Written by Garin Turner
With the Selection Sunday almost upon us, there’s one more game to play to try and get into position for a potential berth in the College Football Playoff as No.7 UCF takes on the Memphis Tigers in the AAC championship game in a rematch from last year’s championship game. The party kicks off December 1, 3:30 EST on ABC.
The Knights come into the game with the nation’s longest winning streak at 24 games. Head coach Josh Heupel has done a great job this season after former coach Scott Frost left to coach his alma mater Nebraska. The Knights are 11-0 and are eighth in the nation in scoring offense at 43.1 points per game. They are also fifth in the nation in total offense with 531.5 yards per game.
On the defensive side of the ball, UCF is in the same spot it was a year ago. The Knights are second in the nation in turnover margin at +1.45. The defense has forced at minimum one turnover in its last 30 games, dating all the way back to 2016. It’s the longest streak in the nation.
“I like the way we’ve continued to compete. We’ve given up yards. If you look at where we rank as far as points per game, we’ve done a tremendous job. They’ve played with great red zone defense. For the last couple of weeks they’ve been suffocating, both in the run game, penetrating, team tackling, guys rallying to the football, tight coverage on the back end. They’ve played a complete game the last few weeks and we need to play that way tomorrow,” Heupel said.
Memphis head coach Mike Norvell is in his third season with the team. The Tigers are on a four-game winning streak after starting the season 4-4. “I’m proud of our football team to find a way back for a second conference championship game in the last two years. The things that we’ve seen throughout this year and some of the adversity that shown up, at one point 1-3 in conference play, and went into a bye week to continue to build off the culture and the values of our program, our guys did an incredible job responding to win our last four to make it here to the championship game,” Norvell said. They are led by running back Darrell Henderson who’s rushed for 1,699 yards, good for 141.6 a game, both the most in FBS. He also has 19 touchdowns on the season.
Both teams stack up well against each other in many areas. They are almost identical in rushing yards per game as UCF has 269.8 while Memphis is at 275.9. UCF will have to win without its star quarterback McKenzie Milton who suffered a horrible knee injury last week in the second quarter. Darriel Mack Jr. will take the reins in his place. Mack has seen limited action this year completing 21 passes for 174 yards. He’s also added 281 yards on the ground and two scores. “ He’s fearless. He makes a good play, he comes back and plays the next play. He makes a bad play, he comes back and plays the next play. Physically, they’re built differently. Fundamentally, schematically, how we play really doesn’t change,” Heupel said of Mack.
The Knights and Tigers met earlier in the year on Oct. 13 where UCF rallied from 16 points down in the third quarter by scoring 17 unanswered for a 31-30 victory. The last four meetings have been decided by seven points or less. Last year’s title game ended in a triple-overtime 62-55 win for the Knights. “Our focus is on this game. We look back at the experience of playing them during the season, and we have to be better than what we were at the midpoint when we played them in Memphis. We shouldn’t need to motivate our guys. We’re playing for the American Athletic Conference Championship. We’re playing a top-10 team in the country,” Norvell said.
Under center for the Tigers is Brady White, a transfer from Arizona State. White has 2,947 yards passing and 25 touchdowns. In the game against UCF, he had 209 yards in the air.
This matchup promises to be a high scoring affair as both teams battle for AAC bragging rights. A win for the Knights puts them into a New Year’s Six Bowl, while a win for Memphis would put an end to the dream run by UCF and silence any rumblings of CFP rejection.
