{"id":136598,"date":"2023-08-11T12:32:52","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T16:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598//?p=136598"},"modified":"2023-10-19T13:05:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T17:05:44","slug":"25-0-part-2-an-oral-history-of-ucf-footballs-historic-2017-and-2018-win-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598//25-0-part-2-an-oral-history-of-ucf-footballs-historic-2017-and-2018-win-streak/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598//","title":{"rendered":"25-0 (Part 2): An Oral History of UCF Football/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s Historic 2017 and 2018 Win Streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

As UCF approaches its inaugural season as the youngest member of a Power 5 conference, the athletics department is taking a look back to commemorate this special moment in history. The following feature is a part of UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s 12 for XII series /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2014 12 stories that define UCF and the meteoric rise of the Knights in their journey to the Big 12 Conference./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

In 2017 and 2018, the UCF football team rose to the height of popularity and disrupted the college football world with its 25-0 run that spanned 745 days. The accomplishment ranks among the NCAA Division I FBS/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019 top 25 longest winning streaks of all time, cemented UCF as a national brand and exposed access barriers to the College Football Playoff./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

The following story is the most detailed account reported of the program/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s success, told exclusively by those who lived it. Read part one here./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Andrea Adelson,  ESPN senior writer: I remember sitting down with Josh Heupel in the spring of 2018 because the questions that everybody wanted to know were, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cHow are you going to keep this momentum up?/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cWhat was built here, how do you keep going?/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cYou/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re going to be changing schemes. You/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re going to have a new defensive coordinator. A new staff. What are you going to do?/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cDoes that put pressure on you?/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

He said the most important thing he wanted to do that spring was learn from the players. Because the players had done it. And he had a lot of those players coming back./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Josh Heupel, 2018-2021 UCF football head coach: I think the success that the program had the year before I came in played a huge part in wanting to be a part of it. You had everything that you needed in a program to be successful. It felt like it was a unique place and time to be able to take over a program and have a chance to go win immediately./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

It/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s always important that your players feel that they have a say in the program to create buy-in from your players. The circumstances in the way that the staff and I were taking it over, it wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t a typical year one. Knowing that we were going to fast forward coming off that season, the expectations were to go compete for a championship and play in a big-time bowl game. You/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019ve got to do that really quickly./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

For me, it was important that from the very jump they understood that a lot of the things they felt really strongly about that helped them be successful are things that we again can incorporate into our program as we continue to build it moving forward./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Some of those things were really small /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2014 uniforms and how they travel. Some of those things were big as far as the buildup and what a Thursday and Friday looked like before you get to kickoff on Saturday afternoon. The last 48 hours, we really wanted to make them feel comfortable and feel like they were still in the same type of routine as they were getting themselves ready to play./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Andrea Adelson: I thought that was really smart of him because he didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t come in here trying to destroy a foundation that was already built because he/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s the new head coach and (say), /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cNow we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re going to do things my way./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

McKenzie Milton /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201919, 2016-18 starting quarterback: Coach Frost and coach Heup, they/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re different guys. Different personalities. I think it was a challenge in our locker room initially to welcome him in with open arms./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Josh Heupel: Relationships and trust are built over time. When I took over, I said, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cI/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019m going to have to trust you guys and just kind of give you some (trust) without some of those experiences if we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re going to go be what we need to be as a football team when we get to next fall. You/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re going to have to do that as well./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d Each phase of our off-season, they got more comfortable./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Marc Daniels, longtime UCF radio broadcaster: I believe we were penalized in the preseason rankings because we had a first-time coach in Josh Heupel. If Scott Frost came back in 2018, I believe we would have started in the top 10 and the same win streak happens, it would have been really hard to deny UCF a playoff spot in 2018. If you go back and look how the first few weeks of the season began, there/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s a good chance UCF would have been in the top five before October. And I don/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t know if they would have denied that. But they penalized UCF because Josh was a first-time coach. I think we started 21st in the preseason poll and didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t get the same bounce to get up there./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Michael Colubiale /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201917, 2013-18 tight end and special teams: Going into that year, we knew how good we were. I think everyone else knew how good we were, too. We were getting everyone/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s best game. It was, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cOh, we got UCF this week, let/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s put a big circle on it./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d Coming in and doing what we did versus UConn in a new system with a new coach kind of gave us a little more confidence going into the next games. We didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t know what we were going to get. We were game planning for one style of defense and we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019d come out and get a different style every single time. We had to adjust on the run, change our plays at halftime. It was definitely a grind./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

This is where I feel like Heupel did a really good job. Our emphasis was 1-0 every week. We knew we won 13 straight, but Heupel, he beat it in our brains. I think I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019ve said it in 100 interviews: /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cOur focus is to go 1-0 this week./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d Heupel really did a great job of making the guys buy into that motto. That/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s what I feel like got us through that season a lot./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Josh Heupel: There was so much noise surrounding our program in a positive way, and there was certainly high expectations outside of it. I thought it was important to get our players to really focus on the path of how you become successful and understand that it doesn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t just follow you. It doesn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t just happen. You/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019ve got to go make it happen. In our off-season, really started focusing on our daily habits and how we approach every single day./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

As we got into the fall, that really became a really important motto for our football team. I thought our players bought into it and actually worked in that manner every single day and every single week. That was a huge part of our success./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Marc Daniels: I don/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t want to take anything away from 2017 but you go into 2018 and the pressure begins to mount when the win streak goes to 14 and to 15 and it moves down the line. Here/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s Memphis again. And I remember everything about this. All of a sudden the clouds come in. All of a sudden it begins to rain./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Josh Heupel: It was probably the wettest day I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019ve ever experienced on a football field as a coach or as a player./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Marc Daniels: We/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re getting run off the field. We can/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t stop Darrell Henderson. He/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s running for touchdowns. Missing tackles. The offense is just sitting there, and we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re not doing anything./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Michael Colubiale: 30-17 /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2014 Matt Wright /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201918 just drained a field goal right before half. We/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re going into the locker room. Dudes were not looking too optimistic. I remember running to the tunnel and just waiting for everyone and just trying to tell everyone we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re still in this fight, we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re still in this fight. We/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019re playing with a pretty much broken McKenzie Milton./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

McKenzie Milton: I was battling a grade 4 separated shoulder. I didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019t practice the whole week coming off of SMU./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Eric DeSalvo ’09, assistant athletics director of #content: I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019ll never forget his shoulder after the SMU game. He took his pads off and I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019m like /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201cOhhh!/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201d It was purple, yellow, blue./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n

Josh Heupel: I thought at halftime the ability of our leadership, Pat Jasinksi on the backside, Wyatt Miller /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u201918, McKenzie Milton, to be able to get up in front of (the team) and understand that there/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2019s a lot of things that have been built, this was a pivotal moment for our program and the course of this season, our ability to compete for a championship /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2014 which obviously a conference championship was the No. 1 goal that we had /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/u2014 those guys as much as anything were able to reset the entire locker room, bring some real calm to it and refocus us as we went out. Understand it was one play at a time. We were good enough in all three phases to go out and execute and come back in this football game./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/136598/n