gets a pick. I didn’t even really see it. I was just like, “Thank God I don’t have to go back out for triple overtime.”

Shaquem Griffin: My eyeballs flooded with tears. I’m like, I’m not fitting to jump up right now. I just have to take all this emotion in. It hit me. It was hard work. And I felt it.

Michael Colubiale: I remember storming the field, celebrating with the guys, everyone is going crazy and then Frost running all over the place. He was in tears.

Scott Frost: Coming off that field after that win was so exciting, and I was so happy for the players. But I knew there was change coming.

McKenzie Milton: Nebraska is really the only place he would have left UCF (for). His dad was ailing at the time and that was the only place he was going to leave (for). It was just one of those things — their coach was getting fired and that was his home.

Marc Daniels: I’ve said this on my radio show, I’ve written about it — it may have been inevitable that Scott was going to coach Nebraska. I don’t know if he wanted it to be as quickly as it happened.

Shaquem Griffin: I always respect and commend coach Frost for his transparency and his honesty because he didn’t have to. I feel like he was open and vulnerable with us. You can’t be upset about something like that. You can’t be mad about it. We only respected him so much more because we saw how hard it was for him.

Michael Colubiale: Winning that game and then having to sit down and go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and listen to Frost spill out his heart and tell us how thankful he was for us and how hard the decision was, it was tough having to hear it. But at least he was able to let us all know. And we all knew how much he cared for us.

McKenzie Milton: I don’t think there was a dry eye in the team meeting room after the Memphis game. I came in there late because I was celebrating with my family and coach was sitting on the side and the whole team was crying. I broke down too because I knew we lost our coach. What we didn’t lose was the brotherhood within that. And we got to thank coach Frost for helping instill that.

Scott Frost: I was having a hard time holding it together because I cared so much for those guys. Tre’Quan Smith was pretty special to me. And I remember hugging him, and him putting his arm around me and said, “It’s alright, coach. We’ve both got journeys to take.”

That was a tough decision for all of us. Looking back, I think a lot of people would have done a lot of things different through that time. What’s tough about making decisions like that is the timing that they come. You have to make those decisions in the middle of the season when you’re tired, when you’re exhausted. All I’ll say is, I can’t really describe to you how emotional I was because I don’t think my heart really wanted to leave. UCF was a special place to me then and it always will be.

We made a decision that there’s no way we weren’t going to give the players the best opportunity to finish the season they started and the undefeated season. So the coaching staff, we wanted to come back (for the Peach Bowl) and help see it through. Because of our bond with the university and our players.

Marc Daniels: An incredibly uncomfortable month leading up to the game because you had a coaching staff that was at practice in the morning and then putting the colors of another program on to go recruit and the awkwardness of that.

Michael Colubiale: I remember going out to practice and (the new coaching staff of Josh) Heupel and (Glen) Elarbee and all these guys are lining up giving us high fives, and coach [Sean Beckton] and all these guys are on the field waiting for us and I’m like, “What world are we living in right now?”

Scott Frost: I remember one day we went out on the practice field and it was supposed to be a half-padded practice and some of the leaders on the team I think were acting out a little because they didn’t want to see us go. And the whole team showed up on the field without pads on.

Michael Colubiale: I think it was one of the first practices back after we had a little break. We see that we’re having a full-padded practice. I think we were all in on we’re not going to practice in full pads that first day back. Frost hasn’t been here. Why should we come out on day one and practice in full pads? Guys don’t like practicing in full pads, if you don’t know that.

So I remember we all came out in helmets only. Coaches have a practice plan all scripted out for what we’re wearing. We (were supposed to have) a full-tackle period. So we all come out in helmets, Frost is our coach but not our coach, just sitting there watching everyone roll out in helmets. He’s livid.

Scott Frost: It took a really good job by the players and the coaching staff to get everybody back focused on the task at hand. I actually turned the music off for the first time since I had been there, and we practiced in the silence. We had a heart-to-heart talk afterwards and cleared the air.

Michael Colubiale: We get done with practice. We take a knee. I feel like this is why we won the Peach Bowl.

Frost sits us down and kind of tells us what he’s been doing. He just got off a plane that morning. He flew to California. Flew back. I think he got back at 6 a.m. He rolls right up to the facility — he was there to help coach us.

You could see the red in his eyes. He was tired. He could have not been there, really. But he chose to be there. He didn’t miss a single practice when we were leading up to the Peach Bowl. It was like, “Listen, guys, I’m fully committed to you guys — I know I’m the coach somewhere else right now but until after this game, we’re going to win this game and we’re going to finish the story.” A lot of the guys, I know myself, we kind of all felt a little different after that speech.

And then he made us run some gassers. We’re like, “Alright, alright, OK. I guess so.”

Scott Frost: I think that day was really important to make sure that we could approach the game the right way and finish it the right way. Shaquem played a big part in getting us pointed in the right direction. Chequan Burkett ’16 played a big part in that, too. With everything changing the way it was, I don’t think the team could have gone and won without great leadership, and we had those type of players on the team.

Marc Daniels: (Scott Frost and I) did our final pregame interview before the Peach Bowl. And before I clicked record, I said, “What’s going to happen tomorrow?” And he said, “I don’t know. We might get blown out because I could have done better in the month to prepare these guys. But if they win — and I wouldn’t be shocked if they win — it will be because of guys like Shaquem and Adrian Killins ’21 and Otis and Chequan Burkett and McKenzie because they carried this team for the last month. If we win, it will be because of them.”

Scott Frost: I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know how motivated our team would be. I knew we were playing a team (Auburn) that had beaten Georgia and Alabama who were in the national championship game. And watching them on tape, they were a different animal than what we had played physically.

Shaquem Griffin: When we started to have interviews, I always felt like there was targeted questions of how can we stop them, and it wasn’t how are they going to stop us? At one point we sat back and said, “Why are they trying us, like this don’t mean nothing to us? Why are they trying us like we can’t stop them?” Oh this is the No. 1 line in the country. We don’t care.

We’re going to watch film just like they do. We’re going to play just like they do. Why are you not asking them how they are going to stop McKenzie and the pass? I’m not hearing those questions. At the end of the day, we’re going to play UCF football and hopefully they can keep up with it because it goes fast.

McKenzie Milton: I really didn’t practice much throwing until the week of the game and didn’t go fully live until the actual game. I just had some patches and tape and Icy Hot. 
 . It was frustrating but luckily my feet were still good, my legs were still good, so I was able to run around and get in a rhythm.

By no means did we play a perfect game. I think our defense played extremely well, but offensively it was one of our sub-par games, especially for me. But you just find a way. Chequan Burkett pick six for a fifth-year senior. Antwan Collier, true freshman, making a pick at the end. Guys just making timely plays when we needed to and that was our MO that year. We found a way in those close games.

Scott Frost: I don’t think there will ever be a team in college football history again that starts 0-12 and goes 13-0 in two seasons. Go undefeated in two seasons. It just doesn’t happen. There’s too much that has to change. Too much work that has to be done.

McKenzie Milton: My brother Pomi Milton — shout-out Pomi — he told me before the game, “Hey, after the game you gotta say, ‘Cancel the playoff.’ ” I was like, “Oooh, I like that.” So it was in the front of my mind. We had to handle business first and foremost. And I’m glad (then Director of Athletics) Danny White ran with it with the national championship so we were on point with that.

