It was a big win over Auburn.
The 2017 football season marks the tenth year since USF got on the American football map. The Bulls upset #17 Auburn, 26-23, in overtime at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It wasn’t the first time that they had beaten a ranked team, but it set to motion a chain of events that would land the program in the number two ranking in all of college football, even if short lived. The history is well-known, now, that they would lose three straight to drop from the national rankings, only to bounce back with a three game win-streak to finish the regular season #23 / 25. Oregon would go own to crush those Bulls, 56-21 in the Sun Bowl.
That was the tenth year of USF football and getting to the point of being ranked, much less into the top ten, was an enormous accomplishment. Beating Auburn mattered, not just because they were a ranked opponent, but they were a non-conference opponent from the respected SEC. And, because they’re Auburn, a storied football program. The national media had finally seen what could be from the up and coming football program from the school with the confusing directional name. South Florida wasn’t just a region, but a big university, USF, in a top 20 media market. And, they can play football there.
2017 marked the 20th anniversary of the program and the tenth anniversary of their arrival on the national scene. The program celebrated by posting their second double-digit win total in two consecutive years. Looking back, they have managed to get into the rankings six of those ten years, proof that they were now on the radar. But, they have faltered all but the past two years, the only two years they have finished both the regular season and the post season, ranked. It’s not bad for a 20 year old program.
In 2007, nearby UCF was in their 18th year of football and their 11th since becoming an FBS level team. They were not nationally relevant and thought so little of at the time that USF would eventually decide to stop playing them, opting for series against FSU and Miami, instead. When #5 USF hosted the Knights, it was a 64-12 outcome in front of a sellout home crowd. That result confirming that these programs were going different directions and should not be playing one another, regularly.
As history will show, they were indeed programs headed in different directions. In the year of the 64-12 beat-down courtesy of the Bulls, the Knights won their first of five conference championships. Their last two championships came while conference mates with USF in the Big East in 2013, and the American Athletic Conference in 2017. They would go on to beat #6 Baylor, 52-42, in the Fiesta Bowl in 2013 and #7 Auburn, 34-27, in the Peach Bowl in 2017.
The 2007 Knights were far from a strong program, having back to back winning seasons just one time since joining the FBS level (7-4 in 1997 and 6-5 in 1998). That pattern of behavior repeated itself in the years that followed until the departure of former head coach, George O’Leary, with the program posting back to back winning seasons just one time (12-1 in 2013 and 10-4 in 2012). The winless 2015 0-12 season marked the end of the O’Leary era, who was sent packing in favor of an up and coming coach from Oregon, Scott Frost. That was just the second time in program history that a UCF team had gone winless. In two seasons, Frost had the winless team he inherited to an undefeated 13-0, and the highest ranked team outside of the five automatic bid playoff conferences. The stellar performance by Frost earned him the much more lucrative job of head coach as his alma mater, Nebraska.
USF fans would be forgiven for wondering what might have been. Going for the touchdown instead of a field goal against Houston. Choosing not to kick to a touchdown kick return threat against UCF. Two decisions in two games prevented the Bulls from playing for the elusive conference championship and made the meaningful post season a distant dream. After all, USF had been ranked higher than UCF in every poll going back to last season prior to getting upset by Houston in the last seconds of a game that they should have easily won. Instead of a #12 / 10 Knights team playing in the Peach Bowl, it could have been an undefeated USF, possibly ranked even higher.
If the 2013 Fiesta Bowl win didn’t put UCF on the national map and into the national awareness of the college football world, the win over #7 Auburn certainly did. As the only undefeated team in the country, there are some arguing that UCF should be considered for the national championship. While the powers that be would never accept such a claim with their so-called playoff in place, the case can be certainly be made that UCF deserves the chance to prove themselves on that national stage. And, they did handily beat the only team to beat two former #1 teams, both of whom are in the so-called playoff final.
Arguing with the power structure will change nothing in the short term, but the Knights and their fans should celebrate where they are and what they have accomplished, and the Bulls and their fans should use this success of their in-state neighbor as motivation to reach a little higher.
It was a big win over Auburn.
