The UCF Knights are the Rodney Dangerfield of college football. After rattling off their 20th straight game on Saturday, and despite being ranked No. 10, they still aren’t getting a lot of respect nationally.
Kirk Herbstreit’s comments on ESPN’s “College GameDay” this past Saturday were a perfect example of this. He said that “this shouldn’t be all about UCF.” He also said teams like Fresno State, Appalachian State and Utah State are “better” than UCF and “more deserving” for a New Year’s Six bowl game.
🐸☕️ pic.twitter.com/Ybx49C2HNb
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) October 20, 2018
Not surprisingly, this wasn’t received well by UCF fans, or by athletic director Danny White, who clapped back with a strongly worded statement that included the word “disrespected” and called for help to “fix a broken model.”
Good evening, @CollegeGameDay: pic.twitter.com/GmEi8dS4AL
— Danny White (@AD_DannyWhite) October 22, 2018
UCF did purposefully schedule Power 5 opponents and has beaten Pittsburgh already this year. They also had North Carolina on the schedule but had to cancel that game due to Hurricane Florence.
The Knights continue to knock down every opponent that they come up against and aren’t backing away from challenges. If they do finish undefeated, it likely won’t matter when it’s time for the committee to pick the final four, because the Power 5 conferences are so much, well, so much more powerful.
It’s a shame. UCF deserves to have a shot if they do finish off another undefeated season. Whether that means the Knights fall flat on their faces or end up shocking the big dogs, they do deserve that chance.