It (“Cancel the playoff”) was wholeheartedly serious — what else do you want us to do? We ran the table. We beat ranked opponents and you have us sitting at 12. There was disrespect the whole time. You got three-loss SEC teams who had mediocre play from the quarterbacks, and things like that. You look at our roster top to bottom, we had a D-line that was as good as anybody in the country. We had guys in the secondary that could play man coverage. We had a bunch of receivers that are still playing in the NFL. And a quarterback who could make some plays. 
 We truly believe we could have beat anybody in the country and would have beat anybody in the country if we had the opportunity to play them.

Andrea Adelson: That game meant a lot to the players because they needed to show, we’re good enough to beat an SEC team, we’re good enough even though, our head coach is leaving, to carry this forward into the next season.

This wasn’t the end of the road for the players, even though it was the end of the road for Scott Frost. To me, it felt almost like a beginning for the players because they knew this was an opportunity they had to seize. And, boy, did they seize that opportunity.

Andy Staples: That season probably did more for (UCF) than I can think for any season doing for any program. Maybe the 2006 for Boise State that ended with the Statue of Liberty play in the Fiesta Bowl. … Everybody knew after 2017 what UCF football is whether they lived in Orange County, Seminole County, Osceola County or whether they lived in the other Orange County in California. It made them a viable, national brand.

Andrea Adelson: I thought it was fabulous what Danny White did, saying, “We’re national champions.” Because, well, why not? How many other programs have self-declared a national championship? Go in Alabama’s media guide and start scrolling to see how many national championships they have versus how many they’ve actually won on the field. There’s a disparity there.

So the publicity that it brought to UCF was terrific but it also brought a backlash to UCF — so that headed into 2018 it wasn’t, “Hey, look at all these great players with this underdog story.” It was, “I can’t wait until those guys lose so they can shut up.” Watching that entire dynamic play out to me was completely fascinating because everybody loves an underdog until the underdog tells you how great they are and then they don’t love you anymore.

With 1:08 remaining in ±«°äčó’s Nov. 16, 2013, road football game at Temple, I realized I had taken the elevator from the press box too soon.

By this point, I had written my story of ±«°äčó’s football team losing and its Bowl Championship Series (BCS) dream crashing. I went downstairs at Lincoln Financial Field to soak up as much of the atmosphere as I could from the final moments of the game.

With the Knights trailing 36-29, I was standing in the tunnel as Blake Bortles rolled away from one defender, then hesitated and took a hit as he released the pass towards J.J. Worton. The receiver went full stretch, one arm held out. Somehow, he came down with the ball.

A security guard in a yellow jacket standing at the end of the tunnel turned and sprinted past me screaming at the top of his lungs. I started furiously typing a new version of the story into my phone. Then I hopped up into the stands to watch the rest of the game play out.

The pass to Rannell Hall. The field goal. The win. (I saw it all.)

I jumped back down into the tunnel and eventually got the color (for my story) I was looking for.

My lede from that night was fitting considering where I had seen the drama unfold: “The man who had soared to keep UCF’s dream season alive could not hold back tears as he walked through the tunnel at Lincoln Financial Field.”

If I close my eyes, I can still feel the adrenaline of many of those deadlines — the shaky fingers over a keyboard after the Knights did something special to keep the dreams of a BCS bowl alive. Panicked typing in Happy Valley, Memphis, Louisville, Philadelphia, Orlando and Dallas.

How many ledes had I re-written? A few, for sure. And yet, even as those crazy endings unfolded — Will Stanback’s forced fumble in Memphis, Bortles’ floated pass to Jeff Godfrey in Louisville, Brandon Alexander’s tipped pass against Houston, Worton’s full-stretch snag in Philly — something felt right about it all.

This was supposed to happen.

I arrived in Orlando, Florida the year prior, leaving my hometown newspaper to cover a school I knew more as Central Florida than UCF. I didn’t make the change just to cover George O’Leary’s football team. As I tried to decipher the right next step in my career and did research on UCF, I learned about a school I thought could matter on a national landscape. UCF was set to move from Conference USA to the Big East, the student population was exploding, the campus expanding. There was a real story to tell here, I thought. One that went beyond sports. It was about college realignment — the old powers versus a new school trying to shove its way into the conversation.

I had no idea.

Over the next year the scope of that story would change. The Big East folded. The American Athletic Conference was born. The path to a power conference narrowed. And yet UCF still seemed on the verge of something. I felt it from the first time I sat in the press box at the Bounce House.

The first game I covered was a 40-20 win against East Carolina in 2012. I watched Bortles throw for 269 yards and a score and run for another 62 yards and a touchdown. The next week it was an overtime win over Southern Miss and Bortles threw for 272 yards and a couple more scores. You could tell the potential here was off the charts. As that season unfolded, the sense got stronger. Not just about Bortles, but about something brewing in this team. And as the pages turned to the 2013 season, it felt like the football team could serve as a microcosm about the story the school was trying to sell:

“Hey, look at us. We can be much more than you think. We already are.”

The inkling that the season might have something special in store started to turn to alarm bells in Happy Valley. No offense, of course, to Akron șŁœÇֱȄ or FIU (Florida International șŁœÇֱȄ), but those wins to start the season were expected. Rolling up to Penn State was a real marker for the team.

I felt like that game was my first real college football experience. The atmosphere was insane — 92,855 people all dressed in white. As the sun went down, the crowd seemed to get louder. What stuck with me was that UCF was clearly the better team, but Penn State pushed itself back into the game. UCF having to hold on to win by three sort of set the tone for the season — nothing was going to come easy, nothing was going to be clean.

The way that game went down — the key defensive stops needed, an important third-down conversion to keep the game-killing drive alive — was also vital for the team. UCF had been so close to a marquee win so many times under George O’Leary (former UCF head football coach). This win gave belief and showed they could gut it out. It took character.

I remember O’Leary didn’t love the way I phrased a question in the postgame press conference, but he knew it was one of those wins that could change things.

“Right now, with the stage of the program and where we’re at, we can build on a win like this,” he says.

That win set up such a huge week ahead of the South Carolina game. It would feature two players that ended up being in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft: Bortles and Jadeveon Clowney. It was also the first time in my career I was covering a team that was the talk of the sports landscape in the market.

The game was moved to ABC Network. Tailgating hours got extended. Steve Spurrier was coming, which always added another layer at the Orlando Sentinel. The hype was there.

The game didn’t go ±«°äčó’s way. The Knights led at halftime, but probably should’ve had a bigger advantage. They ended up falling short. In the moment, it felt like a missed opportunity. Really, I think it was an indicator that UCF was right there with one of the better teams in the country at the time.

What’s funny is it wasn’t the loss that week that nearly cost UCF the special season, it was the hangover from South Carolina. The Liberty Bowl was a decidedly different atmosphere than Happy Valley or a packed Bounce House (formally known as FBC Mortgage Stadium at UCF). But if people were paying attention, they saw the beginnings of something happening there with the Tigers. UCF wasn’t ready for it. Everyone could see it was a trap game, and yet UCF walked right into the trap.

When I look back on the season, that was the only game I felt like UCF got lucky.

The Knights were bad. Memphis was better. But sometimes fate intervenes. In this case, it was the hit from Stanback on the kickoff. I remember hearing the crowd gasp when it happened, and at first no one could tell that the ball came out and that UCF scored. I remember looking around and asking what was going on. “Did he fumble? Did he fumble?!”

