Knights open conference play with a win, improve to 3-1 on the season

Photo courtesy of Aryah Britt

Quarterback Keyone Jenkins delivered a record-setting performance through the air while UCF’s defense forced four turnovers, helping the Knights secure a 21-13 victory over TCU on Saturday in their Big 12 opener at the Acrisure Bounce House.

The Knights’ (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) defense has shown out in their opening drives, holding their opponents scoreless so far in their last three games.

On Saturday’s opening series, a pass completed across the middle by TCU quarterback Jaden Craig was punched out by redshirt senior defensive back Jayden Bellamy and recovered by senior defensive back Braeden Marshall in TCU territory.

UCF capped off that drive with a 13-yard touchdown run along the sideline by redshirt freshman running back Taevion Swint, giving the Knights an early lead.

The Horned Frogs (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) didn’t take long to go down field and answer.

After a 43-yard deep shot from Craig to returning wide receiver Jordan Dwyer landed them in UCF territory, the Horned Frogs punched it in with running back Jeremy Payne.

With the score evened at seven, a critical fumble by senior quarterback Keyone Jenkins after a five-yard gain on third-and-one gave the ball back to the Horned Frogs.

After an exchange of punts from both sides, redshirt junior defensive tackle Jeffson Lafontant tallied back-to-back TFLs to end the first quarter.

The second quarter opened and continued with punts exchanged between the two programs up until the 11:49 mark.

On fourth-and-two, a quarterback keeper by Jenkins stopped short of the line to gain positioned the Horned Frogs near midfield.

Craig continued to find success with the deep ball as he fired deep down field to wide receiver Jeremy Scott for a 37-yard gain, putting them within the ten-yard line.

However, the Knights’ defense held on, and the Horned Frogs settled for a field goal and took a threw point lead over the Black and Gold.

On the ensuing drive, the offense marched downfield, with the assistance of an unnecessary roughness call, and Jenkins found redshirt freshman tight end Caden Piening who fought his way through defenders to get into the end zone for his first career touchdown and gave the lead back to the Knights.

With the Horned Frogs playing from behind again, Craig’s pass on second down was intercepted by Bellamy who secured his first interception of the season and his second takeaway of the day.

Unfortunately, the Knights could not capitalize on the opportunity with any points as Jenkins was sacked and lost the football for the second time of the night.

With a little over a minute left to play in the half, the Knights held on defensively and went into halftime up 14-10 after 30 minutes.

After a Knights punt on their first drive out of the half, the Horned Frogs killed nearly ten minutes off the clock with a meticulous 15 play drive that ended with a 45-yard field goal.

The Knights, still holding a lead, made their way downfield after back-to-back penalties set them up at the one-yard line. Redshirt junior running back Landen Chambers then punched it in to extend the Knights’ lead to 21-13.

With about eight minutes left in the contest, a false start on third-and-nine for the Horned Frogs had the Bounce House electrified as it pushed them back five yards.

Now in a third and long situation, Craig attempted to pass over the middle to Dwyer, but it fell incomplete and TCU kicker Nate McCasland then missed a 50-yard field goal that would have cut the lead down to five.

The Knights had their turn with the ball but could not find a way to extend the lead and punted the ball back to the Horned Frogs with five and half minutes left.

The Horned Frogs fought to potentially tie the game, however, a deep shot attempted by Craig was intercepted by senior defensive back Antione Jackson which left less than two minutes on the game clock.

After the Knights could not run out the rest of the clock, TCU had one final chance, but a fumbled possession sealed the deal for UCF with a final score of 21-13.

The victory in the conference opener improved the Knights’ record to 3-1 for their fifth season in a row.

After going 7-for-17 and 86 yards against Georgia State in his first start, Jenkins went 19-for-20 through the air for 160 yards and a touchdown on Saturday, recording a 95 percent completion rate.

Jenkins’ percent completion rate broke the program’s record for the highest completion percentage in team history. The record previously belonged to quarterbacks coach McKenzie Milton who tallied a 90.3 percent completion against Austin Peay in 2017.

Jenkins told the media postgame that the seamless script flip was due to the help of his supporting cast including his teammates and coaches.

“We came in the meeting on Monday and they said ‘Lightz, we got you’ and they build so much confidence in me,” Jenkins said. “They feel like I can get the job done week in and week out, those guys lean on me so I’m going to lean on them.”

The Knights’ defense shined with four takeaways on the whole day with two of them coming from Bellamy with a punch out and an interception.

Bellamy also spoke to the media postgame and said the constant enforcement of takeaways and keeping the ball in the offense’s hands has given fuel to this defensive unit.

“They’ve been preaching giving the ball to Lightz and giving him as many opportunities as possible,” Bellamy said. “Coach Grinch and Coach Overstreet preach us takeaways, so our only attention was the ball.”

The defensive line also showed they had a lot to prove as they secured six tackles for loss, 19 total tackles, and only allowed 33 rushing yards on 27 attempts.

Another factor that played into the result was self-inflicted mistakes made by the Horned Frogs as they tallied eleven penalties for 86 yards while the Knights only accounted for four but for 50 yards.

Head coach Scott Frost said while his defense shined and stepped up massively, ball protection and some self-inflicted actions and penalties still need to be fixed.

The Knights will need to patch up as much as they can as they hit the road to Houston, Texas to battle the No. 20-ranked Houston Cougars this Saturday at 12 p.m.