It has been a wild couple of weeks in college football, but what happened on Saturday in Orlando — a UCF Knights double-overtime win over the BYU Cougars — might be the craziest thing yet.
After a big win over Notre Dame and Top 10 teams dropping like flies last weekend, the BYU Cougars found themselves coming into Week 8 at No. 2 in the nation.
On Saturday, they headed down to Orlando, Florida, to take on Scott Frost’s UCF Knights.
The 3-3 Knights have struggled in the Big 12 since joining the conference, but tend to be better at home in the friendly confines of the Acrisure Bounce House.
The Cougars opened the scoring when quarterback Bear Bachmeier hit wide receiver Kyler Kasper for six.
But UCF managed to hold them through the rest of the first quarter and then answered with a touchdown of their own in the second, when Knights running back Landen Chambers broke through a notoriously solid BYU defensive line on the goal line.
After forcing BYU to punt, UCF managed to drive deep into Cougar territory, but failed to get into the endzone. They settled for a field goal attempt on fourth-and-goal. While kicker Will Stone got the job done to give the Knights a 10-7 lead, the decision to play it safe drew boos from the home fans.
They may have had a point because Bachmeier lowered his head and burst into the end zone on the following possession.
UCF ended the half with another red zone drive coming off of an interception, only this time they didn’t have to settle for a field goal.
QB Keyone Jenkins found Chambers through the air for six.
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That plus an extra point meant that UCF took a 17-14 lead to the locker room at halftime. This was the third time they led or were tied with a ranked opponent at the half this season, but went on to lose both games.
In the second half — with rain falling — BYU scored on their first drive, but UCF answered right back to regain their three-point lead.
BYU settled for a field goal to tie the game at 24-24.
A couple of drives later, a short punt gave UCF good field position with 8:50 left in the game.
What followed was an 11-play drive that set up a fourth-down play on the goal line.
The Knights held the Cougars deep in their own end, but they flipped the field with a booming punt ahead of UCF’s final drive of regulation. Johnson then led the offense downfield and into kicker Will Stone’s field goal range.
On second-and-ten, it appeared that Jenkins had fumbled and it was recovered by BYU; however, upon review, it was overturned and ruled an incomplete pass. On top of that, BYU defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that gave the Knights a fresh set of downs and moved them up to the BYU 28-yard line.
After a few plays to bleed time off the clock, UCF brought out the kicking unit on third down, but the kick was blocked and recovered behind the line of scrimmage. With Stone’s helmet coming off and no flag on the play, the half came to an end because of a ten-second run-off, and it was off to overtime.
UCF won the toss and elected to get the ball second.
On third-and-13, Bachmeier hit Legend Glasker to put the Cougars ahead.
But it didn’t last long because on UCF’s first play, Jenkins scrambled for his life, then found receiver Josh Derry in the endzone.
The PAT was good, and the OT continued.
Stone returned and kicked a field goal, but BYU’s Kendal Wall was called for roughing the kicker, giving the Knights a fresh set of downs, and it only took two plays for Jenkins to hit tight end Grayson Brousseau — who grew up fifteen minutes from Provo — for the touchdown, and then was successful on the mandated two-point attempt.
In their second OT possession, BYU’s undefeated season and No. 2 ranking came down to a single play, and UCF managed to hang on for the biggest win over a ranked team in program history.
What. A. Game.
That throws a huge wrench into the rankings and playoff picture, and it had the potential to rejuvenate UCF’s season as they go to 4-3 with a signature win under their belt.
Kalani Sitake’s Cougars will now look to bounce back on Halloween against the Arizona State Sun Devils, while the UCF Knights will move on to face Baylor.