And then I realized I had a new story to write. Two touchdowns in nine seconds. A 17-10 deficit flipped into a 24-17 win. Somewhere on a thumb drive in one of my desk drawers is a copy of the “Knights Lose” version of the Memphis game.

The season had plenty more drama left and plenty of other alternate stories that were never published.

The next week was Louisville. Man, what a four-week stretch of football. Of all the regular-season games, this one remains the freshest in my memory. It was such a great game. The crowd was incredible. The Friday night primetime  slot made it feel special. By this point, the excitement about covering a potentially important season was taking hold. Everyone knew what a win on the road at a top 10 Louisville team would mean: a national ranking; a path to a BCS game. It was Teddy Bridgewater versus Bortles. But even then, I don’t think people believed UCF had a chance.

There are two plays that stick out to me so clearly. One is how the game ended. The other? The bobbled punt snap midway through the third quarter. As a reporter, you don’t really have rooting interests in a game, but that doesn’t mean you’re immune to the normal human emotions of the drama you’re watching unfold. I remember that feeling in the pit of my stomach as the return went the other way. The idea of covering a BCS bowl was fading. The crowd was going nuts. You could feel the wave of momentum wash over the stadium.

Here are the two texts I sent my wife during the game. The first was right after that fumbled punt.

“This could get ugly.”

The second was 
 a bit later in the game.

“Holy. Crap.”

There were haymakers thrown back and forth. A 21-point third-quarter deficit erased. And then there was that last drive. Seventy-five yards. Two big throws to Josh Reese. And then that final Bortles pass – Hall’s fingertip away from a different result.

What a game.

But this is how the whole 2013 season went. Four of the next six games would be decided by five points or less. I’m still benefiting from the amount of deadline work I got in 2013.

Amidst all the heroic moments on offense, it’s easy to forget the defensive play that saved the season. Houston. Fourth and goal from the seven-yard line with 20 seconds left. A freshman quarterback dropping back. A pass in the hands of a receiver. Alexander doing just enough to deflect it and win the game.

The next week at Temple was Worton’s all-time catch, which landed him an ESPY nomination. It’s easy to forget, too, that UCF needed a big play in the fourth quarter to beat a bad USF team that year. A 51-yard touchdown pass from Bortles to Breshad Perriman won that game, 23-20.

And then there was my favorite non-football memory of the season: asking UCF players what “wintry mix” meant ahead of a game in an ice storm at SMU (Southern Methodist șŁœÇֱȄ). Sadly, that video has been lost somewhere in the Orlando Sentinel’s archives. That game was no sure thing, either. UCF had already clinched a BCS bowl on Thursday night, which didn’t help, I’m sure, but it took multiple defensive stands in the fourth quarter to get out of Dallas with a 17-13 win.

So here we are, nearly 1,800 words into this piece, and I’m finally getting around to the game that really, truly introduced UCF to the general college football population. It’s funny how much goes into it — the ups and downs, the near-misses, the “almosts” along the way — and in the end it’s just parts of the stories that are remembered.

I remember arriving in Glendale, Arizona, and participating in the early media availabilities and feeling like UCF was still underappreciated. It made me question myself. Maybe I was too close to this team. Maybe those one-score results were an indication that this team wasn’t as good as its record. In the press box on the night of the game, the Orlando Sentinel’s longtime columnist Mike Bianchi and I traded predictions. I couldn’t decide what was going to happen.

I definitely did not predict what would take place.

It’s funny watching that game now. I don’t really remember it feeling so close in the first half. I felt like UCF was in control.

One thing that stands out about the 2014 Fiesta Bowl was that it highlighted the job the late Charlie Taaffe did as offensive coordinator that season. His use of the run-pass option was so good. Clearly, he had found and exploited a weakness he saw on tape. And even as Bortles struggled early in the game, UCF was able to keep Baylor off balance enough to stay in it.

When Bortles came alive in the second half — he ended up throwing for 301 yards and accounting for four touchdowns — the Knights took control. The defense, too, earned some respect. It was a match-up between the high-flying, record-setting Baylor offense and O’Leary’s old-school approach. With Tyson Summers calling the plays, UCF held its own.

It was a deserved win. And it changed minds about what the ceiling looked like for UCF.

Seven wins by seven points or fewer. A marquee victory in a BCS game. Bortles going No. 3 overall in the NFL Draft a few months later. It was such a fun season to cover. A decade later, it’s incredible to see how much more the program went through and achieved before finally getting entry to the Big 12 Conference. I know a lot of people will point to Scott Frost’s undefeated season as ±«°äčó’s big moment in the spotlight, but I still think it was 2013 that started it all.

The yellowed newspapers from that season sit in my office still. It’s a bit weird that they look as old as they do, that it’s been a decade since ±«°äčó’s first magical ride. It’s probably time to find a spot on the wall for some of them.

Paul Tenorio served as the Orlando Sentinel’s beat writer for UCF from 2012-14. He currently is a senior writer for The Athletic who covers soccer and has previously written for the Washington Post, FourFourTwo, ESPN and MLSsoccer.com.

This feature was originally published Oct. 12, 2022 in the lead up to the UCF football team’s sixth space game. It is included in the 12 for XII series because it captures the role space and space research has played in the university’s story. The seventh installment of the annual Space Game will be held on Nov. 11, 2023, when UCF hosts Oklahoma State.

It’s Oct. 4, 2022 — less than 10 days away from the UCF football team’s Space Game, and although the order was placed back in March, the Knights’ uniforms have yet to arrive.

“Every day I wake up with anxiety,” says Brad Anderson, director of equipment operations. “Especially with how much this fan base, the players, the coaching staff, the community all love the Space Game — it can’t not łóČč±è±è±đČÔ.”

Twenty-four hours later, the uniforms start to arrive and a collective sigh of relief can be felt throughout the UCF Athletics Association (UCFAA) administration buildings; from the equipment room to the AD’s office to the cubicles that house the #brand designers who created the uniforms and the brand experience staff charged with the in-stadium experience.

So what exactly does it take to pull off the Space Game every year?

A lot of planning and a little bit of stardust.

More Than a Gimmick

Picture this.

The UCF football team just thumped Georgia Tech, 27-10. Thousands of fans are still glued to their seats in FBC Mortgage Stadium. Then, along the horizon in the eastern evening sky, it appears.

An orange flare — the unmistakable streak of the SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink darting upward and out of the atmosphere.

The PA cues up Elton John’s 1972 hit “Rocket Man.” Everyone starts singing along.

There’s no denying it. This is SpaceU.

With the university’s origin directly tied to supporting the space program in the 1960s, it’s easy to understand why this week’s Space Game means so much to the university, the athletics program and its fans.

±«°äčó’s win against Temple on October 13, 2022 marked the sixth installment of the game and the fifth anniversary of the first full SpaceU uniform — which went on to win the 2018 Uniform of the Year.

Along the way, the Knights have picked up more uniform accolades (the 2019 Helmet of the Year and 2021 Uniform of the Year) and space-inspired games and gear have now spread across all Knights’ teams. Coincidentally space travel has become cool again, and other schools are following suit with their own takes on the initiative.

Perhaps, most importantly, UCF has continued its strong tradition of conducting important space research — from producing its own simulated Martian soil to more than a dozen projects aimed at getting people back to the moon safely, many of which directly support NASA’s Artemis program.

