Game at SMU crucial test
Knights try to stay unbeaten in battle against Mustangs.
DALLAS — UCF’s Scott Frost and SMU’s Chad Morris have each won 13 games in their current jobs. Both have made impressive progress, though at different rates after leaving offensive coordinator roles at Power Five schools to take over programs that had hit bottom.
The 15th-ranked Knights (7-0, 4-0 AAC), now in Frost’s second season, are one of only five remaining undefeated FBS teams. The Knights also are the only Group of Five team without a loss, putting them on track for a New Year’s Six bowl game if they keep winning.
“There’s no leeway when it comes to us losing a game,” UCF receiver Dredrick Snelson said. “We know what we have to do.”
A week after scoring a school-record 73 points in a game against FCS team Austin Peay that wasn’t on their original schedule, the Knights get back into American Athletic play Saturday night at SMU (6-2, 3-1).
“I want our guys to have the mindset that it’s a fourgame season now,” said Frost, the former Oregon offensive coordinator. “I want our entire organization to see it as an opportunity, not a pressure-filled situation that we’re trying to hold on to something.”
UCF was 0-12 the season before Frost arrived, but improved to 6-7 with a bowl berth last year in his debut.
Morris was offensive coordinator at Clemson when he was introduced as SMU’s coach in December 2014. The Mustangs were 0-11 then, and avoided a winless season by winning their finale under interim coach Tom Mason at Connecticut five days later. After going 2-10 in 2015, they improved to 5-7 OTHER STATE GAMES
USF at UConn, 3:30 p.m., ESPNU
Howard at FAMU, 4 p.m.
Morgan State at Bethune-Cookman, 4 p.m. Texas-San Antonio at FIU, 7 p.m. last year but missed bowl eligibility by losing their finale.
After a comeback 38-34 win over Tulsa last week, the Mustangs start November already bowl eligible for the first time since 2012. They are 6-2 for the first time since 1984, and 5-0 at home since 1982.
“We reached a milestone win in our program to become bowl eligible,” Morris said. “It’s not the final goal, it’s not that we’ve achieved exactly what we set out for this season. There’s more ahead, there’s a lot of ball left ahead, but we had to get to this point in this program.”
Some things to know when two of the nation’s best offenses meet:
Big scorers: UCF is the top scorer among FBS teams at 51 points per game. The Knights have won every game by scoring more than 30 points and finishing with a double-figure margin. Only one game was decided by less than 27 points. SMU is second to UCF in the American Athletic Conference with 42 points per game. Both teams average more than 500 total yards.
Catch after catch: SMU’s Trey Quinn leads the nation with 9.9 catches per game (79 total), and is fourth nationally with 109.3 yards receiving per game. The LSU transfer had seven touchdowns. The Mustangs also still have standout receiver Courtland Sutton , who has nine TDs among his 43 catches for 706 yards.
Makeup effort: The early part of UCF’s schedule was altered by multiple hurricanes. The Knights had to move up their opener two days, had to push a Sept. 9 game against Memphis back three weeks, knocking FCS Maine off the schedule, and had to cancel a Sept. 16 game against Georgia Tech. Without a common makeup date for Georgia Tech, the Knights added Austin Peay but still will have only 11 regular-season games. UCF won 73-33, though Frost wasn’t pleased with some missed tackles and penalties.
“Even though we came out with a ‘W,’ our standards are so high that we feel like we didn’t accomplish what we needed to,” linebacker Shaquem Griffin said. “It’s important that we make sure we stay to the small things, and make sure we’re doing it because it’s going to make us a great team.”
More to do: SMU cornerback Jordan Wyatt said getting bowl eligible is a “huge accomplishment” but that the Mustangs aren’t satisfied. They could make a big statement if they upend undefeated UCF.
“This is a great opportunity to show what we can do on a national stage against a really good opponent . ... To knock them off would give us a lot of respect,” Wyatt said. AROUND THE ACC Associated Press
Things to watch in the ACC in Week 10:
INSIDE THE NUMBERS: Lamar Jackson (Boynton Beach High) keeps finding ways to do impressive things, even in a subpar season for a Louisville team that has lost three of four. Jackson, who accounted for four touchdowns and 491 total yards in a 42-32 loss to Wake Forest, joined Clemson’s Woody Dantzler as the only ACC quarterbacks with two 1,000-yard rushing seasons and became the fastest player in league history to reach 10,000 total yards, reaching the mark in just 31 career games. With an average of 114.3 yards rushing, the Heisman Trophy winner is on pace to become the first quarterback in league history to lead the conference in rushing.
It is semifinal Saturday in the ACC, with the top two teams in both divisions facing off. No. 13 Virginia Tech and No. 9 Miami meet at Hard Rock Stadium and No. 4 Clemson travels to No. 20 North Carolina State. Clemson’s rushing offense vs. North Carolina State’s run defense could be the deciding factor in the Atlantic Division showdown. The Wolfpack (6-2, 4-0) — the Atlantic Division’s only team without a league loss — had what was by far the ACC’s best run defense before Notre Dame shredded them for a season-worst 318 yards allowed. They’ll need to prove that was an outlier in this visit from the sixth-ranked Tigers (7-1, 5-1), after dual-threat QB Kelly Bryant looked healthy again, leading them in rushing in a 2410 win over Georgia Tech. Maybe Virginia can find a way to beat the spread — if not the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The Cavaliers (5-3, 2-2) have lost two straight games with bowl eligibility on the line and are 9½-point underdogs against Georgia Tech. Virginia’s middleof-the-pack defense will have to step up in its attempt to slow the Yellow Jackets’ triple-option offense that once again leads the ACC in rushing (347.9 ypg). Wake Forest is going to need some extra production from junior WR Tabari Hines after top big-play threat Greg Dortch was lost for the season with an abdominal injury suffered during his four-touchdown game against Louisville. Hines is the team’s second-leading receiver with 18 catches for 250 yards. QB John Wolford has shown a knack for finding his slot receivers, and Hines looks to slip into that role in Dortch’s absence, starting with this week’s visit to No. 5 Notre Dame.