UCF Knights Disappoint Again in Bowl Loss

My husband, at the sight of my UCF-Rutgers bowl game questionnaire with Newark Sports Examiner Jason Lockhart , looked at me in surprise. "The Knights are going to win it, I know it," he said to me with a surprising amount of excitement.

I, the doubtful sports fan from Buffalo, New York, had decided on a Rutgers win over UCF.

I cited the difference in competition between our opponents in Conference USA and Rutgers' opponents in the Big East. But really, at 8-4 each, the game was a toss up. Even I, trying to be an optimist, wasn't totally sure.

But UCF did what I knew in my heart was very possible—choke. They're great at choking in bowl games, right at the very end, but this game was embarrassing. I know, I know, the Knights scored 24 points, but did Brett Hodges look good? No.

Did our renowned defense look good? No. Did we appear prepared for the game? Definitely not.

We simply embarrassed ourselves.

The game reminded me of this year's Buffalo Bills matchups—quite embarrassing. The Knights looked disheveled and unprepared, even in light of Brett Hodges' claim that the team was intensely prepared for what was about to happen.

The Knights had to travel 100 miles to get to their destination, so that can't be the reason. Maybe they partied too much. Maybe our recruiting is terrible and we can't grab a decent quarterback.

Maybe the Knights, including the defense, weren't psychologically prepared enough. Do we have any sports psychologists on staff? What are they doing with all the money that goes to the program?

This is just a Knights fan saying I'm disappointed in the way the team performed and I'm sure glad I didn't make the trip down to St. Petersburg.

I'm disappointed that UCF embarrassed themselves on SportsCenter and discouraged fans, including me, from having any hope of black and gold success during George O'Leary's regime.

There's something wrong with the UCF Knights football equation. In fact, there are plenty of things that are wrong—the coaching, the personnel, the psychological preparedness, the way fans are being treated by being duped into thinking the organization will do anything more than win more games than losses year after year and choking in the most critical moments.

That's the way it's been for years and most likely, the way it will be for a long time to come. I'm sorry to be the glass half full kind of person in this situation, but who isn't?