The University of Central Florida toppled Louisville Friday night, October 18th. Louisville, ranked No. 8, lost their Homecoming game and their solid chance for Teddy Bridgewater to take home the Heisman this year. Blake Bortles threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Godfrey with 23 seconds remaining, and the Knights stunned the Cardinals with a 38-35 victory, ending Louisville’s perfect start. Bridgewater made one last desperate heave into the end zone as time expired, but no birds appeared.
President Hitt called this “our number one win ever.” With this victory, we may now be the front runner to win the American Athletic Conference title and possibly the league’s final automatic bid to a BCS bowl. The Knights finally earned a top 25 ranking after so many years of being called “a sleeping giant” and “up-and-coming.” The AP has UCF ranked No. 21, while UCF is No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 23 in the initial BCS standings. We are officially the second-highest ranked American Athletic Conference team in the BCS rankings, just behind Louisville at No. 20.
This is the biggest win in our 50 year history. Not only did UCF become the top story on ESPN, but headlines around the country read “The Knightmare.” UCF Knights were trending globally on Twitter, as “Kentucky Fried Cardinals” recovered from The Knightmare. Knight fans then celebrated at Blacktop Madness gearing up for the UCF Basketball season. With the UCF Women’s Soccer win over Memphis, we also broke our school record for an unbeaten streak.
Now that we are “ranked and ready to rumble,” I have one request of the news media. We are the University of Central Florida (UCF) Knights, not the Central (C.) Florida Golden Knights. This is not 2006, and we are here. Get used to saying this. UCF! Go Knights! Charge On!