UCF routs FIU
Knights pummel Panthers, could win over more Orlando fans
61-17 in a performance worthy of Orlando’s hometown embrace, Mike Bianchi writes.
The marketing campaign started two weeks ago when UCF athletic director Danny White urged Orlando residents to plant a flag and acknowledge the Knights as Orlando’s hometown team.
This is all well and good, but the real campaign started Thursday night when UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton opened up coach Scott Frost’s second season by putting on a scintillating, exhilarating pyrotechnic passing exhibition en route to a 61-17 rout of FIU.
This, my fellow Orlandoans, is a performance worthy of your excitement and a program befitting of your support.
“We’re a big, blossoming metropolis and UCF is really the only show in town for football and some other sports,” Frost says. “Hopefully, this community will embrace us and we can build something special here.”
Obviously, Frost and the Knights will have to do their part to make the city jump on board and this was a dominant, dynamic start against an FIU team in its first game under
former Miami Hurricanes head coach Butch Davis. Milton, the slippery sophomore with the funky throwing motion, dazzled the announced seasonopening crowd of 38,063 by completing 16-of-21 passes for 360 yards and four touchdowns. He orchestrated an offensive assault that compiled 587 yards — more than they’ve ever had under Frost.
I know, I know, we can’t get too excited just yet. After all, Davis also used to coach the Cleveland Browns and, right now, FIU is the college version of Butch’s blighted Brownies. Don’t forget, the Knights ran up more than 500 yards of offense on FIU last season en route to an equally impressive 53-14 victory. Former FIU coach Ron Turner was fired the following week.
Even though the Knights went from winless in George O’Leary’s final season to a bowl game in Frost’s inaugural season, the Knights petered out at the end of last year. And, yes, it takes more than six wins to get a finicky sports town like Orlando on your bandwagon.
What’s it going to take for Orlando to truly embrace UCF as its hometown team?
It’s going to take UCF doing something unusual; something Orlando sports fans aren’t accustomed to seeing — especially those who follow the Magic and Orlando City.
It’s going to take winning a lot of games. Scoring a lot of points. And playing an exciting, entertaining brand of ball.
And that means offense, offense and more offense.
Defense may win championships, but offense sells tickets. Let’s face it, O’Leary won his fair share of games, but fans never flocked to the stadium because the old coach’s offenses, many times, were about as exciting as staring at a deer head hanging on a wall.
Likewise, Frost’s first UCF offense last year was ranked 113th in the country — a major disappointment for a fan base that unrealistically expected him to come out of the box with an attack like the one he choreographed as the offensive coordinator at Oregon. The no-huddle offense was marketed as “UCFast” last year, but it turned into “UCFizzle.” Milton played sporadically as a true freshman, partly because he was under duress for much of the season because of a sievelike offensive line.
“There are a lot of people questioning things with McKenzie,” Frost said. “People are always critical of coaches and quarterbacks. I admire the kid for getting through what he got through last year.”
Milton looked better than he ever has Thursday night, but we will know more when the Knights take on conference power Memphis next week. If UCF can win that one, then maybe the “hometown” initiative will start to really gain some momentum.
Wouldn’t it be great if college football fans in Central Florida — no matter where they grew up or where they went to school — adopted UCF as their surrogate squad? For instance, what if Michigan and Ohio State fans who live in Orlando started attending UCF games, tailgating and experiencing the great sport of college football right here at home? The same with Florida fans or Florida State fans who don’t regularly make road trips to Gainesville or Tallahassee.
Orlando might be an NBA and MLS city, but, at its core, it is still a college football town. We have three bowl games, for crying out loud, and a plethora of neutral-site games as well. We are the biggest city in America without an NFL team, which means the only real football team we have in our midst is UCF.
“This place is built to be special,” Frost promises. “It won’t be very long around here before we’re taking the field with as much talent as anybody we play.”
My fellow, Orlandoans, it appears the Knights are willing to do their part to become your hometown team.
If they do their part, will you do yours?