We’re all feeling good about Knights
If Hollywood scripted a three-act movie about the University of Central Florida football team’s past few years, it might go something like this:
The up-and-coming program suffers through a dreadful 2015 season, losing every game. Longtime Head Coach George O’Leary resigns before the season ends. Game attendance declines, and the stadium loses much of its bounce.
UCF’s young athletic director, Danny White, hires Oregon assistant Scott Frost as coach, and the Knights are off and running — fast. They win six games in 2016. Then, improbably, UCF goes undefeated in 2017, thanks largely to its hyperactive offense. The season is capped with a Peach Bowl victory over mighty Auburn. White declares UCF national champions.
The winning ways continue in 2018, led by the scrappy, intelligent play of quarterback McKenzie Milton. Fans pack Spectrum Stadium, and the house is bouncing like never before. Then, in the season’s final game against rival University of South Florida in Tampa, Milton goes down with a sickening knee injury. The team rallies, going on to win the game and record another undefeated regular season.
The last part of Act III is unwritten. The Knights play Memphis for the American Athletic Conference championship on Saturday, then a bowl game and possibly another perfect season. Whether Milton will ever play football again isn’t clear.
Here’s what clear: This team’s accomplishments and heroics have brought pride, honor and fun to all of Central Florida, along with national recognition.
ESPN staged its popular GameDay show at UCF’s campus earlier this month, and a massive crowd of sign-waving fans showed up. The team’s 24-game winning streak — probably combined with White’s national championship needling — has made it harder for the committee that ranks college football teams each week to brush UCF aside. The latest ranking has the team at No. 8 in the nation.
But UCF’s success is about more than just records, rankings and crowds.
of Shaquem Griffin, the linebacker with a dazzling smile and equally dazzling speed whose left hand was amputated when he was 4. Frost saw talent, not a missing hand, and gave Griffin more playing time. He became a star and an inspiration, and now plays for the Seattle Seahawks.
and leadership of Milton, an undersized quarterback who out-hustled and outfoxed his opponents before getting hurt.
and the community heaping love and support on Milton as he begins a long and difficult recovery. Thanks to the generosity of a local businessman and UCF graduate, tens of thousands of fans will wear leis around their necks for Saturday’s conference championship game in support of the Hawaii-born Milton.
of Scott Frost’s departure to Nebraska after just two seasons at UCF. Other coaches might have ditched their teams to start recruiting full time, but Frost stayed on through the Peach Bowl against Auburn. That’s loyalty, a quality often lacking in big-time sports.
His national championship campaign might have seemed over the top to some, but it made a broader point about how everyone, not just traditional football powerhouses, deserves a fair shot.
that places value on making sure players get their education since few of them are likely to play professionally. A study last year of teams competing in bowl games showed UCF football players had one of the highest graduation rates at 92 percent — 15 percentage points higher than the average of all the bowl teams. That’s a lot to feel good about. For now, here in Central Florida, we’ve set aside some of our differences and gotten behind the idea of a Hawaiian word for family that gained traction on social media after Milton got hurt.
No matter the outcome Saturday, it’s a compelling story.
Sure, it would be a feel-good Hollywood movie. And who doesn’t enjoy one of those every now and then?