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No. 11 UCF Insists It Is 'Big-Time Football' After Latest Win

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After his UCF squad defeated Cincinnati on national television, University of Central Florida coach Josh Heupel referred to his program as “big-time football.”

To that, one can only give a nod to the late William Goldman, who penned the script for the classic film “The Princess Bride,” and consider one of that movie’s most iconic lines:

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Sure, UCF is skulking around the fringes of the College Football Playoff and looking to be ranked in the top-10 for the first time in the school’s 22-year history in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

And sure, the team’s 23-game winning streak means the last time they lost, Barack Obama was still president.

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But “big-time” football? What in the name of Nick Saban are you talking about, coach?

UCF is now 10-0, 7-0 in the American Athletic Conference, has clinched the Eastern Division and will get home field for the conference title game on Dec. 1. Depending on what bowl they get slotted into, they could once again go 13-0 and get some AP media poll votes as the national champion, the way they got four out of 61 such votes from the newspapers last year.

Unlike last year, however, UCF is not the only undefeated team in all of college football. Alabama, Clemson and Notre Dame are all 10-0 as well.

More central to Heupel’s point, however, was something of a puzzling claim that great programs still build tradition the old-fashioned way.

Should unbeaten UCF be ranked higher than 11th?

“This is the most unique story in college football because it’s in the thrust of continuing to build what it’s going to be,” Heupel said. “Blue-blood programs were built in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. We’re right in the midst of what’s going on here and really proud of the way our fans have shown out all year long but certainly today as well.”

With all due respect, coach, you’re not Bear Bryant. Tradition gets built and destroyed in years, not in decades these days.

The high-flying Jimmy Johnson days are over in Miami. The Bobby Bowden years are old news at Florida State. The Ol’ Ball Coach Steve Spurrier isn’t around to turn the Gators in Gainesville into perpetual championship contenders anymore.

Those are the comps among teams in UCF’s home state. There’s a much shorter list of tradition-soaked programs, teams like Alabama and Notre Dame, and even those are debatable below those top two. Is Michigan an all-time tradition team? Ohio State? Texas? Oklahoma?

Heupel did, however, have a solid grasp on how tradition is built in 2018, and he is sensible enough to know that ESPN remains the kingmakers in what constitutes a story in sports.

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“I think it’s the first time most of the people have gotten a chance to see what our university is all about, the size of it, the energy, the passion from our fan base, what a game-day atmosphere looks like inside,” a reference to ESPN staging its ‘College GameDay’ pregame show from the UCF campus.

“This is big-time football. We’ve got great players on the field. I think everybody saw that tonight, and again we’ve got an opportunity to go 13-0 and add another tally to our season, and hopefully people enjoyed what they saw.”

But the reality for UCF is that Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and likely one of the next three in the latest rankings — Michigan, Georgia or Oklahoma — will make the playoffs. One of those top three might go undefeated on their way to the national title, and UCF will remain a curiosity, albeit a curiosity with the longest active winning streak in the sport.

All the same, the kids at UCF sure enjoyed their day in the spotlight.

“Turning the TV on, seeing (ESPN is) in Orlando on UCF’s campus on Memory Mall, that was unreal,” defensive tackle Joey Connors said. “When Lee Corso picked the Knights, the whole hallway erupted. We were out there celebrating in the hallway. It was a cool moment for us.”

And sure, Corso may have correctly picked the Knights to win the football game, but championships? College Football Playoff stuff?

Not so fast, my friend.

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Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Birthplace
Boston, Massachusetts
Education
Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University of Nevada-Reno
Location
Seattle, Washington
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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