There was a point in the third quarter when it looked like the UCF Knights would run away and hide from the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday. With the score 26-7, UCF was in the driver’s seat. That is, until the comeback started, which looked to be another catastrophic loss in the Scott Frost era.
With just over one minute left in the game, it looked like Kansas had completed the comeback. The Jayhawks went up 32-26, and they just needed a stop against a struggling UCF offense to wrap things up.
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Luckily, for UCF, they had Alonza Barnett in at quarterback. He stayed cool, and marched the Knights down the field, and set them up with multiple shots at the endzone. One of those looked like a score, but was wiped out by replay. Then, as the clock was running out, UCF took another shot to tight end Caden Piening, who snagged the game-winner.
Notably, however, the Big 12 officials took a very long look at the Piening touchdown. Seemingly, they wanted to find a way to overturn the call on the field. Kansas fans thought the ball moved on the ground and that he didn’t survive it. Still, there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn it and UCF walked away 33-32 winners.
UCF Knights HC Scott Frost on the Controversial Replay
There were two reviews. The first of which was pretty clearly an incomplete pass that had initially been ruled a touchdown. After the game, UCF head coach Scott Frost shared that they knew that pretty quickly.
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“I heard from our guys up in the box pretty early on that it’s incomplete,” Scott Frost said. “And then I was just talking about how much time was going to be on the clock to decide if we had one chance or two after that.”
Frost thought there might have been pass interference on that play. It wouldn’t matter, though, because UCF scored on what ended up being a much more controversial call. Ultimately, he lands on you couldn’t tell one way or another based on the replays.
“In my opinion, I thought Waden kind of got interfered with on that play. And then that last play, I think Caden caught it,” Frost said.
“I saw what their fans were cheering about, with it kind of sliding underneath him, but you couldn’t tell if his hands were still on it or not. Just a wild finish. It’s our second game like that, and you’ve got to give our coaching staff and players a lot of credit for the fight to the end.”
What the Kansas Win Means for UCF?
For UCF, the win against Kansas ended one of their more unfortunate streaks. Prior to that, the Knights hadn’t won a road game since September of 2024, when Gus Malzahn was UCF’s head coach. Since then, they had lost 12 road games in a row.
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Even worse, for Scott Frost, he hadn’t won a road game as a head coach since December 18th, 2020. It was 14 away and neutral-site games lost in a row, going back to his time with the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
“Man, the biggest thing is I get to stop answering your guys’ questions about an away losing streak that I wasn’t even here for all of,” Frost joked after the win.
“But that’s our first one since I’ve been back at UCF. They’re all going to be hard. Everybody’s so close in this league that home-field advantage is a big deal. Again, I just feel lucky and blessed, and I feel bad for Kansas because they did enough at the end of the game to win it. It’s fun to be on this side. It’s hard to be on the other side.”
Importantly, UCF also moved to 5-4 on the season and 3-3 in Big 12 play. A run at the Big 12 Championship Game isn’t really on the table, but a bowl is on the table. If they do, it would be their first bowl since 2023. That was their first season in the Big 12. One more win gets them there. One more win would also be their fourth conference win, a mark they’ve yet to hit in the Big 12.
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If UCF can get to seven wins, they would clinch a winning season. They haven’t had one of those since 2022. So, it does seem like Frost has UCF going in the right direction.
Next up, UCF returns home to take on Arizona State and then they’ll wrap up the home slate against Iowa State. A road game against Colorado on November 28th will wrap up the regular season.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post UCF HC Scott Frost Reacts to Controversial Replay Review in Kansas Win appeared first on HEAVY.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
