After finishing its first season in the Big 12 Conference with a 6-6 record (3-6 Big 12) and a 27-13 win against the Houston Cougars (4-8; 2-7 Big 12), the UCF Knights are heading to the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl to face ACC foe Georgia Tech (6-6; 5-3 ACC). The game will mark the 6th time the Knights have participated in that Bowl game, with its most recent trip in 2021, when they beat the Florida Gators 29-17.
“We’re not satisfied with how everything turned out, but we’re happy that in the first year, we went to a bowl,” coach Gus Malzahn said after the win over the Cougars. “Now we need to focus on winning that bowl and get some momentum going in next year.” A victory against the Yellowjackets would be an amazing cap on a shaky first season in the Big 12. UCF saw a 5-game losing streak (also accompanied by the loss of starting quarterback Jonathan Rhys Plumlee for 4 of those contests) but also a HUGE 45-3 slashing of Oklahoma State (which played in the Big 12 Conference Championship game but ultimately lost to the Texas Longhorns).
Georgia Tech does hold a lead over UCF in their series (3-2). During their last match on September 24, 2022, UCF beat Georgia Tech handily, 27-10. The head coach of Georgia Tech, Brent Key, is also a former Coach at UCF. While his head coaching stint at UCF was short-lived, many UCF fans blame Key for UCF’s 0-12 season in 2015. Beating Georgia Tech would be a great opportunity to cement some revenge. Kickoff for the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl is Friday, December 22nd at 6:30pm. The game will be nationally-televised on ESPN.