Knights feast on turnovers, fuel streak
Finding the football is nothing new for Richie Grant. It seems whenever the sophomore defensive back gets his hands on it, good things are bound to happen for UCF.
He was there during a fumble recovery on the first defensive possession of the season against UConn and later he had a key interception deep in Knights’ territory. A week later, Grant was there for another interception in the third quarter against South Carolina State.
“[It’s] like an early Christmas present,” the redshirt sophomore said with a smile when asked what goes through his mind when he gets a turnover.
Few teams in the country have been as opportunistic as the Knights during the past few seasons.
UCF has forced at least one takeaway during 22 consecutive games going back to 2016, and during that time the Knights are 21-5 when they’ve forced at least one turnover and 17-2 when they’ve forced two or more turnovers.
The big plays have helped the Knights extend the nation’s longest win streak to 16 games.
“Every day, all day in practice, we talk about turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Turnovers are a big part of our football [team] and they are like a big game-changer as well,” UCF senior defensive lineman A.J. Wooten said. “Two or three turnovers: that’s a win-orlose situation when it comes to football.”
New coach Josh Heupel has been impressed with how the defense has played so far.
“Defensively, I love that we again got three turnovers. We’re continuing to hawk the ball and create negative plays,” Heupel said.
Heupel isn’t wrong. UCF team filled with ball hawks season.
The Knights rank second in the American Athletic Conference in takeaways (9) while leading the league in overall turnover margin (+6). The Knights have tallied three turnovers during each of is a this