It seems that in a timespan faster than the speed of light, the Space Game has become not only a fan favorite, but a nationally relevant event.

“We’ve tried to stay as authentic as possible, and I think that’s why this game has grown to be as popular as it has,” says Jimmy Skiles ’06, senior executive associate athletics director. “We aren’t using space as a gimmick or a ‘cool’ theme. This is ±«°äčó’s story. And every year we’re getting better at telling it.”

All-in On Outer Space

Although the , the concept for the game was first discussed in 2014 when Skiles re-joined the UCFAA as assistant athletic director for fan development. He says he batted around the idea with some of his creative and brand experience colleagues, but they felt the timing wasn’t quite right.

That changed in 2016 when a new uniform line was unveiled, and excitement renewed around UCF football with the hiring of Scott Frost as head coach.

“It’s a unique part of the UCF story that it was too good of an opportunity not to use the athletics platform to amplify,” Skiles says.

±«°äčó’s proximity to the Space Coast and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has allowed the university to cultivate and provide talent for Central Florida and the growing U.S. space program for decades. Nearly 30% of Kennedy Space Center employees graduated from UCF, which has long been the top supplier of aerospace and defense graduates in the nation.

You can see the rings of Saturn and more from the on campus. Two UCF grads have gone on to become astronauts. We have a space podcast. The 50-yard line at the football stadium lines up on the same latitude as NASA’s historical Launch Complex 39A by design. The Knights’ throwback mascot, — which appeared on the 1969 student handbook — is an orange-astronaut hybrid.

Many of ±«°äčó’s faculty and researchers are NASA veterans and hail from some of the biggest, most important programs in U.S. space history. Seventeen UCF researchers have asteroids named after them, and UCF even has a planet named in its honor.

“Our involvement in space exploration has rocketed along since NASA provided our very first research grant. We are tremendously proud of the world-class space research carried out here — missions to the moon and the outer planets, advancing the rapidly developing space industry, designing new space instrumentation and communication, and much more,” says Michael D. Johnson, provost and vice president of academic affairs. “The annual Space Game celebrates UCF’s distinctive beginning and our simultaneously expanding prominence in space exploration and in athletics. This game reminds us that we have much to celebrate and that the best is yet to come.”

Stellar Style

A key component to the uniqueness of this annual celebration is the team’s uniforms — the culmination of nearly a year’s worth of work behind the scenes from several different departments that allows the uniforms to shine.

“I think the thing that probably would surprise most people is that we do the design work in-house,” says Emma Schneider, who served as director of #Brand design and created the 2021 and 2022 uniforms. “That’s one of the things that make it really special. It’s been my favorite project to work on, far and away. I just love seeing the whole thing start from this one concept and explode to touch every creative department within UCF, and then all the graphics and merchandising roll out that follows. As a designer, it’s the project that has everything in it and that makes it really rewarding.”

In previous years, the theme has been inspired by various milestones: the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. The space shuttle. The 2022 uniforms are a nod to deep space and exoplanets. Integral to the design is exoplanet UCF 1.01, a discovery made 10 years ago by UCF alumni Kevin Stevenson ’12PhD and Nate Lust ’07 ’14PhD along with UCF Pegasus Professor Joseph Harrington.

#Content designer Josh Brdicko is originally from Iowa and has had a creative drive for as long as he can remember. When his dad brought home NCAA Football 06 one day, Brdricko and his twin brother spent the first two hours “playing” the video game by creating teams — color schemes, jersey designs, logos.

He was drawn to UCF when he saw the first SpaceU uniform in 2018. He says it was a professional goal to work with the brand and he got to live out that dream after getting hired in 2021 and collaborating this year with Schneider.

“The Space Game was a big part that made me excited to work at UCF as opposed to the other Florida schools,” Brdicko says.

Shortly after last year’s Space Game, Brdicko and Schneider, along with #content designer Sahid Alpizar (who worked with UCFAA from 2019–22), began their research for this year’s uniforms. Schneider says she felt a lot of pride in reclaiming the Uniform of the Year award last year and felt a responsibility to knock it out of the park again.

In December they presented their ideas to leadership and Anderson, who ensures the uniforms are compliant from a rules and regulations standpoint.

“Brad is just as important as us in executing the design because he knows what we can do,” Brdicko says.

“We had one idea, and he was like, ‘That’s illegal. We can’t do that,’ ” Schneider interjects with a laugh. “The stuff we design is just made in Photoshop. It takes a few clicks. He’s got to figure out how to actually make it in real life. I have no idea how he does it.”

Adds Brdicko: “The collaboration with all the departments is huge in executing this.”

From Photoshop to the Field

While there is always a lot of hype surrounding the unveiling of the Space Game uniforms, they don’t just appear game-ready. That’s where Anderson comes in.

In addition to Nike, UCF employs four different vendors to create name plates, patches, facemasks and helmet decals resulting in the finished product. Anderson is in charge of coordinating all of the moving parts, and he says it’s always a photo finish to game day.

Once the jerseys are completed and in ±«°äčó’s possession, that’s when Anderson and his equipment operations team of CJ Bates and Kenny Yerves hunkers down.

Jerseys are hung in number order. The trio meticulously checks that each name is spelled correctly. Ensure duplicate names — like Baker and Lee — have the correct first initial incorporated. Each number is placed correctly. No numbers — like 8, for instance — are flipped. Numbers match on the front, back and sleeves.

On repeat for more than 120 jerseys.

Anderson will then go through a second time on his own through every single jersey to review the checklist again before they’re paired with their helmets and stocked in the locker room.

“We’re pulling 16-17-hour days, four days a week throughout the season,” Anderson says. “People get excited when they see the finished product, but it didn’t just appear. It took 20 people’s vision and hard work coming to life to get it in that player’s locker and onto the field. So seeing the team’s and fans’ reactions to the uniform is a very good moment of appreciation and satisfaction for all the work that went into it.”

That work is further rewarded by in-depth storytelling that artfully shows off every meticulous detail. The uniforms are highlighted in photo and video shoots set against incredible backdrops including the , and .

“We set a standard and expectation in the roll-out of the first full uniform in 2018 that we’ve continued to build on every year,” says Eric DeSalvo ’09, associate athletics director of #Content. “The uniforms are incredible on their own, but we wouldn’t be doing them or the team who produced them justice unless we told the story. And the story is all in the details.”

Into Orbit

Just like the uniforms, the merchandise and retail collections also are coordinated nearly a year in advance to hit the shelves in time for the game the following season.

“What’s great about it is now it’s not just Nike making the product. Nike may be the only one who has the insight of what the uniforms are going to look like, but now we have other partners, your FloGrowns, that have jumped in with the Citronaut and Space Game,” Skiles says. “We’re always pushing for more Citronaut product to be readily available year-round.”

With the uniforms and merchandise coordinated, Skiles then turns his attention to the in-game experience. The brand experience and video production team are challenged to find ways to make the Space Game feel different from any other game.

“We try to have a fully immersive experience — from the songs the Marching Knights play to the lighting in the tunnel for the players, to the video board’s visuals,” Skiles says.

As the Space Game continues to evolve, Skiles says the department is invested in continuing to keep telling the stories of what UCF students, faculty and alums are doing in space.

