July 7, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - On Oct. 11, UCF will travel three hours south to Miami to take on the Hurricanes in the first meeting between these two Sunshine State programs. After playing Miami, UCF will have faced all but one of the Football Championship Subdivision schools in Florida (FIU).
The contest will be the second of two games in 2008 that the Knights will play on the road against an Atlantic Coast Conference team; the other being Boston College. Last year the Knights ventured to another ACC team in NC State and won 25-23.
The Hurricanes are returning only 11 starters from last year's squad, with just four on the offensive end. Miami is entering the season with redshirt freshman Robert Marve as its starting quarterback, but he faced tough competition for the position throughout the spring workouts.
Miami's historic depth at running back continues in 2008 with the return of sophomore Graig Cooper and junior Javarris James. Last season they proved to be a dangerous 1-2 punch and continued that into the spring game. James caught four passes for 60 yards as well as one rush for 25 yards, while Cooper gained 91 yards on eight carries with two touchdowns.
Miami starts the season with a new defensive coordinator in Bill Young. Young is a 39-year coaching veteran. His most recent job was defensive coordinator at Kansas. Under Young in 2007, the Jayhawks ranked fourth nationally in scoring defense (16.3 points per game), eighth in run defense (94.8 yards per game) and 49th in pass defense (222.5 yards per game). Sophomore Allen Bailey made the switch from linebacker to defensive end in the spring. He has large shoes to fill as he is replacing Calais Campbell, who left school early and was chosen in the second round of the NFL draft.
Not only will UCF be in unfamiliar territory during the contest, but so will UM. This will be the first season in 71 years that the Hurricanes will not be playing in historic Orange Bowl Stadium. UM played 468 games there with an overall winning percentage of .687, which included a NCAA record 52-game home winning streak. The Hurricanes will now be playing their home games at the larger and more modern Dolphin Stadium.
The Knights went 10-4 in 2007, claimed the Conference USA Championship and played in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
Season tickets for the 2008 UCF football campaign are currently available. To order season tickets, or to learn more about attending games at Bright House Networks Stadium, call 407-UCF-1000. The Knights are scheduled to play six home contests this year.
For the latest news and information on the Knights, tickets or apparel, log on to www.ucfathletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. Also visit www.ucfphotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.