UCF got exactly the kind of response it needed on Saturday: a defense that set the tone, a quarterback who looked increasingly in control, and enough special teams help to keep TCU from ever finding a real foothold in a 21-13 Knights win at home.
The result gave UCF its second straight season-opening Big 12 victory and extended a familiar early-season trend - the Knights are 3-1 for the fifth year in a row. They also head to Houston next Saturday carrying a different kind of pressure, trying to end a 10-game road losing streak.
The most obvious shift came from the defensive front. After giving up 24 first-half points to Georgia State a week earlier, UCF came out determined to be much tougher up front.
Edge rushers Isaiah Nixon and Ken Talley, along with defensive tackles Jeffson Lafontant and Horace Lockett, kept Jaden Craig under siege all afternoon. Craig was hurried six times and sacked four times, and the Knights finished with eight tackles for loss, their second-highest total of the season.
“Hats off to my coaching staff,” said coach Scott Frost. “This is a team effort … especially to get the defense to play that well after last week; it was a special job by the defensive staff.”
Lafontant said the message was clear all week.
“The whole week we was getting it,” said Lafontant, who finished with four tackles, a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss. “We talked about needing to get more effort up front, so we took it as a challenge from coach.”
That pressure fed into a dominant day against the run as well. UCF entered the game as the Big 12’s worst rush defense, allowing nearly 138 yards per game through three contests.
TCU managed only 33 yards on 27 carries, its lowest rushing output since getting just 10 yards against Arizona State on Sept. 26.
- It was also the lowest rushing total by an opponent since Arizona ran for 33 yards on Nov.
2, 2024.
“My message to the team before the game was we had to hit them before they hit us on both sides of the ball,” said Frost.
Jenkins also took a step forward. Making his second start in place of the injured Alonza Barnett III, the senior opened the game by completing his first five throws and eventually strung together 14 straight completions.
He finished 19 of 20 for 160 yards and a touchdown, good for a 95% completion rate that set a program record. That mark had belonged to current UCF quarterback coach McKenzie Milton, set on Oct.
28, 2017. Jenkins’ 14 straight completions were the fourth-best streak in school history and matched Milton’s mark from Nov.
11, 2017.
“I’m way more comfortable from last Saturday to this Saturday,” said Jenkins. “For me, it’s being more relaxed and getting through my progressions.”
It was a stark contrast from his first start against Georgia State, when he went 7 of 17 for 86 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Through two starts, Jenkins is 26 of 37 for 244 yards and two touchdowns with one interception, and he has added 34 rushing yards and two scores on the ground.
The one blemish against TCU came on two lost fumbles.
“He’s a competitor and coming off the field, he knew he shouldn’t have done that,” said Frost. “So doesn’t really do a lot of good for me telling him not to do that after the fact.”
UCF also found more production from its tight ends, and that mattered. Dylan Wade and Caden Piening combined for seven catches, 48 yards and a touchdown after both were held without a reception against Georgia State. Piening’s score was the first of his career, a 19-yard catch-and-run late in the second quarter in which the 6-foot-5, 245-pound tight end caught the ball at the TCU 5 and dragged several defenders into the end zone.
Frost said athletics director Terry Mohajir had pushed for more attention to the position.
“His one comment to me is we’ve got to make sure and call players sometimes, not just plays, and we did that,” said Frost.
“I told you guys last week, we need to get the tight ends more involved,” said Jenkins. “We did just that this week.”
Special teams did its part, too. Atticus Bartram, already one of UCF’s steady weapons, averaged 53 yards on four punts after entering the game at 46.6 yards per kick. He also uncorked a season-long 59-yarder.
Frost pointed to one punt late in the game as a key moment.
“You’ve got to get the punt off and Atticus is an athlete, so I went up to him and said, ‘Make sure you get this off,’” said Frost. “I said, ‘I want this 35 yards out of bounds and he sure as hell did that. I mean, it was perfect.”
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