After the 2018 matchup against Temple, he vividly remembers hoping that the broadcast inspired the next generation of astronauts, engineers and researchers to dream of attending UCF.

“That’s my hope with the Space Game — that not only does it inspire more people to check out UCF and the SpaceU brand, but also attracts the best quality students,” Skiles says. “It’s not just about cool uniforms to get football recruits here. It’s about telling the story of what our people have already accomplished and are working on for the future. And hopefully inspire future students across the world to say: ‘SpaceU — that’s where I want to go.’”

In February 2021, Terry Mohajir was introduced as ±«°äčó’s vice president and director of athletics. Seven months later the Big 12 Conference issued an invitation to UCF to join its league. This is Mohajir’s take on the events of those months — and how the conference question factored into his early days on the job.

There’s no doubt the conference situation was on the radar from the very beginning. That’s one of the things I thought was attractive about this job. I thought UCF was poised to be the next school up to join the club. Being part of the Autonomy 5 is what we were trying to do, what everyone wants to do. I think for the last few years the alumni base and fan base have believed UCF could participate at that level. It came up during the interview process, and I told President (Alexander N.) Cartwright, “I’ve been through conference realignment six times. I would be surprised if you could find anybody that has been through the process as much as I have.” Not only that, but I’d also been through realignment twice before in the Big 12.

Usually, when you get hired, you have a little bit of time to get settled. But I had to hire a football coach. Gus (Malzahn) and I talked about it (potential realignment). But you’ve got to be careful when you hire coaches not to overpromise. I told him I would work hard at it, and he knew I would. But at that point, we were already in a pretty good conference and we needed to figure out how to get back on top.

After we hired Gus I immediately started looking at conference realignment. We kept hearing things that suggested the conference landscape might change, even if we did not know when it might be. I talked to a couple of commissioners. I felt like our next biggest priority was to generate more revenue, but also we had to think about our national narrative so we would be attractive if there was another change.

I reached out to a lot of people to let them know we were open to the idea and we were ready. I talked to President Cartwright about the idea of constantly having this drip, drip, drip in the national media — making sure we were top of mind. And the president agreed it was a good strategy. He’s been an incredible partner for UCF Athletics. The trustees are crazy about our meteoric rise — they want to help us be nationally competitive and compete with the top teams in this state.

We hired an architect to do some conceptual drawings because we understood the role facilities could play in any potential realignment. We modified some of the renderings of the football campus, and at my first Board (of Trustees) meeting I was allowed to present . It was about telling people that we had a unique opportunity to build something that would be second to none. We were ready to take that next step. I told the president that once we released the renderings people would have a lot of ideas and questions, and we just had to stay the course.

After the announcement in July 2021 about Texas, Oklahoma and the SEC, you start looking at dominos. The Big 12 was very cautious about any interference through contacting schools. I knew about that from previous experience — so we reached out to them and when the time was right they reached back to us. The fact we made contact first was good. The day it happened with Texas and Oklahoma I reached out to a couple of commissioners. We didn’t wait. I didn’t want it to get cold, and it was hot at that time.

I was calling all the national media about our facilities plan and trying to get their take. I made a lot of calls and it made national news. I had my list of media people I knew and when I’d drive home I’d call this person and this person and this person. I had that call list for about three weeks. It gave us a real opportunity to talk about who we are. The announcement of having Gus on board had a big impact as well. He’d been in the SEC, played for a national championship as a head coach, won a national championship as a coordinator.

At the same time, you get into the mode of ‘What do we have to do to prepare?’ You pull your team together, a very intimate group of people. Then we went into action.

UCF had laid some groundwork five years earlier by preparing some materials for the prospect of moving to another conference, so we had a solid foundation to work with. Plus, UCF had accomplished a lot during those five years, so our brand had a lot to offer. A lot of it has to do with timing. At that time (five years ago) I don’t think the Big 12 was particularly interested in expansion. This time they had an interest in our market and had done a lot of research on our market. We became a national fit as they looked for some viewership to fill the void left by Texas and Oklahoma.

A week or so before Labor Day, the Big 12 reached out and wanted to have a conversation. Bob Bowlsby flew to Orlando and met at my house with me, Alex Cartwright and (Board of Trustees chair) Alex Martins. We had just moved in so there was stuff all over the place and painting going on, but we didn’t have much choice because we couldn’t really go out in the community for lunch. I had family in town because of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in Daytona. Both my brothers were here as well as maybe five of my nephews, who were current students at Big 12 institutions. I knew Bob was coming so I just told my wife, Julie, “You’ve got to find a way to shoo everybody out of the house on Sunday.” So no one knew they came.

That Sunday (Aug. 29) we spent two or three hours with Bob. We knew Bob wanted to meet, but we were not sure exactly what was going to happen. Was it fact-finding and he had questions for us to learn more about us? Were there some initiatives we needed to handle? We were invited to apply for membership that day — and we were very excited.

That was when we had a discussion about some of the logistics of the move. We talked about other schools coming in. We weren’t just a shoo-in — we had to make a valid pitch and obviously we did. They were looking at other schools and they had some priorities. You had travel partners some of the schools were concerned about, but it played very well.

What was the buy-in going to be (to join the Big 12)? Coming off COVID-19, we were just trying to pay our bills. But we had some buy-out money from our previous coach and athletic director. We had both buy-in and buy-out expenses. We had to look at The American by-laws to make sure we knew when payments were due. There were a lot of logistical things to work through. You’re doing it by yourself to start because you can’t really talk about this all over the office. For four or five days I knew this was going to happen, but I didn’t bring anybody in. We had another conversation with Bob Bowlsby about some contractual issues and worked those out. Then one by one we started bringing our own staff members in to let them know.

By the time we played Boise State (Sept. 2) I knew we were going to be in. By then there were a lot of rumors in the media. That may be why I was so emotional at that game considering we got down 21-0. When we got the late interception, I was just happy because I knew we were going to win and I knew we were going to announce it the next week before we played Bethune-Cookman (Sept. 11).

The day it all happened (Sept. 10) there were several governance steps you go through. Our board approving, their board approving, the letter you send to The American. I was more worried about logistics than being caught up in the moment. But once our board approved it, I was pumped up.

I was in the league when we went from the Big Eight to the Big 12 (announced February 1994). I was in the league when Texas A&M, Colorado, Nebraska and Missouri all left (2011 and 2012) and TCU and West Virginia (2012 and 2013) came in. So I remember some of the conversations involved with all that.

The Big 12 couldn’t have taken us in 2022 because it was too early. So we were shooting for July 1, 2023, all along — and we had to work out financials with The American. Creating relationships in a new league is huge — and so I can’t thank Bob Bowlsby and Brett Yormark enough for including us in the Big 12 meetings all along. We couldn’t vote (in the Big 12), but we had a voice and we had input. We could learn the room — that’s been the best part of the transition for me. Now we are back to being part of the governance and that’s important because this is such a volatile time in college athletics.

I think the current (Big 12) ADs believe we can compete at a high level coming in. I’ve had a lot of those conversations. They don’t have to say that, but I believe they’re sincere. I think they believe that this is a lot more than just keeping the league together—they’re excited about what all the new schools can bring.

It’s been a lot of work – but rewarding, challenging work. I don’t think people realize how complicated the transition is because of where the Big 12 is competitively.

