Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 66. UCF
Your 2017 National Champions
Your 2017 National Champions. UCF fans have certainly had some fun with the moniker, and whether you want to call them that or not, the Colley Matrix, an algorithm formerly used in the BCS rankings, ranked them #1 to end the year. We’ll get into it later. UCF is a relatively newer program, having played their first season in 1979 and their first FBS season in 1996. Since then they’ve had major success, going 192-140 with a few conference titles, NFL Pro Bowlers, and All-Americans. UCF comes in as the best team in Florida outside of the big 3 (Florida, Florida State, Miami), and the 12th best team in the current Big 12.
Also, we’re officially halfway through the series!
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+-----------------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+-----------------+------+--------------+--------+
| 7 | Central Florida | 2017 | 45.226 | 13-0 |
| 12 | Central Florida | 2013 | 35.827 | 12-1 |
| 7 | Central Florida | 2018 | 33.753 | 12-1 |
| 25 | Central Florida | 2019 | 19.472 | 10-3 |
| 29 | Central Florida | 2010 | 11.721 | 11-3 |
| 35 | Central Florida | 2012 | 11.336 | 10-4 |
| 36 | Central Florida | 2007 | 10.37 | 10-4 |
| 30 | Central Florida | 1998 | 9.654 | 9-2 |
| 41 | Central Florida | 2014 | 6.971 | 9-4 |
| 42 | Central Florida | 2022 | 4.292 | 9-5 |
| 51 | Central Florida | 2021 | -0.555 | 9-4 |
| 54 | Central Florida | 2020 | -2.049 | 6-4 |
| 58 | Central Florida | 2009 | -3.217 | 8-5 |
| 57 | Central Florida | 2000 | -7.2 | 7-4 |
| 60 | Central Florida | 2002 | -8.351 | 7-5 |
| 59 | Central Florida | 2005 | -8.693 | 8-5 |
| 57 | Central Florida | 1997 | -9.899 | 5-6 |
| 64 | Central Florida | 2001 | -10.281 | 6-5 |
| 79 | Central Florida | 2011 | -19.104 | 5-7 |
| 82 | Central Florida | 2016 | -20.829 | 6-7 |
| 75 | Central Florida | 1996 | -23.537 | 5-6 |
| 91 | Central Florida | 1999 | -30.063 | 4-7 |
| 97 | Central Florida | 2006 | -34.222 | 4-8 |
| 101 | Central Florida | 2008 | -36.054 | 4-8 |
| 103 | Central Florida | 2003 | -46.751 | 3-9 |
| 117 | Central Florida | 2004 | -66.917 | 0-11 |
| 128 | Central Florida | 2015 | -74.98 | 0-12 |
+------+-----------------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: 14436 (66th)192-140 record
6 conference titles
6-8 bowl record
1 consensus All-American
38 NFL players drafted
6 conference titles in 27 years is outstanding. 5 of them were outright too, with just 1 shared. 17/27 seasons have had winning records, with 3 more 5-win seasons. Outside of two 0 win seasons, UCF is 192-117 for an average record of 8-5, pretty damn good. What, that’s not really that impressive? Well, how about 7 double digit win seasons in just 27 years? What more, 7 double digit win seasons in the last 16 years! If you’re still not convinced why UCF was a good pickup for the Big 12, look no further than the players UCF has produced. Former players include NFL Pro Bowlers QB Daunte Culpepper, CB Asante Samuel, WR Brandon Marshall, OL Josh Sitton, RB Latavius Murray, and CB Shaquill Griffin. That’s not even counting 1st round selections QB Blake Bortles, WR Breshad Perriman, and CB Mike Hughes. UCF’s consensus AA is RB Kevin Smith in 2007, who ran for the 2nd most yards in history in a season with 2567. Smith also led the NCAA in TD with 29 and set an NCAA record for carries with 450.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 2015 (0-12 overall, 0-8 American)
It seemed like coach George O’Leary just kind of…gave up? UCF was coming off a 9-4 year and was just 2 years removed from a Fiesta Bowl win, but had one of the worst collapses in NCAA history going just 0-12 in 2015. O’Leary gets a lot of credit for leading UCF to great heights, but it was time for him to go. An opening 14-15 loss to FIU would end up being the best result all year, as just 2 weeks later UCF lost 15-16 to Furman. All subsequent losses would be by 14+ points, with an average scoreline of 15-43. UCF hit rock bottom in the second half of the season with losses of 10-59 to Houston, 7-52 to Cincinnati, 7-44 to East Carolina, and worst of all, 3-44 to USF in the War on I-4. QB Justin Holman, who had thrown 23 TD 14 INT the year prior, threw the same amount of INTs, but this time with just 7 TD. The run game was nonexistant, the defense was swiss cheese, and only 1 player made 1st/2nd Team All-AAC: The punter, Caleb Houston. He certainly had a lot of field time in 2015.
