McKenzie Milton capped a four-play, 40-yard drive with a 12-yard touchdown run with 12 minutes remaining in the first quarter of UCF's home game vs. FAU last September. The Knights scored again four minutes later and led 14-0 halfway through the first quarter on their way to a 56-36 win. It was their 16th straight game scoring at least 30 points. One year later, that streak has swelled to 27 games, by far the longest active streak in the FBS.
"They score a million points," Lane Kiffin said of UCF this week. "They just had 44 first downs in one game. That is hard to do on air if there was no team out there. They can get on top of you really fast. You are hanging with them or even ahead of them … then all of a sudden you look up and you are down two or three scores.”
FAU fell behind by two scores in the first seven minutes last season but took a second-quarter lead with 17 unanswered points and trailed by only four points at half. Then, all of a sudden, you look up and FAU is down two scores. Then three scores.
UCF ranks third nationally in scoring after one game, a 62-0 demolition of Florida A&M. They ranked sixth last year (43.2 points per game), and first in 2017 (48.2). They are one of only two teams who averaged at least 43 points in each of the last two years (Oklahoma).
“For us it is like we are playing another SEC or Big Ten team, an upper-tier team two weeks in a row. Because they have players like those guys. They have won as many games as anybody in the last couple of years in the country.”
The Owls have never defeated UCF, though the series history is all of two games, last year's 20-point loss and a four-point loss in Orlando in 2003. The Knights will be their most notable home opponent since hosting Miami (FL) in 2015.
