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Here we go JoooOe, Here we go!

I’ve been to a couple UF/UM games, and more than a few FSU/UM games. Yesterday, by comparison, was far more thrilling than the widest right. After four long years, this series finally produced a game worthy of it’s “rivalry” status.

Despite an abysmal offensive performance by the Knights (68 yards total offense in the 1st half, compared to ~200 by USF), UCF found ways to stay in the game and force overtime. BHNS had record attendance, the tailgating parties were Texas-game-esq, and the shennanagans and trash talking were top notch. The student lots were filled with air horns, music, booze, funny Matt Grothe quote flyers, and some pretty good bands courtesy of SGA.

UCF’s defense and special teams played tremendously well and offered hope for the season ahead. In a lot of ways, it felt like a Joe Burnett highlight reel. Offensively, Greco showed improvement and may have gained a little bit of confidence in the final moments of the game. He fell a few inches short of the first down in overtime, but he shouldn’t have been faced with 4 and 6 anyhow. A penalty backed up an offense that was prepared to move the chains.

And that’s ultimately last night’s story — penalties getting in the way of any chance UCF had at winning this game. We needed to force turnovers and play mistake free football. Unfortunately, we ended the game with 148 yards worth of flags. You can’t win like that, and frankly, you don’t deserve to.

Today, as with every big loss, arm chair quarterbacks and internet dweebs like myself wax about how the refs were bad (indeed, they were), or how Tim Salem is the worst thing to ever happen to us. Or maybe it’s Greco, Weatherford should totally be starting right now (…not so much). If those jerks didn’t leave with 4 minutes left to avoid getting gang raped by grossly overweight USF fans, BHNS would have been exactly 0.27 decibles louder and changed everthing. Now that you mention it, it was probably those damn students and their cell phone sign that made Grothe play so well (as if he hasn’t dominated every other game he’s played in).

Whatever.

The truth is we had every opportunity to win, and we gave it up through personal fouls and shaken nerves. We were simply out done by the emotion that this game carries and the coaching staff failed to get control over it. USF stepped up when it counted, and they played a hell of a football game.

Hopefully our team grew a lot last night. With ECU tearing it up this year, the experience of this game may serve us well in a few more weeks.

As far as this rivalry goes — it’s not over, and I think any non-homer fan can admit to that. It’s truthfully not an “on the field” sort of thing. The animosty between the schools and their athletic programs goes back to our early years as universities. It has to do with the fact that, as colleges, we have far more things in common than we’d all care to admit. In the grand scheme of things, this 4 game series will be but a chapter in a great, great college football rivalry.

It may just take Jim Leavitt sobering his drunk ass up and realizing Western Kentucky doesn’t quite provide the same sort of experience.