Florida is NOT the most crucial football game of 2024

It's not often that I write commentary about the UCF Knights here on the Black and Gold Banneret. However, after seeing the prevailing view that the upcoming game against the Florida Gators at The Swamp in Gainesville is the most crucial game of 2024, I feel compelled to take up my mantle as the voice of reason in the mind of Lee Corso and declare: Not so fast, my friend.

To be clear, I already have October 5th^e2024 was marked on my calendar to make the trip to Ben Hill Griffin to cover the 2021 revival of the Gus Parilla. That Gasparilla Bowl win at Raymond James Stadium did much to put the state of Florida and the nation on notice that UCF was a rising power in college football.

Photo: Noah Goldberg

That said, in the grand scheme of the 2024 schedule, it's just an exciting Saturday. Of course, it will mean more than the New Hampshire and Sam Houston games in the debut of the year. But being more important than the latest in the tradition of two weeks of tune-ups at the start of a season under UCF head coach Gus Malzahn is hardly the highest bar to clear.

And as someone who values ​​SEC football as the best in the sport, I understand the hype of a team from that conference facing the Knights as a litmus test. But for those who may not know, Billy Napier is in the right seat after two seasons of struggle with a fan base and boosters who demand consistent excellence.

Regardless of how reasonable that expectation is, the Gators’ brutal schedule could leave them at 1-3 when UCF meets them. Conversely, the Knights would be at worst 2-2 in this game. The UCF Mafia will see this as a winnable game, but if they lose, what exactly is the negative impact on the schedule?

At 2-3 with an 0-2 record in the conference as a worst-case scenario, an eight-win season and bowl eligibility still remain likely possibilities as mid-season improvements have become a hallmark of the Malzhan era.

Bannerets owner Jake Ferraro says: A road win in an SEC stadium, where the atmosphere is already heavy, would be impressive nationally. . . . I'm not so sure. . .

Anyone who has watched the Knights pull off an SEC victory lately will note that the talking heads of the nation's four-letter networks (or three-letter FOX counting, for that matter) will do everything they can to undermine that performance.

Statements from the Florida program are that UCF's rebuild was a trap the Gators didn't want and would fly anywhere, just as they did when the Knights infamously earned the Colley Matrix's top spot by beating Auburn in the Peach bowl during the 2017 National Championship season or after the Gusparilla. The joke writes itself that a production featuring a panelist named Booger will do anything to ignore a victorious outcome for the Knights.

UCF fans (including members of the Black and Gold Banneret staff) also take pride in being the team that gets a coach fired. What would the national sentiment be for the Gators if coach Napier were fired after starting the 2024 campaign 1-4 following a loss to a program they still view as a little brother in the state?

I'm not saying they'd be viewed by the SEC as as outgunned as Vanderbilt, but the fall from grace in the eyes of the national media would only lower the value of the win.

To be fair, if the Knights beat Colorado and TCUthe same dismissal of those victories would occur because both schools failed to live up to their hype (deserved or not). The difference? The weight of a conference matchup still keeps UCF on the fast track to a College Football Playoff berth and a Big 12 championship.

Now, in a world where UCF is trying to remain undefeated in an unlikely and miraculous scenario in 2024 (where a quarterback in Malzahn's era could last all season as a starter before getting injured) and the program is campaigning for a #4 seed for the CFP, MAYBE it is more important.

Or has Black Friday perhaps become as important as it was in 2017? Perhaps with a potential shot at making the Conference Championship, UCF has a chance to replace a program in the Utah Utes under head coach Kyle Whittingham, who finished in the Top 25 in six of the past 10 seasons to impress more people than they would have done in a win over Florida?

Even if they lose in the Big 12 Championship game and have to sneak in as an at-large team, what better looks on a resume for a CFP committee member? A perennially ranked Utah or a crumbling program that has benefited from the reputation of blueblood successes brought by guys who now sit behind a desk on TV as analysts?