The opening play of UCF’s 2025 season featured a deep throw by quarterback Cam Fancher, who executed a play-action pass aimed at a sprinting Marcus Burke down the middle of the field. Sadly, the ball fell just short of Burke’s outstretched hands.

This was the moment every Knights fan had been eagerly anticipating, especially with the return of coach Scott Frost, whose UCFast offense was renowned for its explosive plays (plays of over 20 yards) and rapid touchdowns.

After a promising start, twelve plays and over five minutes later, UCF found themselves having to punt.

Two drives later, the Knights put together a lengthy 17-play drive that covered 50 yards and consumed nearly 10 minutes of clock time, only to see a 29-yard touchdown called back due to a penalty. Once again, that drive ended in a punt.

In all, UCF tallied seven explosive plays against Jacksonville State last Thursday, including a 64-yard completion from Tayven Jackson to Myles Montgomery. However, the Knights also missed out on another one when Montgomery’s 29-yard touchdown run in the second quarter was called back due to a holding penalty.

“It’s always good when you put a long drive together, but you have to come up with some points,” said offensive coordinator Steve Cooper. “We explained that to the guys and they understand that we have to be more explosive. You can’t shoot yourself in the foot.”

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“That was frustrating,” Frost said of the long drives that finished without points. “The one thing that did was help us with time possession and the defense played well early because they weren’t on the field all the time. So there’s some positive takeaways from that, but we’ve got to be more consistent and not make mistakes when we do have to go on long drives.”

UCF was second in the country in explosive plays (102) behind Oklahoma (117) during the 2017 season. It was a massive improvement from the previous season when the Knights were ranked No. 96 with just 51 plays.

In Frost’s nearly five seasons at Nebraska, the Huskers ranked in the top 25 in explosive plays three times (2018, 2019, and 2021).

UCF did pick up the pace in the second half, with none of the three scoring drives taking more than seven plays and none lasting longer than three minutes. On the game-winning touchdown drive, the Knights went 64 yards on six plays in just 32 seconds.

The two touchdowns came on throws of 33 and 39 yards, respectively.

The Knights (1-0) are hoping to take advantage of more explosive plays when they host North Carolina A&T (0-1) on Saturday (7 p.m., ESPN+).

“This will be the most talented team that we play without a doubt,” NCAT coach Shawn Gibbs said of the Knights. “They have players on their team that make more than our coaches.”

The Aggies lost to Tennessee State 24-21 last Saturday and all three of the Tigers’ touchdowns were explosive plays: an 82-yard pass, a 60-yard run and a 51-yard run.

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“If you gave them what we gave Tennessee State, it’s going to get ugly,” Gibbs added.

“We’ve got to be more explosive. Part of that’s on the coaching staff making sure that we get some plays called that could pop and then when they do pop, we’ve got to hit them and then your 13-play drives become a lot shorter,” said Frost.

Find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.

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