UCF Knights @ BYU Cougars Football Recap

BYU 24, Central Florida 17

The Brigham Young Cougars needed this game in the worst way imaginable. the Central Florida Golden Knights cooperated and gave a struggling team exactly what it so desperately desired.

After losing 54-10 last week to rival Utah, BYU bounced back in an important way on its home field in Provo. The Cougars used big plays from defense and special teams to down Central Florida 24-17 on Friday night to move to 2-2 on the season.

With BYU’s offense sputtering yet again and has still not built any consistency, it was BYU’s other units that won the day. Down 10-3 in the third quarter, BYU ran a fake-punt option with backup quarterback Riley Nelson, who pitched to David Foote for a 21-yard run to UCF’s 40. After three straight incompletions, BYU’s punter Riley Stephenson—truly the offense’s best weapon—pinned the Knights down at their own 5-yard line. A defensive stand forced a three-and-out for UCF, and BYU returned the punt to UCF’s 38-yard line. With a short field, the Cougar offense finally got going. A couple passes from Jake Heaps mixed in with some strong runs ended in a score with a quick pitch to the short side of the field to J.J. DiLuigi, who scampered 16 yards to even the game at 10-10.

But a developing weakness on BYU’s otherwise strong defense was exploited on the Knights’ next drive. The field-side of BYU’s secondary bit hard on a shotgun play action by Jeff Godfrey, who bombed a pass over the top to A.J. Guyton for 54 yards, all the way to BYU’s 30-yard line. A few plays later, Godfrey beat all BYU defenders to the pylon on a bootleg run, and just like that UCF was back up 17-10. With BYU’s offense struggling, having to start from behind again seemed like a tall task.

But down 17-10, BYU’s Cody Hoffman used excellent return blocking to sprint to a 93-yard kickoff return touchdown to even it up at 17-17. It was the first kickoff return for a touchdown at BYU since Mike Rigell’s kick return at Hawaii in 1998.

Things got worse for Central Florida when on its next offensive play, Godfrey was forced out of the game after injuring his left arm. But surprisingly, backup quarterback Blake Bortles led the Knights on a drive. Bortles mixed in a few timely completions with a strong run game, with BYU’s defense appearing to get tired. Unable to convert a 3 rd-and-three at BYU’s 19-yard line, Nick Cattoi then missed a 35-yard field goal. BYU then did absolutely nothing with the ball, but Riley Stephenson came through for the Cougars again, bombing a 61-yard punt over returner J.J. Worton’s head. Inexplicably, Worton tried to catch the ball off a high bounce, was hit immediately and fumbled. BYU handed the ball three-straight times to Bryan Kariya for a touchdown, and BYU had taken a 24-17 lead.

UCF’s last shot came when Godfrey hit Guyton on another deep ball, this time 58-yards to BYU’s 17-yard line with four minutes left. But two plays later, Godfrey threw into tight coverage and was intercepted by Joe Sampson. BYU had secured an ugly, gutty win.

UCF outgained BYU by the tally of 399-260. Heaps was a miserable 16-34 for 133 yards and one interception on the night. Godfrey was 17-of-25 for 272 yards in the loss.