The four parallel tracks I’ve talked about are real things. We are trying to increase our operating capital and keep our best personnel. Then there are facility and maintenance costs that are going up – and then the fourth thing is recruiting, which is . We’re not just competing with the Big 12, we’re competing with Florida, Florida State and Miami as well.

As we transition into the league it’s going to be fun. You’re going to see why those other schools have been successful — because they’ve been competing for 100 years. We’re going to play a school in men’s basketball (Kansas) that, in essence, invented basketball. We’re playing against schools that have had multiple Heisman Trophy winners and national coaches of the years — and they have unbelievable resources.

Some of the places we will go are great college towns with great fans. A lot of those schools’ facilities are second to none and we’ve got to catch up to that. Our four parallel tracks are connected with an ‘and.’ Not an ‘or’ — and we’ve got to jump from one track to the next because they all are equally important.

No matter how much money you have, talent acquisition is key and then you have to develop that talent. That’s how you win. That’s the message to our coaches — you have to be really diligent in evaluation and recruitment and development. If you do those things very well you can beat anybody.

We need to pay homage to all the people who got us to this place. There was a foundation already being built before we got here.

We have all kinds of really cool opportunities to be the first to do things in the Big 12. What can we do that hasn’t been done before?

We’re starting from scratch a little bit. It’s a new beginning.

This is the start of the rest of our athletics lives.

Pop quiz: Name the five youngest universities among the current Power 5 conferences.

All before the invention of bubble gum, you’ve got UCLA in 1919, Texas Tech in 1923, Miami in 1925 and Houston in 1927.

By far and away the youngest is UCF, founded in 1963. Initially named Florida Technological șŁœÇֱȄ, it was established to provide a pipeline of talent for the United States space program at nearby Cape Canaveral.

It’s impossible to appreciate the journey of UCF Athletics without a timeline that exhibits the youth of the institution and the manner in which the athletics program has skyrocketed to success.

• In 1963 UCF was founded.
• In 1968 the first classes were held.
• In 1969 the first varsity athletic event was held — a men’s basketball game at Massey Institute in Jacksonville. And several other sports began competition in the 1970s.
• Ten years later, in 1979, UCF played football for the first time at the Division III level with no scholarships in its first three years. Its first game was held in a muddy cow pasture.
• In 1984-85, the majority of UCF’s sports programs were playing at the Division I level.
• Four decades of a rollercoaster ride — including the football team’s first FBS game (the current highest Division I level) in 1996 — led to national notoriety
• On July 1, 2023, UCF begins an exciting new chapter as one of four schools to join the Big 12 Conference.

“A lot of the national powers right now were playing (football) at the turn of the 20th century. 
 And to understand what you’ve got to make up in that time, it’s generations of donors, it’s generations of parents taking their kids to games, it’s generations of players growing up watching the team play and say, ‘I would give anything to play for that team,” says Andy Staples, senior writer for The Athletic

“UCF, without the advantage of decades and generations of all this, has put itself in position to be very competitive in its new league,” Staples says.

Sunshine State Conference (1975-84)

UCF’s first conference affiliation was with the Sunshine State Conference, starting in 1975. The Knights were a charter member of the Division II league which included Biscayne College (now St. Thomas șŁœÇֱȄ), Eckerd, Florida Southern, Rollins and Saint Leo.

Following the 1983-84 season, UCF withdrew from the Sunshine State Conference and moved to the NCAA Division I level in the majority of its programs. The Knights competed as an independent until 1990.

Highlight of the Sunshine State Era: UCF won six Sunshine State championships in men’s basketball, three in men’s tennis, two in men’s golf and one in baseball.

New South Women’s Athletic Conference (1986-90, Women’s Only)

UCF was a charter member of the New South Women’s Athletic Conference, the forerunner of the Atlantic Sun. The women’s cross country, basketball, golf, tennis and volleyball teams competed in the conference. During UCF’s stint in the league, Florida A&M, FIU, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Mercer and Stetson were members.

Highlight of the NSWAC Era: UCF women’s soccer’s Michelle Akers ’89 helped lead the Knights to the 1987 NCAA Final Four and was honored with collegiate soccer’s top honor, the Hermann Trophy, a year later. Akers went on to be recognized as the FIFA Women’s Player of the Century after a longstanding and decorated career with the U.S. Women’s National Team.

American South Conference (1990-91)

In 1990, the Knights joined the American South Conference, its first Division I league affiliation for all sports except football. UCF spent one campaign in the league which also featured Arkansas State, Lamar, Louisiana Tech, New Orleans, Texas-Pan American and Southwestern Louisiana.

Highlight of the American South era: The American South Conference provided a home for the first time for both the men’s and women’s programs at UCF.

Sun Belt Conference (1991-92)

Following the 1990-91 academic year, the American South merged with the Sun Belt (which retained its name), forming an 11-institution league. UCF competed in the league for just one year against the likes of Arkansas-Little Rock, Arkansas State, Jacksonville, Lamar, Louisiana Tech, New Orleans, South Alabama, Louisiana, Texas Rio Grande Valley and Western Kentucky.

Highlight of Sun Belt era: UCF was crowned with the women’s golf title thanks in part to individual champion Liz Earley ’92, who won the individual title in a sudden-death playoff. Jannet and Mike Shumaker were recognized with the Coach of the Year award.

Atlantic Sun Conference (1992-05)

UCF joined the Atlantic Sun (then known as the Trans America Athletic Conference) in 1992. During UCF’s tenure in the league, membership changes occurred frequently. Including UCF, 16 institutions were part of the conference since 1992 — including ±«°äčó’s biggest rival at the time, Stetson, located just up the road in DeLand.

UCF was extremely successful in the ASUN — winning nine league titles in women’s soccer, eight each in baseball and women’s outdoor track and field, seven in volleyball, five in women’s tennis, four in men’s basketball, three each in men’s soccer, men’s golf, women’s golf and men’s tennis, two in women’s basketball, one in softball (who fielded its first team in 2002).

Highlight of the ASUN era: The 2001 baseball team (pictured below) that climbed to its highest national ranking in program history (No. 7, Baseball America) and earned the top seed in the NCAA Columbia Regional. From 2000-02, the Knights dominated the league with a combined record of 67-17 against ASUN opponents.

Milestone: Knights Head to FBS (1996)

Although the football team remained independent from conference affiliation until 2002, quite likely the biggest move in UCF Athletics history came in 1996 when the football team first began competing at the NCAA FBS level. Below are excerpts from the April 1993 press release announcing that jump (at that time UCF had only been playing football for 14 seasons). Many of the same sentiments still ring true for ±«°äčó’s transition to the Big 12:

The șŁœÇֱȄ will upgrade its football program to the NCAA Division I-A level beginning with the 1996 season, President John C. Hitt announced today.

“Just as a great city needs a great university, a big-league city like Orlando should have a big-league college football program,” Hitt said in making the announcement at the Florida Citrus Bowl, UCF’s home field. 


“We expect to reap a number of benefits by making the move to major college football,” Hitt said. “Historically, many elements of the community first become involved with a university through quality intercollegiate athletic programs and then expand that involvement into other areas of the university.”

“In addition to increased revenues, the elevation of the football program is expected to result in greater national visibility for the university and Central Florida, increased alumni and donor activity, increased interest and camaraderie among the student body, and easier recruitment of student-athletes and students in general, the president said. Local merchants should also benefit financially through increased fan support at UCF athletic events and therefore the support of the business community, including the major attractions, should increase dramatically,” he said.

