UCF’s trip to Pittsburgh ended the way too many recent road games have for the Knights: with frustration, too little offense and another loss far from home.
Saturday’s 12-7 defeat dropped UCF to 0-for-its-last-10 on the road, the program’s longest skid away from home since a 15-game stretch from 2003 to 2005. And while the Knights get a chance to reset against Georgia State at home next Saturday, the bigger story coming out of Pittsburgh is the growing list of questions they now have to answer.
The first one is at quarterback. Alonza Barnett III went down late in the game with an undisclosed injury, forcing UCF to turn to backup Keyone Jenkins.
Jenkins’ debut was memorable for the wrong reason: the former FIU transfer got sacked on a 4th-and-4, and that ended the Knights’ comeback hopes. Scott Frost said he wasn’t sure about Barnett’s status, leaving UCF in a tricky spot with Jenkins, Kaleb Annett and Rocco Marriott all in the mix if Barnett can’t go.
For all the offensive issues, the defense gave UCF something to hang onto. Pittsburgh managed 315 total yards, but the Knights did a good job bottling up quarterback Mason Heintschel.
After Heintschel’s huge performance the week before - 453 passing yards and a school-record-tying seven touchdowns - UCF held him to 18 completions on 29 attempts for 212 yards with no touchdowns. The Panthers also never got rolling on the ground, finishing with 103 rushing yards on 43 carries, just 2.4 yards per attempt.
Through two games, UCF is allowing only nine points and 248 yards per game.
The offense, though, never found its footing. One week after piling up 360 rushing yards and seven touchdowns against Bethune-Cookman, the Knights were nearly erased on the ground in Pittsburgh.
They finished with 20 rushing yards on 22 carries, a 0.9 yards-per-carry average that tells the whole story. Barnett led the team with 13 rushing yards, while Duke Watson had 10 on 14 carries.
It was UCF’s lowest rushing total since the 2016 Cure Bowl, when Arkansas State held the Knights to 12 yards, and the 0.9 average was the program’s worst since a negative 1.6 against Tulane on Oct. 15, 2015.
Big plays were almost nonexistent, too. UCF had only two gains of 20 yards or more: a 21-yard pass in the second quarter and a 35-yard pass in the third.
That’s a sharp drop for a team that entered the weekend ranked sixth in the Big 12 in longest plays from scrimmage with eight plays of at least 20 yards. Frost put the responsibility squarely on the offense after the game, saying, “We’ve got to play better on offense.
That starts with the offensive staff and me,” before adding, “I didn’t think we clicked. We looked clumsy getting lined up, motioning.
So we got to take a hard look at whether we had too much in the game plan.”
There was at least one encouraging development at receiver. Duane “Speedy” Thomas Jr. missed his second game because of what UCF described as a “minor injury” from fall camp, and Ric’Darious “Day Day” Farmer filled the opening in the starting lineup.
The redshirt sophomore posted a career-high 52 receiving yards on four catches, a solid return for a player who missed all of last season after a knee injury in fall camp. Waden Charles noticed the work Farmer has put in, saying, “Ever since Day Day came back from his injury, he’s had his head down, grinding and putting in the work,” and added, “He came back with a chip on his shoulder.”
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