Knights leave for Glendale
Underdog UCF hopes for Fiesta Bowl upset
UCF players put away their presents and headed back to campus on Christmas Day, their holiday focus shifted back to the Fiesta Bowl in one week’s time.
The Knights will depart for Glendale, Ariz., this morning, bound for the program’s first-ever Bowl Championship Series game and a shot at knocking off Big 12 champion Baylor. The greater task: earning respect for a still-growing school.
The Knights shocked many by earning the American Athletic Conference title and the league’s automatic BCS bid, and the narrative around the game has been that of an outsider crashing the BCS’s final act.
National pundits have rated No. 15 UCF (11-1) as the biggest underdog in any bowl game this season, all but handing victory
return of wide receiver Tevin Reese (33 receptions, 824 yards, 8 TD), the Bears high-flying attack will be unlike any UCF has seen.
After the Knights finished the season with several close wins against programs such as Temple, USF and SMU, many believe the Bears will be too much for the Knights to contain.
The matchup has many national commentators predicting a blowout. That comes as no surprise to the UCF players, and it only ups the ante for what can be accomplished with a win at University of Phoenix Stadium on New Year’s Day.
“People always doubt UCF,” senior defensive tackle E.J. Dunston said. “People always have us as underdogs. But t hat’s nothing we can control. All we can control is what we do, which is line up and play with our shoulder pads and our helmets and our cleats and go from there.”