WACO, Texas — Two weeks after playing one of their most complete games of the season in a blowout win over West Virginia, UCF couldn’t do much right in a perplexing 30-3 loss at Baylor on Saturday.

It was the seventh straight road loss by the Knights, who face a short week of preparation before hosting Houston on Friday in the annual Space Game at Addition Financial Arena.

In the meantime, here’s a look at five key takeaways from UCF’s loss.

Knights’ road woes continue

The loss to the Bears gives UCF a 3-11 record away from Acrisure Bounce House Stadium since 2023. The last road win was a 35-34 win at TCU on Sept. 14.

“We’ve got to earn one on the road,” said coach Scott Frost. “It’s not going to be given to us and we’ve got to play a lot better than that to do that.

“The guys practiced great all week. A lot of the things that we didn’t execute out there on the field, we executed really well [in practice] on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We’ll discuss that further. It seems to have happened in road games more than home games.”

The Knights are averaging just 12 points per game on the road, while allowing at least 28 points in the three games this season.

“We’ve got to start fast,” said junior receiver Duane Thomas Jr. “It’s not like we’re not capable. We have the plays. We’ve just got to start fast.”

The rushing attack was nowhere to be seen

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of UCF’s offensive disappearance was the Knights’ inability to run the football against Baylor’s poor rushing defense.

The Bears came into the game ranked next to last in the Big 12 in rushing defense, allowing 190.5 yards per game. The previous week, in a 41-20 loss at Cincinnati, the defense was gouged for 265 yards on 50 carries.

However, on Saturday, the Knights managed a season-low 74 rushing yards on 23 carries.

It’s the lowest rushing output since 84 yards in a 17-14 loss to Navy on Nov. 19, 2022.

“Maybe the things that they’ve struggled with or the early game decision to maybe throw on that first drive, that’s stuff we need to do on the post-mortem,” said Frost. “I don’t think we’re good enough to run simple stuff like a few people have and just move the ball down the field in the run game. Many of our big plays in the run game have been creative plays that have helped the guys.”

Myles Montgomery finished with a team-high 50 rushing yards while Jaden Nixon had just 18 yards on three carries.

UCF struggles against an active passer

Baylor’s Sawyer Robertson came into the game against the Knights as the top quarterback in the Big 12, completing 62% of his passes while averaging 314 yards per game.

On Saturday, Robertson completed 73% (29 of 40) of his passes for 267 yards and three touchdowns. He was 63% (5 of 8) with 118 yards on throws of 15 yards or longer.

UCF drops seventh straight road game with loss at Baylor

“They just have some really good catches,” said edge rusher Malachi Lawrence, who finished with two sacks. “That’s really what you can say, like they have some really good catches. So you just got to give them their credit.”

The Knights have faced more dual-threat quarterbacks this season and will face another one in Conner Wegman when they take on Houston on Friday.

Scott Frost is sticking with Tayven Jackson at quarterback

Tayven Jackson stepped into the starting quarterback job midway through the first quarter of the season opener against Jacksonville State, starting six of the team’s eight games. The Knights are 3-3 under Jackson.

Despite one of his worst performances of the season — 18 of 33 for 151 yards with a season-high two interceptions — Frost said he’s sticking with the redshirt junior.

“He did his best job studying the game plan and getting ready,” Frost said. “We just didn’t make plays for whatever reason. I’m ready to ride with him. We’re going to ride with him next week. I know what kind of game he can have. We didn’t play well offensively tonight and that’s not always on the quarterback.

“Usually the head coach and quarterback take it all on the chin and we’ll watch the tape, but it’s usually not all the quarterback’s fault.”

Noe Ruelas sees kicking streak end

The redshirt senior provided the only scoring for the Knights on Saturday with a 45-yard field goal right before halftime. It was his 11th straight field goal on the season.

Unfortunately, that streak ended midway through the third quarter when Ruelas missed on a 53-yard attempt, which would have tied his career-long.

Ruelas is 12 of 14 (86%) on field goal attempts this season.

Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/11/02/ucf-knights-five-things-we-learned-about-loss-at-baylor/