{"id":285289,"date":"2026-09-13T19:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285289\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T19:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:42:08","slug":"five-things-we-learned-from-ucfs-loss-at-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285289\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things we learned from UCF’s loss at Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2014 UCF<\/a> struggled to get much going offensively, dropping a 12-7<\/a> road contest at stormy Pittsburgh on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The loss, in a contest that started 65 minutes late because of a severe-weather delay, extends the Knights\u2019 road losing streak to 10 games. It\u2019s the longest such streak since the Knights lost 15 straight away games from 2003 to 2005.<\/p>\n

UCF (1-1) looks to rebound with a home game against 2-0 Georgia State of the Sun Belt Conference on Saturday. Here are five things we learned from Saturday\u2019s loss:<\/p>\n

Alonza Barnett\u2019s status a concern<\/p>\n

It feels as if UCF has been snake-bitten when it comes to quarterbacks recently.<\/p>\n

As the season kicked off, the Knights were dealing with the challenge of having started six different quarterbacks over their last 24 games. They were optimistic that Alonza Barnett III<\/a> could finally be the first to hold down the starting position for the entire season, a feat not accomplished since Dillon Gabriel in 2020.<\/p>\n

But when Barnett went down late in Saturday\u2019s game with an undisclosed injury, UCF was forced to turn to backup Keyone Jenkins. The FIU transfer was sacked on a fourth-and-4 play, ending the Knights\u2019 hopes of a comeback.<\/p>\n

Coach Scott Frost<\/a> wasn\u2019t sure of Barnett\u2019s status after the game, which creates a lot of uncertainty at quarterback, at least for the time being, with Jenkins, Kaleb Annett and Rocco Marriott serving as possible substitutes.<\/p>\n

Defense appears Big 12-ready<\/p>\n

Perhaps the only positive from the loss to Pittsburgh (2-0) was the play of the Knights\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

The unit held the Panthers to 315 yards of offense, but more importantly, contained quarterback Mason Heintschel. The sophomore was 18 of 29 for 212 yards without a touchdown pass. That comes on the heels of a career game by Heintschel, who passed for 453 yards while tying a school record with seven touchdown throws.<\/p>\n

UCF also held Pitt\u2019s ground game in check with 103 rushing yards on 43 carries for a meager 2.4 yards per carry average.<\/p>\n

Through the first two games, the Knights are allowing just nine points and 248 yards per game.<\/p>\n

Rushing attack clearly a work in progress<\/p>\n

A week after rushing for 360 yards and seven touchdowns against Bethune-Cookman, UCF\u2019s ground game came to a grinding halt.<\/p>\n

The Knights rushed for 20 yards on 22 carries for a minuscule 0.9 yards per carry average against Pitt. Barnett finished with a team-high 13 yards while Duke Watson<\/a> had 10 yards on 14 carries.<\/p>\n

The 20 yards was the smallest output for a UCF team since the 2016 Cure Bowl, when Arkansas State limited the Knights to just 12 yards. The 0.9 YPC average is the lowest since a \u20131.6 average against Tulane on Oct. 15, 2015.<\/p>\n

Lack of explosive plays<\/p>\n

UCF\u2019s offensive anemia could be blamed on the Knights failing to produce explosive plays against the Panthers.<\/p>\n

The team had just two explosive plays of 20-plus yards Saturday: a 21-yard pass in the second quarter and a 35-yard pass in the third quarter. UCF entered the weekend ranked sixth in the Big 12 in longest plays from scrimmage, with eight plays of 20 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to play better on offense. That starts with the offensive staff and me,\u201d said Frost. \u201cI didn\u2019t think we clicked. We looked clumsy getting lined up, motioning. So we got to take a hard look at whether we had too much in the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ric\u2019Darious Farmer stepping up in Duane Thomas Jr.\u2019s absence<\/p>\n

Duane \u201cSpeedy\u201d Thomas Jr. missed his second game of the season with what UCF is calling a \u201cminor injury\u201d he suffered in fall camp a few weeks back.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ric\u2019Darius \u201cDay Day\u201d Farmer has stepped into the starting lineup in Thomas\u2019 absence.<\/p>\n

The redshirt sophomore led the Knights with a career-high 52 receiving yards on four catches Saturday. It was a welcome sight considering Farmer missed all of last season after suffering a knee injury during fall camp.<\/p>\n

His hard work hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed by his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since \u2018Day Day\u2019 came back from his injury, he\u2019s had his head down, grinding and putting in the work,\u201d said receiver Waden Charles. \u201cHe came back with a chip on his shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram at @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 UCF struggled to get much going offensively, dropping a 12-7 road contest at stormy Pittsburgh on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2300,5918,241,34027,21174,73,75,74,57932,726,118090],"class_list":["post-285289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}