Knights prepared for hostile SMU crowd
Anyone with a glimpse inside UCF’s football complex Monday morning would have thought the Knights were on the losing end of the 73-33 spectacle against Austin Peay. Just ask senior defensive lineman Jamiyus Pittman.
“If somebody didn’t go to the game on Saturday, they would have thought we lost in the defensive meeting room,” Pittman said. “I’m not even mad at coach for the way he was acting because that’s the way we played. You can’t play like that and beat the people in our conference.”
The score looked like a blowout, but coaches know the whole story. And players like Pittman know more about the history of the UCF football program, dating back four seasons and before the success of the Scott Frost era. That’s why he won’t allow last week’s unfocused effort to carry over to SMU today, when Gerald J. Ford Stadium is expected to host a hostile homecoming crowd.
SMU (6-2 overall, 3-1 American Athletic Conference) is looking to knock No. 18 UCF (7-0 overall, 4-0 AAC) off its pedestal and earn a signature win after becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 2012 last week.
The Knights are chasing something special — an undefeated season — which would convincingly remind people the winless 2015 campaign was an aberration.
“That winless season changed me. I used to think I was ‘this’ or I was ‘that,’ but losing every game, you’re crying as a 20-year-old because you’re winless. C’mon man, that’s life-changing,” Pittman said. “Every time I play, that’s what I play for and I’m playing against these same teams that caused me to be 0-12. So I don’t have any pity for anybody.”
SMU was actually one of the few league teams UCF didn’t face in 2015. In fact, the Knights’ last meeting with the Mustangs was in 2014 and UCF earned a 53-7 rout in Orlando.
But those were different times and mostly different teams.
This season, both programs boast dangerous offenses, with UCF leading the nation with the No. 1 scoring offense and SMU not far behind at No. 9.
With two fast-moving, highly-productive offenses, the defenses will determine the outcome of today’s contest.
“They’re really good, one of the top offenses in the country. We go up against the best offense every day and they’re right up there with them,” UCF safety Tre Neal said of SMU. “It’s a good task at hand, but we feel like we have a good game plan going in so we’re going to try to lock those guys up and shut them down.”
Neal said the team regained a little bit of energy this week after struggling a bit on offense against Navy and enduring some mental hiccups on defense against Austin Peay.
Maintaining composure can’t be the easiest task during a week when Frost’s name has been constantly linked to the Florida job after Jim McElwain and the Gators parted ways. Frost is on stand-by to fly back home to Orlando should his wife, Ashley, go into labor with their first child before tonight.
But players say they haven’t paid attention to the Frost Florida hype. They’re more dialed in on shutting down SMU fans’ hopes of celebrating a big upset tonight.
“I saw on Twitter where they said if they’re going to win the game, they’re gonna storm the field. So you can’t storm the field with a little bit of people. I’m assuming they’re going to have it packed there for those guys, so we’re ready for it,” Neal said. “I love the environment when it’s like that.”