Knights maintain focus on winning, not streak
Anybody who’s ever been on a lucky streak knows that the No. 1 rule is always, always respect the streak. That means you don’t talk about it. You don’t acknowledge it. You completely ignore it.
UCF currently holds the nation’s longest win streak at 16 games and while the accomplishment is certainly the talk of the town, it’s not discussed among the players in the locker room.
“It’s an impressive stat, but we don’t really talk about it,” UCF senior tight end Michael Colubiale said. “I think we hear buzz obviously with a lot of us on social media; we see the posts about it. But I don’t think it’s something talked about in the locker room much.”
“Not really. We’re focused on one game at a time,” added senior defensive lineman A.J. Wooten when asked whether the Knights ever mention the streak.
When No. 13 UCF (3-0, 1-0 American Athletic Conference) takes the field this afternoon to face Pittsburgh (2-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), the Knights will be working to continue an impressive stretch of football that began with a 61-17 rout of FIU on Aug. 31, 2017. Since then, the team has won a conference championship, defeated Auburn in the Peach Bowl and began this season 3-0.
“They’ve got my respect, I can tell you that,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said of the Knights. “When you watch the tape and put on tape, I think respect comes with time and doing it over and over and over again, I guess. But I don’t make those decisions. All I do is watch the tape, and I watch McKenzie Milton and Adrian Killins tear it up inside.”
The 16-win streak is the longest since Alabama won 26 straight games from 2015-16 before losing to Clemson in the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship Game. The Oklahoma Sooners won an NCAA-record 47 consecutive games from 1953 through 1957.
“Our goal is to go 1-0 every single week, so that’s what we’re looking at. We’re 0-0 right now. So going into this week hopefully we go 1-0 again,” Colubiale said.