Knights look to get back in the win column against the Panthers

Photo courtesy of Aryah Britt

The Knights will look to regroup and bounce back after their 12-7 loss to Pittsburgh last week as they host Georgia State this Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Acrisure Bounce House.

This matchup will mark the first-ever contest between the two programs.

The Knights (1-1, 0-0 Big 12) head into the matchup without their starting redshirt senior quarterback Alonza Barnett III, who suffered a ‘significant’ hamstring injury in the loss, according to head coach Scott Frost.

Frost told reporters Monday that although Barnett will miss time, UCF has yet to name a new starting quarterback.

The rest of the quarterback room includes senior Keyone Jenkins, redshirt sophomore Kaleb Annett, and freshmen Rocco Marriott and Dante Carr.

Frost declined to elaborate on UCF’s game plan but mentioned that they are actively piecing one together with the pieces he has at the position.

“We’re getting a game plan ready, and we’re focused on this game,” Frost said. “The good thing is we got a lot of quarterbacks and that’s going to allow us to run our offense and what we want to do.”

Offensively, the Knights could not establish the run against Pittsburgh as they were held to 20 yards on 22 carries and faced significant pressure from the Panthers’ defensive line.

Offensive coordinator Steve Cooper told reporters on Tuesday that the lack of offensive production falls on the fundamentals, the big focus for Cooper as they game plan.

“There’s a lot of things we got to look at as coaches and reflect and make those corrections quickly,” Cooper said. “We got a plan in place to take care of those issues that showed up on Saturday.”

Like Frost, Cooper also didn’t say much about Saturday’s game plan or the starting quarterback, but said he is excited about the opportunity.

“These are guys that have been getting reps, and a lot of guys got reps in the spring that will carry over,” Cooper said.

The Knights defense will look to disrupt a Panthers’ (2-0, 0-0 SBC) offense that has amassed 90 points, 11 touchdowns, 532 passing yards, and 514 rushing yards through two games.

The Knights are coming off an impressive performance, holding a Pittsburgh offense that scored 59 points in week one to just 10 last week, not including a safety.

Senior linebacker Tackett Curtis emphasized that the message this week is to keep improving every week and sees Saturday’s matchup as a chance to show that.

“The message moving forward is try to improve every week so that by the end of this thing, we’re the best team we can be,” Curtis said. “We got to come back out and play good ball again and get back on track.”

With an unnamed starting quarterback and a defense looking to stay strong, the Knights will look to rebound and improve against Georgia State at the Acrisure Bounce House this Saturday at 7 p.m.