The glow from UCF’s wild double-overtime win over then-No. 2 BYU didn’t last long.
In Friday’s annual Space Game, the Knights came out flat and got handled by Baylor, 41-9, a result that snapped any carryover momentum from the week before. UCF scored a season-low nine points, never found the end zone, and was shut out of touchdowns for the first time since a 30-3 road loss to the Bears on Nov. 1, 2025.
The numbers told the story all night. UCF finished with just 281 yards of offense, while the defense gave up a season-high 501 yards to a Baylor team that had fired head coach Dave Aranda on Sunday and was being led by interim coach Joe Klanderman.
Now sitting at 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the Big 12, the Knights have to regroup quickly before heading to Kansas next Saturday.
Scott Frost said all week that his team had to avoid getting caught up in the emotion of last week’s upset, but UCF never matched Baylor’s intensity.
“I said after last week we’re good enough to play with and beat anybody in the league,” said Frost. “We’ve got to play our best. I don’t think that was the best version of us out there tonight, and we got whipped by a good team that played really well.”
The players echoed the same theme after the game.
“College football is a weird game,” said defensive tackle Horace Lockett Jr. “Those guys are also on scholarship, so they made many more plays than us, so we’ve got to get better.”
“It’s definitely not the outcome we wanted,” added receiver Josh Derry. “We started off slow and we just didn’t play our brand of football.”
Quarterback issues only made the night messier. Keyone Jenkins was 14 of 21 for 82 yards and took three sacks before leaving in the third quarter after aggravating an ankle injury he had been dealing with for weeks. Alonza Barnett III, back after missing five games with a hamstring injury, took over and went 8 of 16 for 133 yards, but he was sacked four times before freshman Rocco Marriott finished the game late in the fourth quarter.
Frost said he didn’t have an update on Jenkins after the game and wasn’t ready to say who would start against Kansas.
“It seems like it’s been a season and a half here where we’re kind of playing musical chairs with quarterbacks,” Frost said. “I feel good about whoever is in there.
“He (Barnett) did some good things, made some good throws. Whoever is playing quarterback, it’s going to be hard if we don’t block better and create a running game.”
That blocking problem was front and center against a Baylor defense that came in leading the Big 12 with 27 sacks. The Bears added seven more, a season high, and had eight different players register at least a partial sack.
UCF had allowed only 11 sacks through its first seven games, but this was its worst showing since giving up five against Utah on Nov. 29, 2024.
The line took another hit when center Jacob Maiava exited with a hyperextended knee and didn’t return, according to Frost. Conner Meadows moved to center, and Laparka Langston slid in at guard.
Baylor quarterback DJ Lagway also had plenty of room to work. After UCF’s defense had bottled up BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier a week earlier, Lagway went 16 of 25 for 319 yards and matched a season high with four touchdown passes. He also ran for 23 yards on 11 carries and kept Baylor moving whenever it needed a play.
“He’s a really good player. He made all the throws and all the plays tonight,” said Frost. “We didn’t play well enough to put him in a situation where he might make a mistake.”
The Bears also turned UCF over once, intercepting Jenkins in the first quarter and turning that takeaway into an early touchdown. It was only the second time all season the Knights failed to force a turnover.
Even in a lopsided loss, kicker Will Stone gave UCF something to hang onto. He accounted for all nine points, drilling field goals from 35, 39 and 57 yards.
The 57-yarder set a new school record, topping the previous mark of 55 yards shared by Ed O’Brien on Sept. 7, 1985 and Colton Boomer on Sept. 9, 2023.
Stone’s previous career long was 40 yards against Georgia State on Sept. 19, and he said confidence is part of the job.
“I’m probably the most confident one on the field when it comes to believing in myself at the position of kicker,” said Stone, who is 9-for-11 on field goal kicks this season. “You just have to be that way.”
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