2015 UCF was the 7th worst season by any team since 1983.
5. 2010 (11-3 overall, 7-1 Conference USA)
UCF was still a pretty young program at the time, in just their 13th FBS season. They were pretty good by this time though, having won the C-USA title in 2007 and went 8-5 in 2009. A 2-2 start included close losses to NC State (21-28) and Kansas State (13-17), both of whom would have winning seasons. A 5 game C-USA win streak followed, pushing UCF to 7-2 and #23 in the rankings before an upset loss to Southern Miss. UCF still controlled their destiny, and won their last two to finish 9-3 and make the C-USA title game. SMU at 7-5 had gone through an up and down year with a talented offense, but UCF held them to just 7 points in a 17-7 victory, winning their 2nd C-USA title in 4 years. UCF embarrassed Georgia in the bowl 10-6, a game which Bulldog fans felt was a low point for the program, who had gone just 6-7 in 2010. UCF finished the season 11-3 ranked #21 in the AP Poll. DE Bruce Miller won C-USA Defensive POTY for the 2nd straight year with 8.5 sacks, 5 TFL, 2 INT, and 2 TD. Standing just 6’1 250 lbs, Miller converted to FB in the NFL and started for 3 NFC Championship San Francisco 49ers teams from 2011-13.
4. 2019 (10-3 overall, 6-2 American)
Even though they didn’t win as many games as 2017 and 2018, this was still a really good team. UCF entered the year at #17, and looked the part, starting 3-0 and leading Stanford 38-7 at the end of the first half. #15 UCF then lost a regular season game for the first time since 2016, falling 34-35 to Pitt. 2 weeks later they’d finally fall out of the top 25 after losing to Cincinnati on the road, whose fans rushed the field. Despite the growing pains for UCF and new QB Dillon Gabriel, they’d finish strong, winning 6 of their final 7 games by an average score of 42-25. UCF set an NCAA record for consecutive games scoring 30+ points, with 30+ in 31 straight games, and the offense ranked 5th in the country with 43.4 PPG. Best wins included 48-14 over 11-3 FAU, 45-27 over Stanford, 63-21 over 8-5 Temple, and 48-25 over Marshall in the Gasparilla Bowl. Freshman QB Dillon Gabriel had a very productive year, throwing for 3500+ yards with 29 TD 7 INT. WR Gabe Davis was a PFF 3rd Team All-American, catching 72 balls for 1241 yards and 12 TD, and is currently Josh Allen’s #2 target on the Buffalo Bills.
3. 2018 (12-1 overall, 8-0 American)
Josh Heupel’s first year with the team after Scott Frost left for Nebraska. Plenty of talent returned, the main piece being QB McKenzie Milton. UCF entered at #21 and beat up on a fairly soft schedule (85th ranked SOS) with the most notable wins being 45-14 over Pitt, 38-13 over #24 Cincinnati, and 56-41 over Memphis in the AAC title game. Milton went down in the USF game with an injury that would put him out of commission for years, but backup QB Darriel Mack Jr stepped up big in his absence. After going down 7-24 to Memphis in the title game, Mack threw for 348 yards, ran for 59, and had 6 total TD in the comeback win. They would sorely miss Milton in the bowl game against #11 LSU though, and lost 32-40, ending a 25 game winning streak. Milton won AAC Offensive POTY for the 2nd straight season, throwing for 2663 yards 25 TD 6 INT while rushing for 307 with 9 TD, and was 6th in Heisman voting. Kicker Matthew Wright became UCF’s all-time leading scorer with 375 points, perhaps more well-known to the casual fan as the kicker who started over Youtuber “Deestroying” (Donald De La Haye) in 2015/16.
2018 UCF is my 23rd best Group of 5 team since 1983.
2. 2013 (12-1 overall, 8-0 American)
Before 2017, the 2013 UCF team was the breakthrough squad. Blake Bortles walked so McKenzie Milton could run. After a 2-0 start, UCF beat Penn State 34-31 in Happy Valley. A return trip home against #12 South Carolina had upset written all over it, and Bortles nearly did it, throwing for 358 yards in a 25-28 loss. From there, UCF began their quest for a conference title. Louisville was the overwhelming favorite to win the AAC with Heisman contender QB Teddy Bridgewater, but UCF shocked the nation with a 38-35 win over the #8 Cardinals on a Friday night. UCF came back from down 7-28 and threw a game winning TD pass to former QB Jeff Godfrey, who was the starter for the 2010 team talked about above. From then on the schedule was a cakewalk, winning 6 straight games with 5 of the teams finishing the year with a losing record. UCF limped into the bowl with one-possession wins over 2-10 USF and 5-7 SMU, but clinched a spot in the Fiesta Bowl at 11-1. Unfortunately, they’d have to play #6 Baylor, who had one of the most potent offenses college football had ever seen, averaging 53.3 PPG under QB Bryce Petty. Despite being 17 point underdogs, UCF played a perfect game, limiting Baylor’s offense and letting their own playmakers go to work in a 51-41 victory.
