“DO YOU BELIEVE?”

It’s one of Coach Prime’s signature phrases, often styled as a question: Believe.

Do you Believe?

However, long before Primetime in Boulder, Colorado; this has been a challenging question for Orlando sports fans to answer. We’ve always been a destination, but never really the stars of the show. Often featured, but never really the feature. That all changed in 2017, with a genius gamble by then-Knights athletic director Danny J. White.

AD White (now leading an SEC blue blood program) had an interesting opportunity when he took the helm at the University of Central Florida. He had a talent-rich area of a talent-rich state, with a wealthy and fast growing university that was still grappling with being no better than third place in any conversations about prestige in the status quo (usually stuck behind FSU, UF and Miami, unless things were especially bad at one of the big three). At the time, UCF Football was tied at the hip to a once-proud USF Bulls program, long undermined by questionable administrative leadership.

THE I-4 QUESTION

After years of entertaining the I-4 rivalry out of necessity and convenice, UCF Knights began to collectively realize that this unequal yoke would prove to be a roadblock to future aspirations, and expansion. Business decisions would need to be made, and quickly.

The final edition of the ‘War on I-4’ football series would take place

Now, with the USF association out of the way, the next question for the UCF Knights to answer became clear.

How do we create an identity and a championship culture at a place like UCF? As it turns out, simple questions deserve simple answers.

Make folks believe that you’re a champion. 

January 1, 2018, UCF Athletics’ social media team (one of the best in the nation) published a video, following UCF Football’s Peach Bowl victory over the Auburn Tigers.

In that video, White shook the entire college football world, with two simple declarations: Undefeated. National Champs. Media outrage was fierce, and immediate. How was this school, Central Florida, declaring itself a national champion, in defiance of the College Football Playoff, the University of Alabama, the Southeastern Athletic Conference, and everyone else who mattered in the entire sport? In antagonizing a debate that was already raging regarding the validity of a playoff expansion (spoiler alert, expansion happened soon after), Danny White skillful repositioned his school in the middle of that conversation. A flawlessly executed finesse.

White’s departure for the SEC, and the arrival of new athletic director Terry Mohajir marked the next phase of the master plan for the Knights. Danny’s final head football coach would exit alongside him, allowing Mohajir the opportunity to find, and select his own. Enter, the most under-appreciated national championship winning coach in the SEC, former Auburn savior Guz Malzahn. Coach Malzahn desperately needed a change of the scenery after years leading the Crimson Tide’s favorite footstool, and the UCF Knights needed to adjust to their new, higher profile seat in power five college football. Less than a year later, the UCF Knights announced their arrival to the BIG 12 conference.

Stamped, and Sealed.

Credit to our friends for this concise breakdown of everything that happened next:

UCF Knights would be recorded in the NCAA 2018-2019 FBS Record Book (page 115).

This is a stone-cold fact: The NCAA does not award a national championship in the Football Bowl Subdivision. We won’t get into how this stupid system came about, but instead, they outsource awarding the national championship every year to various selectors that they approve, including polls such as the AP and the Coaches, computer rankings such as the Colley Matrix and Sagarin, and fairly recently, the BCS and the College Football Playoff. In 2017, UCF finished #1 in the Colley Matrix, which is recognized by the NCAA as a championship selector for the FBS level. UCF claimed that title.

At the end of the season, all these selectors award a national championship based on their criteria, be it being voted #1 (like in the AP Poll), or, say, winning an invitational tournament that they control (like the CFP).

Later that month, the Governor of Florida would sign the proclamation, and make that declaration state law. Suddenly, the State of Florida went from a Big Three, to a Big Four – the UCF Knights have officially arrived.

“HERE COMES KNIGHTRO”

Fast-forward to today, and I predict a big win for the UCF Knights.

Not necessary on the score board, because these are two equally matched programs at the end of the day. However, the program at Colorado has already reached new heights, almost entirely because of their star-studded coaching staff and roster. Meanwhile, the same can also be said for the UCF Knights. Behind the leadership of their SEC pedigree head coach Guz Malzahn (national champion with Cam Newton, Auburn), their SEC caliber quarterback KJ Washington, and world-class talents like home-town hero RJ Harvey (Edgewater High), the UCF Knights are a dangerous opponent to face down in primetime. Of course, the Knights still have a very difficult challenge on their hands, and are facing the man who should easily become a Heisman Trophy winner in December, Colorado’s cheat code Travis Hunter (West Palm Beach). CU Buffs enter with senior quarterback Shadur Sanders playing some of the best football of his life. Heisman frontrunners aside, Colorado’s roster is loaded with under-appreciated talent like Orlando-area products Jimmy Horn (Seminole High) and Assad Waseem (Apopka, FL) that the UCF Knights missed out on.

But looking beyond tonight’s game, the biggest prize of these season for the UCF Knights won’t have anything to do with Coach Prime, or Colorado. In a few days, the UCF Knights will ride into Ben Griffin Hill Stadium as favorites for the first time in program history. Twin collapses for UF and FSU has been timed almost too perfectly for UCF’s elevation, alongside an resurgence for Miami. With the southward shift of the instate power dynamic, the Knights are preparing to enter a new era of national relevance and state-wide dominance. Watch what happens next.

Currently undefeated, two spots behind first place in their first ever conference standings, and favored in the majority of pregame predictions that I’ve seen, in many ways the Knights have already won this match up.

We Believe.

MY OFFICAL PREDICTION:

• UCF Knights wins by a score, Travis Hunter wins by a Heisman.
• UCF Knights will be winners in Gainesville, Oct. 5th