No team in the American Athletic Conference has so thoroughly dominated Memphis as have the UCF Knights. With its thorough declawing of the Tigers Saturday night in Orlando, UCF has won 10 consecutive games in the series, many of the wins by similarly lopsided scores. (The Tigers’ only win in the series came in 1990, before UCF was an FBS program.)
Memphis actually led after the first quarter, thanks to a two-yard touchdown run by Patrick Taylor to culminate the Tigers’ opening drive. But UCF took firm control of the game with a pair of touchdown strikes in the last five minutes of the first half. A 34-yard pass from Knight quarterback McKenzie Milton to Tre-Quan Smith made the score 23-7 at halftime, and the Tigers never mounted a comeback.
Senior quarterback Riley Ferguson personified the Tiger struggles, throwing three interceptions and losing a fumble in one of his worst performances at the FBS level. (Ferguson tossed a 14-yard touchdown pass to freshman Damonte Coxie on the game’s final play.)
The Tiger defense continued to show serious flaws, allowing 603 yards (350 on the ground). Adrian Killins led the Knights with 115 yards rushing, most of them on a 96-yard touchdown gallop in the second quarter that gave UCF a 16-7 lead. Milton completed 19 of 31 passes for 253 yards and three touchdowns to help the Knights improve to 3-0 (1-0 in the AAC).
No Tiger ball-carrier gained as many as 50 yards and star receiver Anthony Miller was held to just three catches for 37 yards. Tony Pollard caught three passes for 75 yards.
The loss drops Memphis to 3-1 for the season (0-1 in the AAC). The Tigers travel north next week for a Friday-night tilt at Connecticut. The Huskies fell to 1-3 Saturday, losing 49-28 at SMU. The Tigers won their last meeting with UConn in 2014 (41-10) at the Liberty Bowl.
