ORLANDO, Fla. _ Those annoying cage rattlers, the UCF Knights, are at it again. Make it a national-best 21 consecutive victories for the Little Engine That Could, as opposed to USF, the Little Engine That Can't. The never-lose Knights improved to 8-0 on Thursday night, escaping with a 52-40 win over Temple.
True, all that nets UCF only 12th place in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, meaning there is no way, no chance, that UCF will play for the national championship.
What else is new?
Alabama would wipe UCF off its shoes, but what in the world _ especially in UCF's world _ is wrong with thinking big in the face of Power-Five bullies?
UCF did that and more after going 13-0 in 2017, which included a rousing game-of-the-year shootout win over USF. To say UCF flaunted its 2017 success is an understatement. It annoyed people no end when it proclaimed itself co-national champion, went to Disney, held a parade, received a proclamation from the governor, put "2017 National Champions" on its stadium and even handed out championship rings. UCF put the "ick" in mythical national champion. It remains the bug on the CFP's windshield.
And I love it.
UCF is raising a stink again, without any regrets over last season.
"No, not for a second," said UCF athletic director Danny White, who doesn't hesitate to be a drum major.
There isn't a more polarizing program in college football. There are equally thin-skinned UCF boosters and detractors on both sides of the social-media wall.
Thursday said it all. As Twitter raged, the Knights, under first-year, two-scoops-of-vanilla head coach Josh Heupel, remained one of the four unbeaten teams in the nation, along with Alabama, Clemson and Notre Dame. They were led by quarterback McKenzie Milton, the same Milton who strafed USF last season. Milton threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns against Temple. In other news, Temple had a school-record 670 yards of offense against a rickety UCF defense, something right out of the USF playbook.
But who would you rather be, UCF or USF? No, UCF hasn't played anyone. And, yes, it might get its doors blown in the AAC title game if it runs into high-scoring Houston, which ended USF's perfect season last weekend.
I've had USF types tell me their school would have never lowered itself to crow about being co-national champions. I've been asked if this newspaper would have gone all in like the Orlando Sentinel, which produced a championship book on UCF after the Knights beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl to complete their perfect season.
Know what I tell them? Have USF go 13-0, then let's talk.
USF is chasing UCF. Go ahead, make fun of UCF's Erector-Set stadium that shakes when fans stomp their feet, but at least they stomp their feet and they stomp them on campus. Thursday night felt like college football. I like USF athletic director Michael Kelly, he's a can-do guy, but any chance of USF ever making a Power Five conference rides on a partnership with its I-4 neighbor. At present, UCF would do all the talking if the two schools ever got in the room. It leads the way.
"We're playing for every single team we play, except the game they play us," White said.
There's UCF, on the outside looking in, but its nose isn't pressed against the CFP glass. It's banging on it with both hands.
That's why a UCF fan and Orlando attorney named Chad Barr paid a lot of money for a plane buzz the downtown Orlando stadium when defending national champion Alabama played Louisville to kick off the season, pulling a sign that read, "UCF '17 CO-NATL CHAMPs." UCF can be such a pest.
"Yeah, that was me," Barr said. "It was a good opportunity to continue with its celebration of our national champions. The co-champions were here in town. I figured it would get the school some publicity."
White is all for that.
"We're building our brand," he said. "We're going to be bold."
Oh, is UCF bold. And it has paid off. The other night, the Knights were front and center, its ranking and chances ever the object of debate, as the first CFP rankings were unveiled on ESPN.
"If Danny White and UCF had never done their national championship proclamation, the trophies, the rings, all of that, Paul Finebaum and Kirk Herbstreit would have stopped talking about UCF the day after the Peach Bowl," Orlando Sentinel sports columnist Mike Bianchi said. "Now, what are we, 10 months later, and they won't shut up about UCF."
UCF won't make the playoffs. White knows it. That's making his point, really, that the CFP is a closed society.
"I don't understand that perspective, because all we're doing is, all we're doing is celebrating our team and advocating for what we think any reasonable person would agree is a model that just doesn't work," White said.
Where's the love for the Knights not going gently into that good night?
"It's good for USF, it's good for the whole conference," Bianchi said. "I'm shocked that the (AAC) commissioner, Mike Aresco and the other AAC schools, the others ADs, haven't spoken up. And the other conferences. Where's the Mountain West? Why is Danny White the lone voice in the room here? If you want access to the big-boy playoffs, you're going to have to rattle some cages. It's the only way to get in."
UCF isn't getting in, again.
UCF isn't going away, again.
I stopped by a bookstore on the UCF campus Thursday afternoon, where sleeveless T-shirts hailing UCF as co-national champions still sell for $34.98. I don't buy UCF as a playoff team, but I was tempted to buy the T-shirt.
Danny White smiled.
"You know, we would have gotten a percentage of that."
The selling never stops at UCF.
