How college football fans should feel about UCF

Caveat: I went to UCF for grad school and am a big fan and season ticket holder. I also went to FSU for undergrad and root for them as well. But, my first love is Penn State, who I grew up rooting for with my dad since childhood. Go Knights. Charge On. Scalp ’em. We are…

College football fandom is a mixture of wild emotions, heated tribalism, and poor logic. All mixed together, it creates quite the cesspool. Fans have done horrible things to each other, their rival schools, and even their own kids in the name of school spirit. In the last few seasons, UCF emerged as a polarizing antagonist in the college football narrative, and the bad takes and bad tweets have filled the cesspool to the brim. But just as the debate seems to have settled itself after UCF’s Friday night loss at Cincinatti, I’m here to explain why everyone is wrong about UCF (and subsequently get EVERYONE mad at me).

First, let me address the non-UCF fans…

Why the hate? Do you root against Hickory when you watch Hoosiers? Did you root for the Russian in Rocky IV? The right tackle in Rudy? UCF is the ultimate underdog, I don’t know why more people aren’t rooting for them. Not to mention they are just exciting to watch! Isn’t it nice when there’s a shakeup and some new faces? Do college football fans just want to see Alabama vs. Clemson every year? How boring!

When UCF played LSU in the Fiesta Bowl on the first of the year, Forbes did a write up comparing the finances of the two programs. LSU brings in 4x the amount of money that UCF does for football, and spends about $12 million more (documented, if ya know what I mean). LSU is able to pay its coaches $7 million more than UCF. LSU’s stadium is twice the size of UCF’s. LSU started playing football in 1893; UCF in 1979. LSU’s recruiting classes were ranked #5, 2, 7, and 15. UCF’s? 71, 65, 55, and 62. How much more lopsided can this match up get? And yet, every non-UCF fan seemed to be rooting for LSU. I don’t get it.

Is it the National Champions thing?

I get why the National Champions thing would annoy people. But look at it from our perspective. UCF was the only undefeated team (out of 130) in 2017. Yes, their schedule was easy in comparison to many schools’. Yes, they play in a weaker conference. But beating weaker teams does not imply that UCF themselves are weak. By that logic, the New England Patriots must not be good because they play in the weakest division every year. Who cares if they have the best record, they shouldn’t get the #1 seed every year because they had an easier schedule. Like Alabama and Georgia, UCF is supposedly an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision team. When they were the only FBS team to win all of their games, to not be invited to the playoff suggested that there is absolutely no way for UCF to ever win a National Championship. This was reinforced the next year when they once again went undefeated and were once again left out. No matter what they do, they’ll never get invited to the playoff. Understandably, there is no way for 130 teams to play each other and sort it all out on the field, but wasn’t that the point of the playoff — to try to figure out who the best team is ON THE FIELD? If so, how could the ONLY undefeated team in the entire league not be considered in the top 4?

I will always defend the “claimed” National Championship. For one thing, one of the polls actually ranked UCF #1, so it’s somewhat legit. For another, if the deck is stacked against you, why sit there and take it? Why not stand up for yourself? Were UCF players, coaches, and fans supposed to be happy they were completely ignored? If they didn’t speak up, who would notice? “Claiming” a National Championship has gotten UCF more national exposure than anything else could have. And the backlash from opposing fans only made UCF fans believe it all the more. It felt like “everybody vs. us” and it brought the community together, strengthening the fan base.

“Do you really think UCF could have beaten ‘Bama?” I don’t know. Probably not. But maybe. Only one team beat ‘Bama that year and UCF beat that team, so… I think they should have at least gotten the chance to try. Besides, UCF and Alabama have played before… Georgia too.