“This change isn’t something that will just happen; we will have to earn it,” Hitt said. “One of key requirements in moving up to Division I-A is for us to reach an average attendance of 17,000 per game prior to 1996. For this to happen, we will need support from all of UCF’s friends, from the student body and the campus community to alumni, community leaders and business leaders throughout Central Florida.”

This was also the era of Daunte Culpepper, a Central Florida standout out of Ocala Vanguard High School, who put UCF on the map nationally (literally — in 1998, the Knights made their first national television appearance on ESPN against Purdue). Culpepper finished his career as the Knights’ first NFL first-round draft pick.

“Daunte Culpepper helped UCF become a bigger thing than it had been because it was just getting into the FBS at the time, coming out of I-AA,” Staples says. “It made people sit up and take notice and then Daunte goes to the NFL and has this long, productive pro career as well. Now you’re thinking, ‘OK this is a program that can produce that kind of player, that can nurture that kind of player, get them to the NFL and then they can be successful in the NFL.’ ”

Mid-American Conference (2002-04, Football Only)

After 24 seasons as a football independent, UCF joined the Mid-American Conference in 2002 as a football-only member. While it may not have made sense geographically to be playing teams like Kent State, Toledo and Western Michigan as conference opponents, options for joining a league were slim and it provided UCF stability and reliability in its scheduling.

Conference USA (2005-12)

UCF became an all-sports member of Conference USA in 2005 and advanced to the inaugural football championship that same year. It was a period of transition for CUSA, with Marshall, Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UTEP also joining the league in 2005.

The UCF men’s basketball team made immediate strides on the court in a competitive league, finishing second during the 2006-07 regular season and saw Kirk Speraw named conference coach of the year. ±«°äčó’s Jermaine Taylor was also a bright spot for the Knights from 2005-09. He was chosen as the conference’s Player of the Year his senior season and selected in the second round of the 2009 NBA Draft.

UCF won five CUSA titles in women’s soccer, four in women’s outdoor track and field, three in men’s golf, two each in football, women’s basketball and women’s indoor track and field, and one in softball.

Highlight of the CUSA era: The excellence of ±«°äčó’s women’s teams. Women’s soccer advanced to NCAA Sweet 16 in 2011 for first time in nearly three decades and was ranked among the top 10 nationally the following year in its final year as a member. The track and field team’s dynasty of six indoor and outdoor championships in three years resulted in the first NCAA individual champion in school history and a top-five finish at the 2013 NCAA Indoor Championship. Women’s basketball returned to the NCAA Tournament twice thanks to two tournament titles and softball earned a bid to the NCAA regional with its second conference championship in program history in 2008.

American Athletic Conference (2013-23)

In 2013 UCF joined Houston, Memphis and SMU in leaving Conference USA for the American Athletic Conference — featuring members of the BIG EAST who played football. It also kickstarted the War on I-4 rivalry with nearby conference foe South Florida. UCF went a perfect 7-for-7 in the annual all-sports standings before exiting The American in 2023.

UCF concluded its 10-year tenure in the AAC with more league titles during that decade than any other conference member. UCF teams won 52 AAC titles from 2013-14 through 2022-23 — 21 regular-season crowns and 31 more via conference postseason tournaments, league title games or other conference champion designations.

“Without question that level of success (in the AAC) played a major role in our opportunity to join the Big 12 Conference.” — Terry Mohajir, vice president and director of Athletics

“We take great pride in the tremendous accomplishments of our teams during their 10 years in the American Athletic Conference,” says UCF Vice President and Director of Athletics Terry Mohajir. “Without question that level of success played a major role in our opportunity to join the Big 12 Conference.”

“Every time some more stuff happened (with conference realignment), UCF happened to be playing very good football and people noticed,” Staples says. “That’s why when the Big 12 lost Texas and Oklahoma, UCF is coming off its most successful period in its history. And it was an easy choice. It was obvious where the Big 12 should go.”

Highlight of the AAC era: The football team’s historical 25-0 run over a span of 745 days from 2017-19. The accomplishment is listed in the NCAA record book among the longest win streaks ever recorded and marks the fourth-longest win streak this millennium (Miami, 34 – 2000-03; Florida State, 29 – 2012-14; Alabama, 26 – 2015-16).

Big 12 Conference (2023-present)

The Big 12 announced in September 2021 that UCF would join BYU, Houston and Cincinnati as future members. The Big 12 does not sponsor men’s soccer, so the Knights will compete in the Sun Belt Conference (which features fellow Power 5 programs West Virginia, Kentucky and South Carolina) in that sport.

Below are excerpts from the Sept. 10, 2021, announcement when the UCF Board of Trustees voted unanimously to accept an invitation for UCF to join the Big 12. Mohajir was quoted:

“This is a landmark day for anyone ever associated with UCF or UCF Athletics. As we anticipate a future move to the Big 12 Conference, we first owe a vote of thanks to all those at UCF who have gone before us. There’s a long list of student-athletes, coaches, athletic directors, university presidents and support staff, fans and donors and, of course, our student body, plus so many others whose hard work and successes have helped pave the way for today’s announcement. The bases were already loaded, and I feel very blessed and honored to get to step up to the plate on behalf of UCF.

“I speak for all of us at UCF in expressing our excitement for the opportunities that lie ahead. I’m confident our Knight teams will rise to the challenges to come.

“Here at UCF we are in the business of providing the best possible opportunities for our student-athletes to thrive while they are here and to have post-collegiate career success. We are convinced that competing as a member of the Big 12 Conference absolutely will help us accomplish those goals.

“In addition, Orlando is one of the most vibrant cities in the world — and the NIL (name, image, likeness) opportunities for our student-athletes here are endless compared to many college towns.”

“UCF has always kind of looked at the next step. If these programs are thinking that UCF is going to come in and just try to fit in, that’s not going to be how it goes.” — Andy Staples,  The Athletic senior writer

“UCF has always kind of looked at the next step. If these programs are thinking that UCF is going to come in and just try to fit in, that’s not going to be how it goes,” Staples says. “UCF is going to come in and try to take over. I think Cincinnati, Houston, BYU probably feel the same way, but you’ve seen it with UCF. When UCF went into the American, it was a step up in competition — but it didn’t take long before UCF was one of the best programs in the league. It’s got everything it needs to be successful. It has all the ingredients.”

“Just because Oklahoma and Texas are gone (in 2024 to the sec), no one is going to be able to walk through this league,” says Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic. “We’ve seen Kansas State and Baylor and different teams make Big 12 title games recently, but I would not be surprised if UCF is competing to win this league pretty soon after getting there.”

I will be the first to admit that I do not get attached to my teams the way some people do.

But the 2019 men’s basketball team and its story were too compelling, even for a cynic like me.

It was UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins against his mentor in Duke’s Coach K. It was a pair of seemingly superhuman sports figures in our beloved 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall ’19 and the Blue Devils’ future No. 1 NBA Draft pick, Zion Williamson. It was ±«°äčó’s quickly rising brand against arguably the biggest brand in college basketball. It was the most watched sporting event in UCF history. And it turned out to be an instant March Madness classic.

But it was more than that.

For those of us who were alongside Coach Dawkins every day in practice, with BJ Taylor getting ready for every game in the locker room, laughing with Chad Brown ’19 on all the road trips, that loss was heartbreaking, devastating – the truest definition of the agony of defeat.

