Houston vs UCF: Knights edge Cougars, 19-14
By Jason Marcum
The Houston Cougars and UCF Knights entered the 2013 college football with about as much fanfare and attention as a cellar-dwelling BCS conference team was getting, but tonight’s game between the two schools surprisingly had BCS bowl implications on the line. Both teams were undefeated in the AAC conference, which will get an automatic BCS bowl game berth for whoever wins the conference outright, and with no championship game, this was as close to a title game as the conference will probably see.
After four quarter of back-and-forth football ,it was the Cougars who were on the doorsteps of victory after they got down to the Knight’s goaline with under a minute remaining.
But try as they might, they could not pierce the armor of the KNights defense, and UCF held on for a 19-14 win to improve to 7-1 and 4-0 in the AAC.
Team Stat Comparison, courtesy of ESPN
HOU | UCF | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Downs | 23 | 24 |
3rd down efficiency | 5-12 | 5-12 |
4th down efficiency | 0-2 | 1-1 |
| Total Yards | 367 | 398 |
| Passing | 231 | 210 |
Comp-Att | 24-46 | 17-24 |
Yards per pass | 5.0 | 8.8 |
| Rushing | 136 | 188 |
Rushing Attempts | 29 | 45 |
Yards per rush | 4.7 | 4.2 |
| Penalties | 8-72 | 2-16 |
| Turnovers | 2 | 3 |
Fumbles lost | 0 | 2 |
Interceptions thrown | 2 | 1 |
| Possession | 24:47 | 35:13 |
Houston Passing | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C/ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | INT | |
| John O’Korn | 24/46 | 231 | 5.0 | 1 | 2 |
| Team | 24/46 | 231 | 5.0 | 1 | 2 |
UCF Passing | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C/ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | INT | |
| Blake Bortles | 17/24 | 210 | 8.8 | 0 | 1 |
| Team | 17/24 | 210 | 8.8 | 0 | 1 |
Houston Rushing | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAR | YDS | AVG | TD | LG | |
| Kenneth Farrow | 8 | 57 | 7.1 | 0 | 16 |
| John O’Korn | 13 | 56 | 4.3 | 1 | 24 |
| Ryan Jackson | 5 | 12 | 2.4 | 0 | 7 |
| Wayne Beadle | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 0 | 10 |
| Daniel Spencer | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kent Brooks | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | 29 | 136 | 4.7 | 1 | 24 |
UCF Rushing | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAR | YDS | AVG | TD | LG | |
| Storm Johnson | 28 | 127 | 4.5 | 0 | 18 |
| William Stanback | 9 | 74 | 8.2 | 2 | 38 |
| Blake Bortles | 6 | -10 | -1.7 | 0 | 4 |
| Team | 45 | 188 | 4.2 | 2 | 38 |
Houston Receiving | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LG | |
| Deontay Greenberry | 8 | 94 | 11.8 | 0 | 20 |
| Wayne Beadle | 2 | 32 | 16.0 | 1 | 20 |
| Kenneth Farrow | 3 | 25 | 8.3 | 0 | 22 |
| Xavier Maxwell | 2 | 21 | 10.5 | 0 | 12 |
| Demarcus Ayers | 1 | 20 | 20.0 | 0 | 20 |
| Daniel Spencer | 2 | 13 | 6.5 | 0 | 7 |
| Aaron Johnson | 2 | 10 | 5.0 | 0 | 8 |
| Ryan Jackson | 3 | 9 | 3.0 | 0 | 9 |
| Markeith Ambles | 1 | 7 | 7.0 | 0 | 7 |
| Team | 24 | 231 | 9.6 | 1 | 22 |
UCF Receiving | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LG | |
| Jeff Godfrey | 5 | 67 | 13.4 | 0 | 41 |
| Breshad Perriman | 5 | 60 | 12.0 | 0 | 23 |
| Rannell Hall | 3 | 43 | 14.3 | 0 | 24 |
| Josh Reese | 2 | 22 | 11.0 | 0 | 20 |
| J.J. Worton | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 0 | 10 |
| Storm Johnson | 1 | 8 | 8.0 | 0 | 8 |
| Team | 17 | 210 | 12.4 | 0 | 41 |