Football Feature: 2014 Fiesta Bowl

The UCF Knights won 25 consecutive games between the 2017 and 2018 seasons, marking the fourth-longest win streak since the turn of the century. The foundation for that historic run was laid when the Knights introduced themselves to the college football world on January 1, 2014, in the 43rd annual Fiesta Bowl.

Facing the country's highest-scoring team as significant underdogs, No. 15 UCF shocked No. 6 Baylor, for a 52-42 victory.

That win, which capped a 12-1 season, supercharged UCF's ascent up the college football landscape. The Knights' 10-year stretch of success, featuring three trips to New Year's Six bowls as a Group of Five team, including a return trip to the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 2018 campaign, placed the program on the national stage and propelled UCF into the Big 12 Conference starting this fall.

On Saturday, UCF hosts none other than Baylor in its first-ever Big 12 home game. The landmark game will be the programs' first meeting since the Fiesta Bowl, conveniently serving as a 10-year reunion for that special 2013-14 team.

"That team and that season was part of what has been a decade-long push to the top of the football world that UCF has been on," said quarterback Blake Bortles. "For us to have a small piece of that is really special. I think that '13 team getting a chance to play on the stage that was the Fiesta Bowl gave the guys on the '17 and '18 teams a different perspective on UCF. I think it's like anything else, when somebody can go and do something, it gives others a belief that they can do it as well."

The Knights entered the 2014 Fiesta Bowl as 17-point underdogs, largely due to the Bears boasting the nation's leading offense with 53.3 points and 624.5 yards per game. What the country did not account for was a battle-tested UCF squad that was looking to make a statement on the program's biggest stage.

After compiling 11 regular season victories – seven by one-score and four by a field goal margin – the Knights announced their presence to the college football world by winning a shootout in the program's first BCS Bowl Game. The 94 combined points stood as the highest scoring game in Fiesta Bowl history until TCU's 51-45 victory over Michigan last December.

Along the way, the inaugural American Athletic Conference champions also racked up the program's first wins over a Big Ten team (at Penn State) and Big 12 team (Baylor) with the Fiesta Bowl win over the Bears also being the second of two top 10 victories – the first coming at No. 8 Louisville. For context, UCF had just one win over a ranked opponent prior to the season.

UCF raced out to a 14-0 Fiesta Bowl lead with a pair of Storm Johnson touchdowns on their first two drives, only to see it trimmed to 14-13 following a third turnover in as many plays midway through the second quarter. However, the resolve and ability to pick each other up in all three phases of the game kept the Knights moving forward.

"What we went through during that season developed a confidence where late in games or any time adversity strikes, somebody would find a way to make a play and get us out of it," Bortles said. "It was always somebody different or a different phase of the team. I think that confidence kind of reached its pinnacle in the Fiesta Bowl."

Three plays after UCF's third turnover, UCF's Brandon Alexander picked off a Bryce Petty pass in the end zone to turn the ball back over to Bortles and the offense. Five plays later, Rannell Hall took a Bortles screen pass 50 yards to the house. Just like that, the Knights were back on track.

"Brandon knew where Bryce Petty was going with the ball from the jump, and he just picked it and that was a great play," said Terrence Plummer, the Defensive Player of the Game after setting a UCF bowl record with 14 tackles. "It just goes back to the preparation and not being scared of the moment.

"Baylor had the opportunity to score and we could have shriveled during that moment. But the defense stepped up, the offense got the ball back and they went back to doing what they needed to do. It was a very complimentary football game."

After withstanding six straight empty possessions (three punts, three turnovers), the Bortles-to-Hall connection struck not once, but twice, on catch-and-run touchdowns.

UCF went into the half ahead 28-20, before Petty brought Baylor even at 28-28 less than five minutes into the third quarter.

The tie game did not last long though with Bortles connecting with Breshad Perriman – two of UCF's four all-time first round NFL Draft picks – on a 10-yard touchdown on the ensuing possession. Bortles' third touchdown pass gave the Knights the lead for good at 35-28.

Although UCF never trailed again, Baylor's offense continued to apply pressure. On their first possession of the final quarter, the Bears pulled within 42-35 following a Glasco Martin 9-yard rushing touchdown. However, Johnson delivered the proverbial knockout blow on the next drive.

With just under 11 minutes remaining, Johnson took an inside handoff virtually untouched 40 yards through the Baylor defense to pad UCF's advantage to 49-35. Shawn Moffitt concluded UCF's scoring with a 36-yard field goal on the Knights' following possession.

"The year that Baylor had, every Saturday night on ESPN you watched Baylor score 70 points again and how many yards Bryce Petty threw for," Bortles said. "They were at the forefront of the spread offense and the run-and-gun, and we were still 12/21 (personnel) under center play action pass. As a football fan and nerd, it was cool to see two polar opposite offensive schemes play each other and produce points, move the ball and have success at a high level."

Bortles, who became UCF's highest draft pick in the 2014 NFL Draft at No. 3 overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars, earned Offensive Player of the Game honors after accounting for a UCF bowl record 394 yards of offense (301 passing, 93 rushing) with four total touchdowns. Johnson, who joined Bortles in Jacksonville following the season after being selected in the seventh round, rushed for 124 yards and equaled the program's bowl record with three scores on the ground.

UCF may have arrived in Glendale as underdogs, but it returned to Orlando a household name. Make no mistake, the country learned who the UCF Knights were that night.

"I said in my Defensive MVP speech, they didn't know who Central Florida was, but they do now. That's resonated over the last 10 years," Plummer said. "We're a relevant name in college football now. (The Fiesta Bowl) was a culmination of that season, but that was the beginning of what UCF was going to become."