12 for XII: The Cardiac Knights/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/nA security guard in a yellow jacket standing at the end of the tunnel turned and sprinted past me screaming at the top of his lungs. I started furiously typing a new version of the story into my phone. Then I hopped up into the stands to watch the rest of the game play out./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
The pass to Rannell Hall. The field goal. The win. (I saw it all.)/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
I jumped back down into the tunnel and eventually got the color (for my story) I was looking for./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
My lede from that night was fitting considering where I had seen the drama unfold: /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201cThe man who had soared to keep UCF’s dream season alive could not hold back tears as he walked through the tunnel at Lincoln Financial Field./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
If I close my eyes, I can still feel the adrenaline of many of those deadlines /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2014 the shaky fingers over a keyboard after the Knights did something special to keep the dreams of a BCS bowl alive. Panicked typing in Happy Valley, Memphis, Louisville, Philadelphia, Orlando and Dallas./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
How many ledes had I re-written? A few, for sure. And yet, even as those crazy endings unfolded /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2014 Will Stanback/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019s forced fumble in Memphis, Bortles/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019 floated pass to Jeff Godfrey in Louisville, Brandon Alexander/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019s tipped pass against Houston, Worton/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019s full-stretch snag in Philly /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2014 something felt right about it all./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
This was supposed to happen./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
I arrived in Orlando, Florida the year prior, leaving my hometown newspaper to cover a school I knew more as Central Florida than UCF. I didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019t make the change just to cover George O/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019Leary/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019s football team. As I tried to decipher the right next step in my career and did research on UCF, I learned about a school I thought could matter on a national landscape. UCF was set to move from Conference USA to the Big East, the student population was exploding, the campus expanding. There was a real story to tell here, I thought. One that went beyond sports. It was about college realignment /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2014 the old powers versus a new school trying to shove its way into the conversation./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
I had no idea./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
Over the next year the scope of that story would change. The Big East folded. The American Athletic Conference was born. The path to a power conference narrowed. And yet UCF still seemed on the verge of something. I felt it from the first time I sat in the press box at the Bounce House./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/nDefensive back Brandon Alexander (37) and wide receiver Rannell Hall (6) celebrate during UCF’s 19-14 win at Houston./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/nThe first game I covered was a 40-20 win against East Carolina in 2012. I watched Bortles throw for 269 yards and a score and run for another 62 yards and a touchdown. The next week it was an overtime win over Southern Miss and Bortles threw for 272 yards and a couple more scores. You could tell the potential here was off the charts. As that season unfolded, the sense got stronger. Not just about Bortles, but about something brewing in this team. And as the pages turned to the 2013 season, it felt like the football team could serve as a microcosm about the story the school was trying to sell:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201cHey, look at us. We can be much more than you think. We already are./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
The inkling that the season might have something special in store started to turn to alarm bells in Happy Valley. No offense, of course, to Akron University or FIU (Florida International University), but those wins to start the season were expected. Rolling up to Penn State was a real marker for the team./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
I felt like that game was my first real college football experience. The atmosphere was insane /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2014 92,855 people all dressed in white. As the sun went down, the crowd seemed to get louder. What stuck with me was that UCF was clearly the better team, but Penn State pushed itself back into the game. UCF having to hold on to win by three sort of set the tone for the season /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2014 nothing was going to come easy, nothing was going to be clean./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/nThe way that game went down /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2014 the key defensive stops needed, an important third-down conversion to keep the game-killing drive alive /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2014 was also vital for the team. UCF had been so close to a marquee win so many times under George O/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019Leary (former UCF head football coach). This win gave belief and showed they could gut it out. It took character./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
I remember O/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019Leary didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019t love the way I phrased a question in the postgame press conference, but he knew it was one of those wins that could change things./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
“Right now, with the stage of the program and where we’re at, we can build on a win like this,” he says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
That win set up such a huge week ahead of the South Carolina game. It would feature two players that ended up being in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft: Bortles and Jadeveon Clowney. It was also the first time in my career I was covering a team that was the talk of the sports landscape in the market./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
The game was moved to ABC Network. Tailgating hours got extended. Steve Spurrier was coming, which always added another layer at the Orlando Sentinel. The hype was there./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/nThe game didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019t go UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019s way. The Knights led at halftime, but probably should/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019ve had a bigger advantage. They ended up falling short. In the moment, it felt like a missed opportunity. Really, I think it was an indicator that UCF was right there with one of the better teams in the country at the time./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/nWhat/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019s funny is it wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019t the loss that week that nearly cost UCF the special season, it was the hangover from South Carolina. The Liberty Bowl was a decidedly different atmosphere than Happy Valley or a packed Bounce House (formally known as FBC Mortgage Stadium at UCF). But if people were paying attention, they saw the beginnings of something happening there with the Tigers. UCF wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019t ready for it. Everyone could see it was a trap game, and yet UCF walked right into the trap./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
When I look back on the season, that was the only game I felt like UCF got lucky./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
The Knights were bad. Memphis was better. But sometimes fate intervenes. In this case, it was the hit from Stanback on the kickoff. I remember hearing the crowd gasp when it happened, and at first no one could tell that the ball came out and that UCF scored. I remember looking around and asking what was going on. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201cDid he fumble? Did he fumble?!/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
And then I realized I had a new story to write. Two touchdowns in nine seconds. A 17-10 deficit flipped into a 24-17 win. Somewhere on a thumb drive in one of my desk drawers is a copy of the /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201cKnights Lose/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201d version of the Memphis game./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
The season had plenty more drama left and plenty of other alternate stories that were never published./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
The next week was Louisville. Man, what a four-week stretch of football. Of all the regular-season games, this one remains the freshest in my memory. It was such a great game. The crowd was incredible. The Friday night primetime slot made it feel special. By this point, the excitement about covering a potentially important season was taking hold. Everyone knew what a win on the road at a top 10 Louisville team would mean: a national ranking; a path to a BCS game. It was Teddy Bridgewater versus Bortles. But even then, I don/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019t think people believed UCF had a chance./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
There are two plays that stick out to me so clearly. One is how the game ended. The other? The bobbled punt snap midway through the third quarter. As a reporter, you don/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019t really have rooting interests in a game, but that doesn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019t mean you/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019re immune to the normal human emotions of the drama you/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2019re watching unfold. I remember that feeling in the pit of my stomach as the return went the other way. The idea of covering a BCS bowl was fading. The crowd was going nuts. You could feel the wave of momentum wash over the stadium./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
Here are the two texts I sent my wife during the game. The first was right after that fumbled punt./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201cThis could get ugly./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
The second was /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u2026 a bit later in the game./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201cHoly. Crap./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136411/n
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