Knights road struggles continue in loss to Pittsburgh

Photo courtesy of UCF Athletics

UCF football drops its first game of the season on the road, falling 12-7 to the University of Pittsburgh in a wet Acrisure Stadium on Saturday.

In a matchup that was set to kick off at 3:30 p.m., a 90-minute weather delay pushed kickoff to around 4:35 p.m. Although the game began, the weather persisted throughout.

The game got off to a defensive start from both sides, with the lone points in the opening quarter coming from a Panthers (2-0, 0-0 ACC) field goal.

Halfway through the second quarter, a play turned catastrophic when an intentional grounding call in the end zone awarded the Panthers a safety, giving Pittsburgh a 5-0 lead.

Head coach Scott Frost spoke postgame and took the blame for the miscue, highlighting a playcalling mishap between him and redshirt senior quarterback Alonza Barnett III.

“I’m embarrassed to say why, but I had a call sheet on the field with an ink pen. We have a few numbers that are wristband calls that are a little longer,” Frost said. “The ink bled into the wristband number, and I called the wrong play. That’s certainly not a play call I would have made on the six-yard line.”

With the first half ending, Pittsburgh running back Damon Ferguson Jr. found the end zone thanks to the help of his offensive line pushing him through the plane, giving the Panthers a 12-0 lead heading into halftime.

The Knights (1-1, 0-0 Big 12) struggled offensively throughout the first half, only tallying 74 total yards of offense, including a single negative yard on the ground.

UCF had its opportunities to put points on the board in the first half. Still, an out-of-reach pass for senior tight end Dylan Wade and a dropped interception by redshirt senior defensive back Jayden Bellamy left potential on the table.

The third quarter saw offensive struggles from both teams as they combined for less than 100 yards of total offense, with UCF accounting for 57 yards and Pittsburgh for 29.

The fourth quarter saw the Knights’ best passing offense as they recorded 65 yards through the air.

UCF finally found itself on the board late in the fourth with a 19-yard pass hauled in by sophomore wide receiver Waden Charles in the end zone.

With a glimpse of life for the Knights, they forced a three-and-out to get the ball back with 2:24 left to play. However, the Knights failed to capitalize and secured their first loss of the season, falling 12-7.

The Knights now extend their road losing streak to ten, and with road matchups against Houston, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Colorado still ahead, it emphasizes the need for improvement.

Barnett sustained an injury in the second-to-last play of the drive, causing senior quarterback Keyone Jenkins to take over on the 4th and 4. Frost said postgame that the extent of the injury is currently unknown.

For an offense that ran for 360 yards last week in their win against Bethune-Cookman, the Knights ended the afternoon with only 20 yards rushing on 22 carries, averaging 0.9 yards per carry.

Through the air, Barnett finished the afternoon going 20-for-31, 186 yards, and a touchdown.

Frost spoke postgame and said the group has a lot to look through after their offensive performance, leaving a lot to wonder about what exactly went wrong.

“I think there’s a lot that we have to look at and reconsider…it just didn’t look clean,” Frost said. “Against a defense like that, if you’re not clean, you’re not going to hit.”

The defense, however, was the shining spotlight for UCF as it limited Pittsburgh to 103 yards on the ground and held Mason Heintschel to no touchdowns.

Senior linebacker Lewis Carter led the defense with 10 tackles, and fellow senior linebacker Tackett Curtis followed suit with a career-high nine tackles on the afternoon.

Carter said postgame that it’s back to the drawing board for the squad.

“Back to the drawing board man, I told the offense that we here for them and that we feed off one another,” Carter said. “Offense had a few bumps in the road, defense had a few bumps in the road, and we didn’t play our best game. We just got to go back to the drawing board and work together.”

Frost credited his defense with keeping his team in the game and highlighted the need to find ways to win when your team plays like that.

“I’m so happy for how the defense played, and if they give us that kind of effort on the road, we got to find a way to win that one,” Frost said. “A year ago, I don’t know if we’d have kept fighting through a game like that. They kept fighting and swinging and put ourselves in a position to have a chance at the end.”

The Knights return home as they welcome the Georgia State Panthers to the Acrisure Bounce House on Saturday at 7 p.m. with a chance to bounce back after the loss.