page_title: UCF Knights
section_title: Football
hierarchical_section_title: UCF Knights / Sports sponsored / Football
caption_attribution_description: Opening day for the new Bright House Networks Stadium at University of Central Florida. Pre-game.
context_page_description: The UCF Knights are the athletic teams that represent the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. The Knights participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a member of the American Athletic Conference.
  UCF, its athletic program, and the university's alumni and sports fans are sometimes jointly referred to as the "UCF Nation," and are represented by the mascot Knightro. The "Knight" was chosen as the university mascot in 1970 by student election. The "Knights of Pegasus" – as it was originally called – was a submission put forth by students, staff, and faculty, who wished to replace UCF's original mascot, the Citronaut, which was a mix between an orange and an astronaut. The Knights were also chosen over "Vincent the Vulture," which was a popular unofficial mascot among students at the time. Until 1993, the teams were known as the Golden Knights. In 1994, Knightro debuted as the Knights' official athletic mascot.
  The Knights field 16 varsity teams that have won numerous national and conference titles. The Knights football team won five conference championships and one national title in 2017.
context_section_description: UCF fielded an official varsity football team for the first time in 1979, under head coach Don Jonas.  Since then, the Knights have played in six bowl games, won six conference championships, produced 2 All-Americans, and two first-round draft picks. UCF has had some measure of success in football in its short NCAA history. It is the alma mater for NFL stars Brandon Marshall, Daunte Culpepper, Asante Samuel, Leger Douzable, and Bruce Miller among others. While UCF football can be traced back to its days as an NCAA Division III team under Jonas, it quickly moved up to Division II in 1982, and Division I-AA in 1990, finally matching the rest of its sports programs. In 1996, the program made its final ascension into Division I-A, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). UCF football plays as a member of The American, where it has been a member since the 2013 season. The Knights play their home games in Spectrum Stadium, the team's home field since 2007.
  The Knights' most prominent current football rivals are conference foes East Carolina and Tulsa, and former Conference USA rival Marshall. UCF's main in-state rival is South Florida. For most of the rivalry's existence, it was an inter-conference contest when South Florida was in the Big East and UCF in C-USA. Both schools are now conference members in The American and play on Black Friday each year.
  Since beginning play in 1979, the Knights have won three conference championships and four conference division titles. UCF won the C-USA East Division in 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2012, winning the conference championship game in 2007 and 2010. The Knights were also champions of The American in 2013. Before ascending to the FBS, UCF was a leading program in Division I-AA in the early 1990s. In 1990, UCF became the first school in history to qualify for the I-AA playoffs in its first season of eligibility. The Knights once again made the postseason in 1993, and were selected as the preseason No. 1 to start the 1994 season.
  George O'Leary became UCF's head football coach in 2004 and had great success. The 2005 team won the school's first division championship, and earned their first trip to a bowl game, in the Knights first season in C-USA. In 2007, the Knights won their second division championship, and earned their first conference championship. During the 2009 campaign, UCF earned its first victory over a ranked opponent and third bowl appearance under O'Leary's watch. In 2010 earned their first top 25 ranking, second conference championship, and winning their first bowl game. In 2013, UCF went undefeated in conference play to win The American's conference championship in its inaugural season, earning the conference's automatic berth to a BCS game. The fifteenth-ranked Knights upset the sixth-ranked Baylor Bears 52–42 in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl to secure the program's first win a major bowl game, and pull off one of the biggest upsets of the BCS era. UCF finished the 2013 campaign by earning the program's first top-ten ranking, and with quarterback Blake Bortles being selected third overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2014 NFL Draft. Scott Frost became the head coach in 2016 as O'Leary effectively resigned from the program midway through the season in 2015.
  UCF defeated Auburn 34–27 in the 2018 Peach Bowl on January 1, 2018, to secure the school's second major bowl victory.  Citing the only undefeated season in the FBS, UCF administrators claimed a National Championship football season, later upheld by the Colley Matrix, an NCAA-recognized major selector of FBS national champions, and four 1st place votes by the final AP poll. The NCAA does not officially select a national champion in FBS football.
  In 2019 they ended the regular season beating USF to be the best team in the state
caption: Spectrum Stadium, home field of the Knights since 2007
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