Today, the UCF Marching Knights departed Orlando bound for Memphis, Tennessee to support their football program in the 2010 AutoZone Liberty Bowl. The Knights (10-3; 8-1 C-USA) finished the season ranked #25 in the final BCS standings and were crowned Champions of Conference USA for the second time in the last five years. Their opponent, the University of Georgia Bulldogs (6-6; 3-5 SEC) just completed a relatively poor season ranking 9th place in the SEC. Although the Dawgs have won the last 5 of their 7 games, they will end the season with a losing record should they fall to UCF at the Liberty Bowl. The Knights arrived in Memphis on Monday and set-up practice camp at the University of Memphis. The Knights and Dawgs have met once before.
In 1999, the Knights lost to UGA in Athens by just one point (24-23) which resulted from a questionable pass interference call from an SEC referree. That left many Knights fans with a sour taste in their mouths. On top of that loss, UCF has yet to win a bowl game. They lost last year to Rutgers in the St. Pete Bowl and have prior losses to Mississippi State (2007 Liberty Bowl) and Nevada (2005 Hawaii Bowl). Consequently, the Knights are ferociously hungry for their first post-season win. The match up between the two teams is close. UGA and UCF both have starting quarterbacks who are freshman. And while UGA’s AJ Green is a receiver to be reckoned with, the UCF defense has played tough against teams with much stronger offenses this season. Kickoff for the AutoZone Liberty Bowl is 3:30pm on Friday (New Year’s Eve). The game is nationally-broadcasted on ESPN.
Pre-game festivities for the Liberty Bowl include the Liberty Bowl Parade (12/30: 3:00pm: Beale Street); Bash on Beale Pep Rally (12/30: 5:00pm: Beale Street); and the Battle of the Bands Pregame-Buffet (12/31: 11:00am: Arena Building).
Below, watch Georgia’s QB Aaron Murray (of Plant City, Florida High School) discuss taking-on the Knights and the Knights’ Tuesday in Memphis: