2011 Central Florida Knights Football Preview

The 2010 season really couldn’t have gone any better for the program that could very well be headed for the Big East Conference in its future. If a talent-rich Sunshine State school is going to move upward on the college football ladder, the brilliance of one year needs to be replicated this upcoming autumn.

Head coach George O’Leary and the Central Florida Knights are riding high. After the most successful season in history, which saw the Knights win 11 games, grab their second Conference USA title, and finish the year ranked in the top 25 for the first time in school history, expectations are high in Orlando. Why not?

In addition to all the accomplishments mentioned above, Central Florida avenged a 2007 Liberty Bowl loss to the Southeastern Conference ( Mississippi State) by taking down Georgia in the 2010 edition of the event. Knocking off a big-name program vaulted UCF to a place of newfound prominence and respectability while also lifting Conference USA in the process. Moreover, the Knights – who figured to be competitive with Georgia because of their offense – were able to win entirely because of the strength of their defense, which shut down Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray in a frankly shocking display of excellence. UCF won often in 2010 en route to a big haul of hardware, but what made this team’s journey that much more remarkable was the fact that it won in many different ways, playing grinders on some occasions and shootouts on others. Central Florida has to be supremely confident not just in its ability to win, but in the ability of every player to make a difference on both sides of the ball. If one facet of this team is lacking, the other dimensions of this team have proven they can pick up the slack. It’s hard to have a better outlook than the one Central Florida brings into the 2011 August training camp. 

The Knights return seven offensive starters from the 2010 campaign, including Conference USA Freshman of the Year quarterback Jeff Godfrey. The dual-threat signal caller threw for over 2,000 yards while completing over 66 percent of his passes. Godfrey also rushed for over 500 yards. The Knights will look for Godfrey, along with running backs Ronnie Weaver and Latavius Murray, to bring even more firepower to the offensive side of the football in 2011.

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The Knights return just four starters from a defense that ranked in the national top 10 in points allowed. Giving up just 17 points per game, the Knight defense kept the young UCF offense comfortable. Perhaps the offense can do a little bit more of the heavy lifting during the upcoming campaign. All-American kick returner Quincy McDuffie returns to lead a solid special teams unit as well. There’s little question that – at least on paper – the Golden Knights have fewer weaknesses than any other team in Conference USA. A league title is the unquestioned, no-doubt-about-it measuring stick for the coming season’s level of success.

UCF has a home contest with Boston College in the second week of the season to test its mettle. The Knights must also travel across the country to take on BYU during the last week of September. The UCF program has all the tools to make another step toward the upper echelon of college football in the year to come. Another 11-win season will fuel more talk of a possible move to the Big East.