On Saturday when UConn comes to town to play UCF it will play host to a familiar opponent only this time it won’t be a conference game. With UConn accepting an invite back to the Big East in basketball, football was left as an Independent now. So after a one year absence in the series UConn will travel to Orlando to face the Knights in a non-conference match-up.
Back in 2014 then Head Coach Bob Diaco decided to create his own rivalry with UCF and named it the “Civil ConFLiCT”. There was a trophy and everything made, UCF said they wanted no part of the rivalry or the trophy but Diaco said it was not their decision. In 2016 Head Coach Scott Frost asked UConn not to bring the trophy to the game, Diaco ignored and brought the trophy anyway. UCF would win the game 24-16 and the trophy would go unclaimed and would disappear shortly after that. It is now a running joke about where the trophy is around Central Florida. UConn women’s Basketball Head Coach Geno Auriemma once said “That might have been the dumbest thing in sports history”
Anyway back to this years game UConn comes in toting a 1-9 record with their only win being against UMass. The Vegas betting line sits at 30.5 in favor of UCF but the main concerns I would like to see out of UCF is first to STAY HEALTHY, NO MORE INJURIES please! I also would like them to use this game to sharpen up their offense. They have rivals usf coming to town 6 days after this game and they would want nothing more then to upset UCF in their own stadium.
I don’t see this being a very competitive matchup for UCF as UConn is just not that good but I also know that these are the types of games if you don’t take it seriously you find yourselves in a nail biter and possibly even worse a loss.