Scheduling

There were a lot of people saying, “UCF needs to be more like Boise State and schedule better.” Well Boise State never got their shot either! That road has been traveled and it lead to nowhere. And as far as scheduling better, UCF has been scheduling two non-conference Power 5 teams every year. In 2017, their game with Georgia Tech was cancelled due to a hurricane. Same thing happened in 2018 when they were supposed to play UNC. The complaint from the outsiders is, UCF needs to play anybody anywhere. But for one, Boise State never took that approach, and for two, it wouldn’t work either. If going undefeated for two straight years is not enough to get into the playoff, nothing will be. And if that’s the case, why give up home games (and thus big money) to try to impress a committee that has already proven they won’t invite you no matter what you accomplish. Losing out on those games and that money won’t help build the program. The same thing goes for scheduling a 2-for-1 with Florida, which I don’t believe Florida would actually consider. Florida refuses to play a home-and-home series with UCF, but will travel to Utah for a home-and-home. I don’t blame them. There is too much on the line for them to possibly lose to UCF. So that leaves UCF back where they started — scheduling two P5 teams each year.

You can’t have it both ways

When UCF beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl, I heard a lot of, “Auburn wasn’t hyped up to play UCF. They didn’t care.” Never mind this. Then a year later, when UCF lost to LSU, I heard a lot of, “See, UCF can’t play with the big boys.” But perhaps, UCF wasn’t hyped up to play LSU. After all, they were ranked higher and were left out of the playoff yet again. Maybe they felt disrespected and didn’t want to play a lesser opponent. Or maybe, just maybe, UCF can play with anybody. Losing by a touchdown with a backup quarterback hardly seems like an open and shut case proving they don’t belong with the big boys*. Alabama got smoked by four touchdowns in the National Championship game, I guess they can’t hang with the big boys either.

*I know, I know, LSU was missing people too. But quarterback is the most important position, and besides, all of LSU’s recruits were higher rated than lowly UCF who doesn’t belong, so it shouldn’t have mattered. At best, it’s a wash

I also heard a lot of Florida fans (who I know were so relieved when they didn’t draw UCF in a bowl game) bring up the fact that they beat LSU, who beat UCF. Ergo, they would’ve beaten UCF too. But by that logic, UCF beat Auburn the year before, who beat both Alabama and Georgia, who played for the National Championship. Ergo, UCF were legitimate National Champions. You can’t have it both ways.

Annoying fans

Yes, UCF fans are annoying, but you know who else is annoying? Florida fans, Miami fans, Florida State fans, and the fans of every other college or professional team in every single sport. SEC fans, you guys are the worst! When I was at FSU in the mid aughts, the ‘Noles were slowly declining. The year before I moved to Tallahassee, they had been in the Sugar Bowl (that was the game where Anquan Boldin played QB because Chris Rix “overslept” and missed his final exam and Adrian McPherson had been kicked off the team for gambling), and two years before that they had played in their third consecutive National Championship Game. So when I got there, expectations were high. So high, that anything short of a National Championship was a failure. They still thought they should be a championship contender when they were sending out the likes of Wyatt Sexton, Xavier Lee, and Drew Weatherford at quarterback. Fans are dumb. Fans are delusional. Fans are obnoxious. Especially college football fans, and with Twitter and social media, it has gotten 1000x worse. But stop pretending UCF is the only school with annoying fans.

Speaking of annoying fans…

Now to my fellow UCF fans

Patience

Rome wasn’t built in a day. There are no shortcuts. Nothing worth having comes easy. Other cliches about success. UCF started playing football in 1979. Michigan had an undefeated season in 1879. UCF became Division 1A in 1996. That same year Clemson played their 101st season. UCF’s FBS membership can’t even rent a car yet. Most of the big name programs have had an enormous head start. It’s insane that UCF is in a far better position currently than most of them. I strongly believe UCF is going to be regularly in the top 25 year after year for the foreseeable future. Yes, they’ve been left out of the playoff the last two years despite being undefeated (the only undefeated team in 2017), and fans of Power 5 schools still look down their noses at us, but opinions are slowly changing. In 2017, nobody outside Orlando thought they deserved to be in the playoff. After they beat Auburn, a few people turned their heads. In 2018, as the win streak grew and grew there were a few believers, albeit not many. After the Stanford game this year, there were quite a few people saying UCF is as good as anybody. And the next time UCF has an incredible run, people won’t be surprised about it.

