UCF pushing through noise, prepping for title game
The Mount Everest-like climb to an undefeated regular season took a physical toll on the UCF football team.
Senior left tackle Aaron Evans said, through a cracked and hoarse voice, he slept for about 12 consecutive hours on Sunday. UCF defensive coordinator Erik Chinander was obviously battling a cold as he spoke with reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Week after week, the stakes were raised and challenges mounted. But this week presents the greatest challenge to date.
The Knights have to slow down a prolific Memphis offense amid the outside noise surrounding Scott Frost’s future as UCF’s head coach. The Knights are pushing to validate their undefeated regular season with a win in the American Athletic Conference championship game.
ABC will broadcast the noon title game in Orlando between the Knights (11-0 overall, 8-0 AAC) and Tigers (10-1 overall, 7-1 AAC) .
“It’s not what you did, it’s what you do. …If we lose this game this week, they’re going to think, ‘Oh, it’s just UCF,’ ” Evans said, referring to the national perception of the Knights. “That bugs me more than anything in this whole world that they would just count us out like that and I don’t want that to happen, so we gotta win this week.”
Leading up to championship week, UCF endured a grueling 13-day stretch that included earning revenge on the road at Temple and a physically and emotionally draining 49-42 home win over rival USF last Friday.
Frost gave players the weekend off to recover. Assistant coaches took a half day off Saturday while juggling a big recruiting weekend.
And, of course, there is the big red elephant in the room — Nebraska.
After the Cornhuskers fired coach Mike Riley and athletics director Bill Moos made his interest in Frost public, reports buzzed all weekend about Frost’s coaching future and whether the former Huskers quarterback would leave the potential Group of 5 dynasty he’s building at UCF to return to his alma mater.
Frost and assistant coaches chose not to address the Nebraska chatter with players this week. But players see it on social media and are working to shut that out as they prepare for one of the most important games in school history.
If UCF loses to Memphis, then the Knights likely won’t play in a prestigious New Year’s Six bowl game.
“After all we’ve accomplished so far this year, to not stay focused and dialed in for one more week for a championship and undefeated season going into bowl season, it’d be a crime not to be locked in,” UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton said.
Milton, one of Frost’s first recruits at UCF two years ago, said he’d be happy for Frost no matter what decision is made.
“He’s very grateful for us and we’re very grateful for him,” Milton said. “I support him no matter what he does and I’m grateful for all he’s done for this program and for me and he’s our guy right now. Hopefully, he’ll be our guy for a long time. We’ll see.”