10 teams who could make their first College Football Playoff in 2019
By Nick Villano
7. UCF
Look who we have here. The University of Central Florida makes the list. How many years can this team go undefeated in the regular season before they actually get legitimate title hype?
Well, it sure helps that the Knights have Stanford on their schedule this season. They can look back at that game at the end of the season and say they played a legit contender. This is something that’s usually missing from their resume.
They play Temple, Cincinnati and Pitt on the road. For most teams, it isn’t good to play your tough matchups on the road, but the teams facing UCF have never been their biggest opponent. It’s always been the committee and their strength of schedule.
This is a sort of transition year for UCF. They lost McKenzie Milton to one of the worst knee injuries we’ve ever seen. Right now, he hasn’t been ruled out for next season, but he spent weeks in the hospital and he attended spring practices still on crutches.
Darriel Mack Jr. will likely step into his place for the time being. However, he has competition from Notre Dame transfer Brandon Wimbush. However, unlike most teams, the talent at the quarterback position may not be the most important.
The Knights have a three-headed monster in Greg McCrae, Adrian Killins Jr. and Otis Anderson. Then they have Gabriel Davis making tough catches from the wide receiver position. As long as the quarterbacks can avoid throwing their team out of the game with major mistakes, the skill positions can carry this offense.
Again, it’s going to take some impressive wins to gain national notoriety this season. UCF needs to prove itself a powerhouse after the Milton injury to gain national title buzz. However, many of these players could easily be on Power 5 programs, and that might be enough for the committee to finally give them a chance.