{"id":456087,"date":"2026-10-04T11:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T11:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/456087\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T11:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T11:04:08","slug":"five-things-we-learned-from-ucfs-devastating-loss-at-no-20-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/456087\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things we learned from UCF’s devastating loss at No. 20 Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2014 UCF<\/a> couldn\u2019t maintain a double-digit lead halfway through the third quarter, allowing 27 unanswered points before ultimately losing to No. 20 Houston, 27-17<\/a>, on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It was the Knights\u2019 11th straight road loss, the longest streak in the Big 12.<\/p>\n

The Knights raced out to a 10-0 lead by halftime, then pushed the advantage to 17-0 midway through the third quarter. However, the Cougars rallied behind the strong play of quarterback Conner Weigman, who scored three rushing touchdowns to power UH to the win.<\/p>\n

UCF travels to Oklahoma State on Saturday, searching for its first road win since Sept. 14, 2024. Here are five things we learned from the Knights\u2019 loss at Houston:<\/p>\n

Injuries continue to plague the Knights<\/p>\n

UCF was down four starters against the Cougars, with quarterback Alonza Barnett III<\/a>, wide receiver Duane Thomas Jr., guard Owen Spell and linebacker Lewis Carter all listed as out for Saturday\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n

That number increased when center Jacob Maiava left the game with an apparent hip injury, leaving the Knights to rotate Cooper Terpstra and Conner Meadows in the middle.<\/p>\n

Linebacker Jayden Jennings, who stepped in for Carter, left the game with an undisclosed arm injury, leaving the senior in an arm sling.<\/p>\n

Coach Scott Frost<\/a> admits the injuries have been frustrating, but it\u2019s next man up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate, but there\u2019s nothing you can do about it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe majority of our injuries aren\u2019t anything we could have affected with training differently. You\u2019ve just got to deal with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always hope you\u2019re the team that doesn\u2019t get touched by the injury bug at this point, but we\u2019re not that lucky. Hopefully, we\u2019ll start getting these guys back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ground game disappeared when needed most<\/p>\n

Duke Watson\u2019s 37-yard run early in the third quarter set the tone as the Knights put together an impressive nine-play, 71-yard drive capped by a 5-yard touchdown run by quarterback Keyone Jenkins<\/a> to put UCF up 17-0.<\/p>\n

The Knights ran the ball just once more over the final 23 minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

When asked about the decision, Frost said Houston\u2019s defense stacked the box, looking to eliminate any chance of an explosive run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that we didn\u2019t call run plays,\u201d said Frost. \u201cThey\u2019re very multiple and they\u2019re going to give you different looks a lot, and all run plays have RPOs (run-pass option) on them. When they get too many in the box, we\u2019re throwing the RPO. So that led to fewer carries.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCF finished with 73 rushing yards on 21 carries, the second-lowest output of the season.<\/p>\n

Jenkins continues strong play in relief<\/p>\n

Despite the end result, Jenkins has been a solid option at quarterback for the Knights while Barnett continues to rehab from his hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

He finished 23 of 35 for 253 yards with a touchdown pass and a touchdown run, even though Frost said he was cramping throughout much of the second half.<\/p>\n

In three starts this season, Jenkins has completed nearly 70% (53 of 76) of his pass attempts for 541 yards with 4 touchdowns and two interceptions.<\/p>\n

His third-quarter interception set up Houston\u2019s second touchdown of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played well again, but the interception was just unfortunate,\u201d said Frost.<\/p>\n

Jenkins left the game after the turnover and was replaced by Kaleb Annett for one series.<\/p>\n

Josh Derry becomes solid option at receiver<\/p>\n

While Thomas remains out of the lineup, Monmouth transfer Josh Derry has stepped up to become a solid replacement.<\/p>\n

The senior entered the game as the Knights\u2019 top target, catching 10 passes for 119 yards.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Derry had his best game since arriving at UCF, catching seven passes for 101 yards, including a 13-yard pass early in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was open and caught the ball and I saw my lineman get downfield and get the block, so I came behind him and the only thing left was green grass,\u201d said Derry.<\/p>\n

\"HOUSTON,UCF defensive lineman Horace Lockett pressures Houston QB Conner Weigman in the first half Saturday in Houston. The Knights kept No. 20 Houston in check in the first half and deep into the third quarter and had a 17-0 lead. Houston, though, rallied and wound up winning 27-17. (Tim Warner\/Getty Images)
\nDefense needs to rebound after second-half letdown<\/p>\n

After holding Houston scoreless for the first half, including an impressive trio of fourth-and-goal opportunities, UCF\u2019s defense ran out of gas in the second half, allowing the Cougars to rack up 200 yards of offense and 27 points.<\/p>\n

Safety Jayden Williams doesn\u2019t believe his group fell flat when it mattered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have been better on all phases of the ball,\u201d said Williams. \u201cWe didn\u2019t hone in as much as on the details as much as we should have. We\u2019ve just got to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knights allowed just 15 points in the second half through the first four games, but gave up nearly double that against the Cougars.<\/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":"HOUSTON \u2014 UCF couldn\u2019t maintain a double-digit lead halfway through the third quarter, allowing 27 unanswered points before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[416,3118,56,58,57,3607,23153,11722,75533,154,9816],"class_list":["post-456087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}