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Two years ago when Central Florida came to Cajun Field, the Golden Knights had won a grand total of one out of 14 games under coach George O'Leary. They'd never won a road game since O'Leary took over in time for a winless 2004 season.
But everything changed when John Brown made a 28-yard field goal with three seconds left, giving UCF a rain-soaked 24-21 win over the Ragin' Cajuns.
The Knights only lost one game the rest of the season, advancing to the Conference USA championship game and making the program's first bowl appearance in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.
Things come full circle Saturday when the Cajuns travel to Orlando to face a Knight team that has bounced back strong from a 4-8 disappointment last year. UCF already has a season-opening win over North Carolina State and a close call with Texas before pounding C-USA foe Memphis 56-20 last Saturday.
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070927/SPORTS/709270319/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
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"In all my years of coaching, I don't know that I have had any team as efficient," O'Leary said of Saturday's win. "Seven possessions and seven scores ... I thought that the game mushroomed from there. Now the coach's job is to keep them there."
O'Leary, the former head coach at Georgia Tech and for two weeks the head coach at Notre Dame before a resume' controversyled to his resignation, came to UCF after two years with the Minnesota Vikings. His first season was an 0-11 disaster, but the Knights went 8-4 in the 2005 regular season before losing 49-48 in overtime to Nevada in the bowl game.
Last year was a step backwards, but the Knights still won three games in C-USA play and aimed for bigger things in what is already a historic season. UCF, after playing off campus at the Citrus Bowl for most of its history, moved into the 45,000-seat on-campus Bright House Networks Stadium two weeks ago when they played Texas within 35-32.
The Memphis game followed last weekend.
"I'd been saying all along that I thought we have practiced better each week," O'Leary said. "We still have a long way to go. We had some turnovers in the third quarter that hurt us, but I've seen improvement each game from N.C. State to Texas to Memphis."
One area that O'Leary hasn't had to worry about improvement is at tailback, where running back Kevin Smith has picked up where he left off. Smith had 2,112 yards in his freshman and sophomore seasons, not that far short of UL tailback Tyrell Fenroy's 2,250 yards, and he's opened the season with 217 yards against N.C. State, 149 against Texas and 117 against Memphis.
Smith is ninth among the nation's active rushers with 2,602 yards (Fenroy is 12th at 2,537). As a team, UCF is 12th nationally in rushing, and UL's number six rushing ranking should set up an interesting matchup for Saturday's 5 p.m. meeting.
"They run a good offense that breaks you down to responsibility on defense, much like the old Wishbone attack," O'Leary said of the Cajuns. "It's dive, keep and pitch. Anytime people can do that, all it takes is one breakdown and the ball is gone down the sidelines. They've rushed it against everybody they have played and done a good job with it."
Fortunately for the Knights and O'Leary, UCF's defense may be the most improved segment of the squad since last season. UCF allowed nearly 29 points per game in 2006 even though not allowing over 24 in any of its last four games.
"I think we've improved defensively from a tackling standpoint," O'Leary said. "We're a much better contact tackling team with a lot more guys around the ball. And we're just starting to get healthy there. But we know we have to be accountable on assignments against that bunch on Saturday."
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