Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Frost: UCF doesn’t need gimmicks for USF hype
UCF coach Scott Frost said the Knights don’t need any gimmicks and grudges to hype his players up for rival USF on Friday afternoon.
A grudge can’t hurt, though.
Last year, the Bulls — then led by Willie Taggart — rubbed a 48-31 loss in the Knights’ faces with a touchdown in the final 10 seconds of the game instead of taking a knee. After the game, Frost told reporters “this is one I’m gonna want.” His memory of that day is still clear.
“I’ve been ahead as a coach of teams a lot of times in the fourth quarter and there’s a right way to handle things and a wrong way,” Frost said during Monday’s press conference. “We’re gonna always handle it the right way here, but like I said, our players are gonna be excited to play this game regardless of what happened last year.”
It’s a new year — and an entirely new coaching staff at USF, now led by former Texas coach Charlie Strong. But the same motivation to clobber the Bulls is still there for the Knights.
No. 15 UCF (10-0) must defeat USF (9-1) to clinch the American Athletic Conference East Division title. Winning would allow the Knights to host one final game at Spectrum Stadium on Dec. 2 — the conference championship.
Frost isn’t too pleased about USF receiving two extra days of preparation after playing a Thursday game last week while the Knights played Saturday. Both teams will be getting set for the Black Friday showdown while trying to avoid distractions associated with Thanksgiving.
Instead of sending players home for the holiday, Frost and team leaders decided to stay in town.
“We’re gonna stay at a hotel Wednesday night and Thursday night. We’re trying to recover on a short week, so any extra sleep we can get is good and making sure we don’t have guys driving three or four hours each way to get home to see somebody on Thanksgiving,” Frost said.
Short week or not, UCF players are ready to rumble. Linebacker Shaquem Griffin said teammates have attacked the film room like it was a bye week even though the team just recently got back from a road trip to Philadelphia, where they defeated last year’s conference champion Temple, 45-19.
The Knights recorded a season-high five turnovers against the Owls, with four interceptions by Griffin, Pat Jasinski, Kyle Gibson and Nevelle Clarke.
But Griffin doesn’t believe the defense has turned in its best performance yet.
“I think out of a 10, that was probably a six,” Griffin said. “We have so much potential and I feel like this is gonna be a week where every player, every team, no matter [who] it is [will] receive our best.”