UCF finished #10 in the polls, their highest finish ever at the time. Bortles won AAC Offensive POTY competing 68% of throws for 3581 yards 25 TD 9 INT and rushing for 6 more TD. He was the 3rd overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. George O’Leary won AAC Coach of the Year, and 10 players made 1st/2nd team all-conference. Despite finishing just #12 in my poll for 2013, this team was VERY good, even better than 2018 UCF which finished #7 in my rankings that year. 2013 just had a lot of really really good teams in college football.
2013 UCF is my 16th best Group of 5 team since 1983. I know the AAC was considered a “Power 6” conference for just 2013, but this was clearly a Group of 5 conference masquerading as a Power 5. The rankings treated the AAC like a G5 conference, ranking UCF #10 and Louisville #15 despite both going 12-1, and leaving 9-4 Cincinnati unranked. The only teams in the conference that would go on to play in a Power conference over the next 9 seasons were Louisville and…Rutgers. UCF also had a roster that was constructed entirely during their C-USA days. I rest my case.
1. 2017 (13-0 overall, 8-0 American)
Ah yes, the 2017 UCF Knights. Where to begin? They were coming off just a 6-7 year, what happened? They showed lots of promise in the early weeks, leaving FIU for dead 61-17, dominating 2-0 Maryland 38-10, who had just beaten a top 25 Texas team, and blowing out AAC contender Memphis 40-13. The Knights were on the rise, and the AP Poll took note, ranking them #25 at 3-0. UCF blew out soft opponent after soft opponent, with some close games against teams that would finish with a winning record, like 31-21 over Navy, and 31-24 over SMU. That set up the biggest game in school history between 10-0 UCF and 9-1 USF, the War on I-4. In college football’s best game of 2017, UCF won 49-42 on a late kick return TD by future 1st round pick Mike Hughes, both preserving the unbeaten season and securing a spot in the conference title game. UCF became the first team in FBS history to go from winless to unbeaten through the regular season in a 2 year span (0-12 in 2015 to 11-0 in 2017). The set up a rematch with now-#20 Memphis in the conference title game, and THAT was an insane one as well, with UCF winning 62-55 (2OT), in the highest scoring conference title game in FBS history. UCF played #7 Auburn in the Peach Bowl, who had beaten #1 Georgia and #1 Alabama previously. One-handed LB Shaquem Griffin had the game of his life, racking up 12 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and 2 TFL in a 34-27 win.
UCF claimed the 2017 National Title via the Colley Matrix, with the primary logic being they were the only unbeaten team in 2017, and had beaten the only team (Auburn) to beat College Football Playoff national champion Alabama. Whether or not you think they deserve the title, this was an unreal team that finished #6 in the AP Poll, and was one of the best Group of 5 teams in history. QB McKenzie Milton completed 67% for 4037 yards 37 TD 9 INT and ran for 613 with 8 TD, winning AAC Offensive POTY and finishing 8th in Heisman voting. Shaquem Griffin was 2nd Team All-American and won the 2019 NCAA Inspiration Award, racking up 74 tackles, 7 sacks, 6.5 TFL, 1 INT, 3 PBU, 2 FF, and 2 FR…with just 1 hand!!! Scott Frost won a whole bunch of National Coach of the Year awards. Overall, 9 players made 1st Team All-AAC and 7 players made the 2nd team.
2017 UCF is my 3rd best Group of 5 team since 1983. They’re also the 106th best team from any conference since 1983. They finished just 7th in my rankings for 2017, but there were a lot of really great teams that year.
5th Quarter
Does UCF have a legitimate claim to the 2017 national title? Do you agree with my assessment that 2017 UCF is the 3rd best Group of 5 team of the last 40 years, and the 106th best team overall in that span? What about UCF’s placement in this list as a program, seem fair? Who was a better college QB, McKenzie Milton or Blake Bortles? Think the move to the Big 12 was a good one for UCF and for the conference? UCF fans, how was it taking a trip down memory lane in this article?
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