3 things we learned from UCF’s loss to Georgia Tech in Gasparilla Bowl
TAMPA — UCF hoped to continue its recent dominance at Raymond James Stadium as the Knights took on Georgia Tech in Friday’s Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl.
The program had won five straight games in Tampa since 2018, and the announced crowd of 30,281 fans hoped to add another victory in its second ‘hometown.’
But the Yellow Jackets had other ideas, scoring 27 unanswered points in the final three quarters to rally for a 30-17 win.
Quarterback John Rhys Plumlee finished 16 of 29 for 198 passing yards with 2 touchdowns before leaving late in the fourth quarter after reinjuring his right knee.
The loss sent UCF (6-7, 3-6 Big 12) to its first losing season since 2016 and wrapped up its first season in the Big 12.
“We’ll put this behind us and turn the page pretty quickly going into next year,” said Malzahn. “We’ve got a lot of talented guys coming back and a great recruiting class and we’ll do well in the [transfer] portal, so we’ll put this [loss] behind us.”
Here are three things we learned from the loss:
UCF can’t overcome surging Georgia Tech in Gasparilla Bowl loss
Knights continue to struggle to stop the run
UCF’s inability to stop the run has been one of the season’s biggest disappointments. That trend continued on Friday as the Knights could not contain Georgia Tech’s ground game as the Yellow Jackets rushed for 284 yards and two touchdowns. It was the fifth time this season that UCF allowed more than 225 rushing yards in a game.
Running back Jamal Haynes became the 10th player to rush for over 100 yards against UCF’s defense this season after rushing for a career-high 128 yards, 85 of which came after initial contact. The redshirt sophomore averaged 7.1 yards per carry and forced 7 missed tackles.
Haynes wasn’t the only Yellow Jacket to take advantage of the porous defense as quarterback Haynes King (89 yards) and running back Dontae Smith (65) also contributed to the effort. Smith’s 1-yard touchdown run at the start of the fourth quarter pushed the Yellow Jacket’s lead to 27-17.
At one point, Georgia Tech ran 23 straight run plays against UCF between the 3rd and 4th quarters.
The Knights finished the season allowing 194 rushing yards per game, the most since averaging 193 yards in 2020.
RJ Harvey and Javon Baker finish on high notes
Running back RJ Harvey and receiver Javon Baker capped off stellar seasons with solid performances against Georgia Tech.
It was the perfect encore to a week in which both players announced they would return to the program next season.
Harvey finished with a team-high 120 rushing yards on 15 carries, averaging 8 yards per carry. It was his seventh 100-yard rushing game as the redshirt senior finished with 1,416 yards, the third-highest total in a season in school history. He moved into ninth place overall with 2,215 career rushing yards.
Baker set game-high marks for receptions (9) and receiving yards (173) against the Yellow Jackets. It was his fifth 100-yard receiving game of the season, giving him 1,139 yards. He became the first Knight with 1,000 yards in a season since Marlon Williams in 2020.
“That’s big for us next year,” Malzahn said of the return of Baker and Harvey.
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Too many missed chances
UCF finished the season averaging 31 points and 487 yards per game, but as prolific as they were on offense, the team struggled once it got into the red zone.
The Knights converted just 40% (2 of 5) chances inside Georgia Tech’s 20 and finished with a 75% conversion rate, ranking them 114th out of 133 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Twice against the Yellow Jackets, UCF was within striking distance in the red zone only to fail to convert on downs.
The first came in the third quarter when the Knights appeared to convert on a 4th-and-1 at the Georgia Tech 20 but were called for holding. Facing a 4th-and-11 on the 30-yard line, UCF tried again, but Plumlee missed on a short pass to Baker.
In the 4th quarter, Timmy McClain’s pass to tight end Alec Holler was broken up on a 4th-and-4 on the Yellow Jackets’ 16.
The other time UCF failed to convert in the red zone came at the end of the first half, with the Knights driving down to the GT 13 with less than 8 seconds and no timeouts. Malzahn rushed the field goal unit out with the play clock ticking down under 18 seconds and kicker Colton Boomer missed a 30-yard field goal.
“We’ve got to make that and we didn’t make it,” said Malzahn. “We had a couple of opportunities … but the bottom line is we didn’t execute.
“You’ve got to make plays. You’ve got to find a way to put the ball in the endzone. We got down there and didn’t get points. Every time they got in the red zone, they scored and we didn’t get that done.”
Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @osmattmurschel.