And, yes, every school that loses in a tournament and has its season end says that.

But this group was truly special.

To fully understand and appreciate the impact of that March Madness team, you’ve got to look back four years prior. As someone who was there for nearly all of working as the primary communications contact for the team during that era, let me take you back to where it started for me.

***

I remember when I first saw Tacko Fall on the court. I went to the Amway Arena for the Hardwoord Classic All-Star game in April 2015 to scope out and score some social media content of ±«°äčó’s recently signed 7-foot-6 recruit who would be joining the Knights in the fall.

Tacko scored 10 points in that game, and I walked away thinking to myself, “This is going to be cool, but is this really going to work out?”

You could see his lack of true coordination. He struggled running up and down the court. Given that he had only picked up a basketball for the first time a couple years prior and grew to giant heights in a short amount of time, his awkwardness wasn’t surprising.

That day I wasn’t witnessing the kid that would turn into ±«°äčó’s all-time leader in blocked shots, and a future leader for NCAA career field-goal percentage. This was not the 2017 American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. I wasn’t witnessing some phenom who was going to take UCF to new heights and eventually suit up for the Boston Celtics.

And it’s what makes the journey that transpired so much more special.

***

I’ve heard Johnny Dawkins say on more than one occasion the best recruiting job he ever did was convince shooting guard Matt Williams ’16 to stay for the 2016-17 season.

Williams was an Orlando native and had been with the Knights since his freshman year in 2012, but he was committed to transferring to Wake Forest at the time coach Dawkins took over ±«°äčó’s program.

As the story goes, Dawkins invited Williams to continue training at ±«°äčó’s facilities while he waited to move to North Carolina. Every day Williams showed up, he saw Dawkins in the basketball offices hard at work. He quickly had a change of heart and decided to stay for one last ride.

I could tell immediately with the first tournament that season in South Carolina things were going to be different. Tacko had made great strides. You could see the way the coaching staff was working with him that it knew the lovable center was going to be the key in taking the program a step forward.

The Knights blew out Mississippi State and beat Charleston on its home floor. They took Villanova to the wire. That first weekend was big for UCF and hinted at what was to come.

±«°äčó’s run to NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden in 2017 was significant for the program, which hadn’t been to the postseason since the 2012 NIT. That season holds some of the best memories of my career.

A.J. Davis ’17’s free throws that . Knocking out on the road, and less than 48 hours later suiting up for the against Illinois.

Electric atmosphere. Court rush. Coach Dawkins bites the apple. in Times Square. Marching Knights atop an serenading the city. The MSG (Madison Square Garden) freight elevator ride with coach Dawkins, BJ and everyone.

Most of all, Matt Williams’ impassioned speech in the locker room after UCF lost to TCU; how he was so fulfilled by his decision to stay. His love for coach Dawkins and his teammates. How excited he was for the future.

I truly believe that whole experience was the reason two years later the Knights were able to do what they did.

***

After a 2017 campaign plagued by injuries to our key players, saw a walk-on starting the majority of the season and still somehow managing to pull out 19 wins, ±«°äčó’s 2018-19 season was finally going to be the year.

Only it did not start out auspiciously.

In the second game of the year, UCF lost to Florida Atlantic. At home.

All due respect to the Owls, that was not the same team that just made the 2023 Final Four.

Our locker room was dejected. The goal from the jump was NCAA Tournament or bust.

It’s really something to watch the ups and downs of young adults. And I always found it interesting to watch when coach Dawkins chose between chewing them out or building them back up. It’s an art form for a coach to have a pulse on what’s needed in the moment.

Credit to the team, they never gave up on their goal.

That season, coach Dawkins continually preached the message, “Get lost in the fight.”

The Knights did that in their win at top-10 Houston. And again in their top-20 win over Cincinnati. And UCF used its disappointing AAC conference tournament first-round loss to Memphis as fuel to get lost in that fight once again heading into the Big Dance for the first time since 2005.

I’ve never seen a team more dialed in. We had CBS following us around for all-access content and it was as if they weren’t even there. BJ Taylor sat down to talk to the A-crew of Grant Hill, Jim Nantz and Bill Raftery and it was as if he was conducting an interview ahead of a regular season Tuesday night matchup at home.

±«°äčó’s in the first round was the program’s first NCAA Tourney victory in history. And that was big.

What happened next was bigger.

We . In the pre-game press conferences. In Tacko Fall’s “I won’t allow (Zion) to put me on one of his highlight tapes” . In the courtside handshake between coach Dawkins and coach K before tipoff. In Aubrey Dawkins ’18 wanting to help his dad do something at UCF no one else had.

We all know the game. At the buzzer: Duke 77. UCF 76.

The things that don’t get talked about enough are the tactics and the strategy the staff put in to defend the Blue Devils. It was unbelievable.

±«°äčó’s fans were there and loud, and I remember noticing that from my courtside seat.

To this day, I’ll see on my social media timelines when some random account poses the question, “What’s the most heartbreaking sports moment?” and people will still say .

Nearly everyone in the world saw the postgame locker room scene because it had millions of views on Twitter and YouTube. The tears and the sobs. The heartbreak. How real and true and honest coach Dawkins was in that moment.

I felt for them. I felt for the kids. They were so geared in and ready to shock the world.

I use that phrase only because Duke was the top-ranked team in the country and we had never advanced to that moment before.

But this wasn’t a Cinderella story.

I honestly think if UCF plays that game 10 times, the Knights are winning four of the 10. We would have had a legit shot to make it to the Final Four if that tip-in goes in — that’s the kind of team UCF had become over those last four years.

It was quite a journey to watch it all happen.

The fact that it came on the heels of the football team’s 25-0 run was the perfect ante up.

We doubled down and it made the nation wonder, what can’t UCF do?

Between Shaquem Griffin ’16, McKenzie Milton ’19, Tacko, BJ — you had some of the most loveable characters in UCF history on campus at the same time. And on top of that, there was crossover appeal.

McKenzie Milton was going to basketball games to cheer on his friend, BJ Taylor. Guys were shouting each other out in press conferences. There was a lot of UCF synergy at that time. And it wasn’t just because of the success. It was the people.

I will be the first to admit, as I said at the beginning, that I do not get attached to my teams the way some people do.

With those guys, I did.

They were so invested. They were so in love with UCF and with Central Florida and Orlando and that group just loved what it was doing. They loved being around the fans.

Chad Brown is just a big, loveable teddy bear. I respect Aubrey’s integrity and the bond he and his dad share.

I can honestly say Tacko Fall is the kindest, most genuine student-athlete I’ve ever encountered. I saw him charm every reporter, every random stranger who stopped him in the airport for a photo, every person he interacted with. It was because of how likeable he was.

To this day, BJ Taylor asks me about my family every time we talk. He wants to see photos of my kids. I’ve been in this industry a long time. I haven’t come across another young person like BJ.

Those guys had such an impact on my life. I think prior to that I didn’t really allow it to happen. And that’s the joy of what we do — we get to work with these young people who are so full of life and I don’t know if I was taking advantage of it enough.

I think these guys gave me the gift of seeing how powerful it can be to let myself get lost in the fight. I got lost in the fight with them.

I think that run and that team gave UCF fans the hope for the future. I really do. The Knights can have success in anything they want.

And I can’t wait to watch it happen.