WVU football 2023 opponents — UCF: Knights made fast rise to Power 5 ranks

MORGANTOWN — UCF’s football program has seen a meteoric rise through the ranks since its first season in 1979. Now, the Knights are ready for Power Five action.
UCF is one of the four newcomers to the Big 12 Conference in the 2023 season, and West Virginia will welcome the Knights to the league in Orlando, Florida, on Oct. 28 at FBC Mortgage Stadium — better known by many as “The Bounce House.”
“For me personally, I’m very excited,” UCF coach Gus Malzahn said in July at Big 12 media days at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. “This is a great conference, one of the best football conferences in college football and probably the deepest from top to bottom. So I’m very excited about that.”
UCF has been one of the best Group of Five teams in recent history, and on Sept. 10, 2021, the Knights accepted an invitation to join the Big 12. Since 1979, UCF has moved from Division III to the Big 12.
The Knights competed in the American Athletic Conference the last decade with a 57-23 record in regular-season league games — the most wins and best winning percentage of AAC teams during that span.
UCF has won at least nine games in five of the last six seasons, with 59 victories over that span, including a 25-game win streak between 2017-18. UCF has qualified for bowl games in seven straight seasons, with three New Year’s Six bowls in the last nine years.
“Really feel like we’re a program that’s on the rise,” Malzahn said. “When I took this job, I really thought it was a gold mine, the potential. I really felt strongly we would be in the Power Five in a short period of time. I didn’t know it was going to be in the Big 12, but just the potential, like I said earlier, in Orlando, the best brands in the world, no NFL team.
“We have a young fan base. I think the average graduate, is 37, something like that, so the sky’s the limit. We’ve got a very young, energetic fan base, too, social media-oriented, which I think is huge for the future as far as NIL is concerned. I think it’s a program on the rise, and like I said, we’re blessed to be a part of this conference.”
UCF went 9-5 last season. The Knights appeared in the AAC championship game, which they lost to Tulane, and in the Military Bowl, falling to Duke.
In Year 3 under Malzahn, the Knights will have Darin Hinshaw leading the offense and Addison Williams leading the defense.
UCF has 11 returning players who received all-conference recognition last season, with six starters back on both sides, plus 18 new transfers — “and most of these guys weren’t just starters on their previous teams, but quite a few of them were impact players,” Malzahn said.
The veteran coach said they’ve been preparing for the step up by adding quality depth, specifically along the line of scrimmage.
The Knights had little issue moving the ball last year. UCF was 16th nationally in total offense with 469.5 yards per game, twice surpassing 650 yards of offense in a single game. It ranked 31st in scoring with 32.9 points on average.
Back is star quarterback John Rhys Plumlee. He threw for 2,586 yards and 14 touchdowns last year, and also finished as the Knights’ leading rusher with 861 yards and 11 scores on 159 attempts.
Isaiah Bowser and RJ Harvey chipped in on the potent rushing attack — UCF ranked ninth nationally in rushing at 228.3 yards per game in 2022 — with nearly 800 yards on the ground each. Bowser is now pursuing a professional career, but Harvey remains on the roster. Javon Baker — the Knights’ leader in yards receiving — is also back.
“I brought in Darin to really open up our offense, push the ball vertically down the field,” Malzahn said, “and then to develop our quarterback, specifically John Rhys Plumlee, and he has done an unbelievable job. John Rhys is like night and day to where he was at this time last year.
“And then [Hinshaw] is one of the all-time greats in UCF history. I think that’s important. He was with me the first year when I got this job off the field, so I know him well. He’s a great person and he was really the right fit for us.”
UCF allowed 23.6 points and 380 yards per game last season — marks that ranked 46th and 69th nationally, respectively. The Knights were fifth in red-zone defense in 2022. They return top tackler Jason Johnson, who had 126 stops last season, as well as some of their top pass-rushing threats in Josh Celiscar, Tre’mon Morris-Brash and Ricky Barber.
With Williams as defensive coordinator and the move to the offense-heavy Big 12, Malzahn said “you will see some changes” and “you will see some unique pressures” defensively.
“The bottom line, to have a chance to be a great defense, you’ve got to be able to put pressure on the quarterback rushing four [defenders], and we really feel like our roster, we’ve done a good job bringing in some and then developing, and then recruiting,” Malzahn said. “We’ve got a freshman class coming in that has three defensive linemen that I think are going to be as good as any in the country in the future.”
UCF was picked eighth in the 14-team Big 12 media preseason poll.
WVU played UCF in 2003 and 2004, winning both of the only previous matchups.
Kickoff time and broadcast information for the Oct. 28 game between WVU and UCF has not yet been announced.