Shattered Knights

[UK Peregrine]

Here's the Orlando Sentinel's take on UCF and the MAC. UCF entered the league expecting to win the MAC title every year. Now the Knights will settle for just one win before leaving for ConUSA.

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By Alan Schmadtke
Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted November 23 2004

It always was a marriage of convenience, something both of them admitted up front.

The relationship between UCF and the Mid-American Conference lasted three years and ends tonight at 7 when the winless Golden Knights face Kent State at the Citrus Bowl.

One way or the other, tonight promises to be memorable for the Knights. They'll either take the country's longest losing streak (now at 14 games) into what would become an interminable off-season or else they'll snap it and move into a new conference with a breath of fresh air and at least a little dose of confidence.

"I know I've said this before, but it's true: I've never been through anything like this," UCF Coach George O'Leary said. "I feel bad for the players. We're getting close, but close only counts in horseshoes."

The Knights (0-10 overall, 0-7 in the MAC) lost home games this season in which they failed to protect a lead in the final 45 seconds (against Northern Illinois) and in which they missed crucial field goals and extra points (against Ohio in overtime).

Now all they want is to avoid becoming the 11th winless team in MAC history and the first since 1999 (Buffalo and Ball State).

To do so, they'll have to beat Kent State (4-6, 3-4), which boasts a solid offense and the best defense in the MAC.

"When we came into the MAC, we were thinking about rings and championships. We weren't thinking about a season like this," senior receiver Luther Huggins said. "We'd like to at least have one game we can remember."

UCF is 116th in the nation in total offense (267.1 yards per game) and 114th in scoring offense (15.1 points per game).

UCF's departure from the MAC as a football-only member comes as the conference, one year removed from its finest season, is poised to send a record three teams to bowls. And there are no hard feeling from those in the league heirarchy about UCF's departure.

"No, not at all," said MAC Commissioner Rick Chryst, whose league shrinks from 14 to 12 when UCF and Marshall leave for C-USA. "If you look at where we were [in the fall of 2001] and where things were nationally, we'd do it again. We were in a mode where we wanted to grow. UCF was in a situation when they needed the umbrella of a conference. Although geographically it may not have been the perfect fit, there were things there that both sides benefited from."

Added UCF President John Hitt: "Rick Chryst and the MAC presidents made a great presentation, and they gave us access to things we'd never had before -- a chance to play for a conference championship, much better chances to go to bowl games. It was the best decision we could have made."

In Orlando, the merger was accepted with a mixture of curiosity and controversy. Most UCF fans had never heard of the MAC, a half-century-old league based in Cleveland and filled with schools from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, New York and West Virginia. While some fans were delighted about seeing football schedules that looked similar from year to year and promised at least some semblance of rivalries, others had no interest in seeing teams from "the Little Big Ten."

UCF's entrance in 2002 allowed the MAC to balance its divisions: seven teams in the East, seven in the West. Chryst hoped UCF's growth and Florida's football talent would make for a Marshall-UCF tug-of-war that would elevate the league's football to even taller heights.

UCF hoped so, too, and that aligning with the MAC might mean the school's first bowl bid. Neither happened.

Most of the best things that came from three years of togetherness were off the field. Hitt and Athletic irector Steve Orsini impressed their MAC peers with constant talk of growth.

"From my perspective, that's more valuable than people think," Chryst said.

UCF now has relationships in the MAC that may pay off later, such as in scheduling or in NCAA legislative support. Hitt signed on with several other MAC presidents to be part of a new coalition of schools fighting for recognition from their Bowl Championship Series peers.

On the field, the Knights' first season in the conference was its best. They were 6-2 and finished second in the East to Marshall. Since, they're 2-13 in MAC play and 3-19 overall.

"I think most of our fans and even some of our former coaches were surprised at how good MAC football is," Hitt said. "I wasn't surprised, but I think some people were."

Some players were.

"It turned out to be harder to win I thought," Huggins said. "I don't think anybody thought it was going to be a breeze. I mean, it's not the SEC, either. But what we found out was every team in the MAC plays hard every game. That took some getting used to."

Those are lessons UCF can take with it to C-USA next year, when the Knights' second marriage begins.

[Falconfreak90]

GO KENT!!!!! BEAT THEM TO A PULP!

Kent has the MAC's best defense....the end is near.

[1987alum]

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