The big picture

The trajectory of UCF football has been on its way up for some time, maybe since its inception. So they’ve lost 2 games this year and have fallen out of the top 25. Relax. Apple and Disney have bad days, quarters, even years, but their stocks have continued to rise over time. The dips are like taking a step back, then 5 forward. UCF is doing a lot of things right, but it’s not like Danny White somehow figured out a secret formula that has allowed them to storm onto the scene and never have another bad game, season, or stretch again. It’s not that simple. We need to take our bumps and bruises just like everyone else. I know every Florida and Alabama fan was happy to see LSU beat UCF in the Fiesta Bowl, but they were wrong to think that would put an end to UCF’s surge. It’s just a small dip in our rising stock.

I keep seeing people tweeting that UCF should fire Josh Heupel. This is down right ridiculous. First off, on what grounds? They’ve lost 2 games by a total of 4 points, both on the road with a freshman quarterback. He’s 16-3 in his first two seasons. Yes, he inherited an undefeated team, but all three losses have come since his star quarterback shattered his knee. Are you allowed to critique? Of course! I thought in the Pitt game, Heupel should have either kicked the field goal both drives late in the fourth quarter, or gone for it both times. He did one of each, resulting in only 3 points and giving them a 6 point lead. They lost by 1. Yes, you can critique. But keep in mind, he is in his second year as a head coach. He has coached in about as many close games as Dillon Gabriel has played in. It’s absurd to expect him to be perfect at this point in his career, and to fire him and throw away his potential is downright stupid. There’s a great thought experiment to run before you fire a coach — You think about how many other teams would want to hire him once he’s available — if that number is high, you don’t fire him. Heupel would be getting tons of calls. Secondly, who would you hire to replace him? It’s not like there are tons of Dabo Swinneys and Nick Sabans out there waiting to be hired (BTW, Dabo went 9-5 and 6-6 in his first two full seasons as Clemson’s head coach and he took over a preseason top-10 team. Saban went 7-6 in his first year at ‘Bama, then started his second year 12-0 before getting stomped by Florida in the SEC Championship and embarrassed by Utah in the Sugar Bowl). Even if Bill Belichick himself (who was fired from his first head coaching gig… I bet the Browns would like to take that one back) announced he wanted to coach in college, there would be schools with much deeper pockets than UCF fighting to hire him. And those three guys I just mentioned, Dabo, Saban, and Belicheck, all have far more embarrassing losses on their resumes than any of Heupel’s. By the way, this is not to say that Josh Heupel is going to be the next great college football coach — he may be the next Ty Willingham or Will Muschamp — but give the guy an actual chance.

Heydays

Think about how far UCF football has come. I remember being in a practically empty Citrus Bowl for what I thought was about to be George O’Leary’s first win at UCF. They had just taken the lead over Northern Illinois with about 40 seconds left. This was it! Instead, they lost on a last second field goal and the losing streak continued (It would eventually reach 17-games). Even after the 2013 team’s Fiesta Bowl win over Baylor, it felt like a fluke season since just two years later they were back to being winless. But these last three years have been unreal. Think about how far the program has come. If you would’ve told me in 2015 that UCF will go undefeated for two straight years, College Gameday will come to campus, and opposing fans will rush the field when they beat UCF, I would have laughed in your face. These are the heydays of UCF football. The next generation will think nothing of a ranked UCF football team, but we will remember the 0-for seasons. We will remember lonely dancing girl, and sad “beat somebody” guy. And then we will remember these last few seasons. Seasons that have provided us with the stories we will tell our kids and grand-kids when we’re watching UCF games together – “That 2018 team was so good, they gave up 400 yards rushing in the conference championship game, had 3 turnovers, and still won by two touchdowns.” These are the heydays! Enjoy them!

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