The Game When UCF Fans Should’ve Known the 2025 Season Would Drag on

Bringing back Scott Frost as head coach brought in a lot of excitement throughout Orlando for the UCF Knights’ 2025 football season. However, there was one game when Knight fans should’ve known the 2025 season would be another brutal one with no bowl game to play for the second consecutive season.

The date was Oct. 4, 2025. The Knights were getting ready to host the Kansas Jayhawks in an early Big 12 matchup at the Bounce House. After starting 2025 with a 3-0 record, the Knights fell the week before by 14 points to the Kansas State Wildcats.

Even with losing the week before, there was a sense of confidence heading into UCF’s game against Kansas. UCF had begun the 2025 season winning its first three home games. The third one was the best one: a 34-9 win against Bill Belichick’s North Carolina Tar Heels.

As the Kansas game arrived for UCF, both teams sat with a 3-1 record. It was a chance for both teams to control their own destiny and start being in early Big 12 contention.

At the beginning of UCF’s fifth game of 2025, it looked promising. After two rushing touchdowns by Myles Montgomery, UCF jumped out to an early 14-0 lead just 15:05 into the game.

Then, UCF had its lead trimmed to 20-14 heading into halftime. The third quarter was the only scoring of the second half, with Kansas scoring 13 points to win 27-20.

Both of UCF’s quarterbacks, Tayven Jackson and Cam Fancher, struggled in the loss. Jackson threw under 100 yards as the starter, then Fancher relieved him but struggled, throwing for just 79 yards. After losing to Kansas, UCF’s offense was never the same.

After the Kansas loss, UCF’s offense only scored 30 points one more time in 2025, a 45-13 win at home against the West Virginia Mountaineers two weeks later. However, the team never quite recovered after losing to Kansas.

UCF went on to lose four of its last five games to finish 2025 with a 5-7 record after beating West Virginia. Yesterday, UCF needed a win against the BYU Cougars in Provo to be bowl eligible. UCF appeared to be on upset alert when they led 14-0 after the first quarter, but BYU outscored UCF 41-7 in the remaining 45 minutes of the game.

To make the Kansas loss at home look worse, Kansas finished 2025 with a 5-7 record, the same record as UCF. Now, UCF is done for football in 2025. For the second consecutive season, UCF wasted a 3-0 start to its season