The UCF Knights‘ 2024 football season has completely unraveled with five-straight losses following their 37-24 defeat at home against the BYU Cougars on Saturday.
The loss dropped UCF to 3-5 on the season and 1-4 in Big 12 Conference play. The final score does not do this game justice, as UCF trailed 31-10 early in the second half, before scoring a couple of garbage-time touchdowns late in the game against the Cougars.
As head coach Gus Malzahn and the Knights walked off the field on Saturday, there were clear chants of “Fire Gus” from the UCF faithful.
Malzahn took over for Josh Heupel in 2021 and won nine games in back-to-back seasons in his first two seasons. He’s 27-20 overall as head coach of the Knights and 15-14 in conference play, but these numbers are skewed by his first two seasons being in the AAC. The Knights are 9-12 since the start of the 2023 season and 4-10 in Big 12 play.
UCF will try to snap their five-game losing streak next Saturday when they host the Arizona Wildcats at 3:30 p.m. EST on FOX Sports 1.
Related: Top 3 Takeaways From BYU’s 37-24 Win Over UCF
UCF Finds a Quarterback Who Can …Pass?
While these are not good times in Orlando, UCF may have found a quarterback. After Jacurri Brown threw an interception early in the fourth quarter of a 31-10 game, UCF turned to Dylan Rizk at quarterback. Yes, it was garbage time at that point, but Rizk played the best quarterback of any UCF quarterback in weeks. He finished 6/10 for 102 yards, one touchdown, plus four rushes for 31 yarsds.
Rizk is a former three-star prospect from the Class of 2023, according to 247Sports. He was ranked as the No. 49 quarterback in the class, per the 247Sports composite. UCF fans took to social media to celebrate and to ask coach Guz Malzahn why it took so long to put him in.
While UCF has lost five games in a row, Rizk might be the reason to find a glimmer of hope in Orlando right now.
