Dec. 3, 2009
By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
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In their five years with the UCF football program, wide receiver Rocky Ross and linebacker Cory Hogue have seen and done almost everything and accomplished a few firsts along the way for the Knights.
Now, the UCF captains want to add another first to their list.
``The big thing is we've never won a bowl game here,'' said Ross, who was a part of UCF's run to the Hawaii Bowl in 2005 and the Liberty Bowl in 2007.
``Cory and I were a part of a lot of firsts here - division championship, conference championship and the first bowl. The only thing left for us to do is to help get the school's first bowl win. That would be a great way to go out.''
Ross and Hogue will get their chance to end their senior seasons with a bang when UCF faces a Big East team in the St. Petersburg Bowl on Dec. 19. The game will be played at Tropicana Field, which is usually the home to the Tampa Bay Rays and will be converted from a baseball venue to a football field.
Hogue, a native of nearby Naples on Florida's Southwest Coast, is excited that the Knights will remain in Florida for the final bowl game of his career. UCF, 8-4 overall and 6-2 in Conference USA play, was also being considered for the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C, but Hogue couldn't be happier with how things turned out.
``D.C. would have been 10 days later and 30 degrees colder, so it's good to be in St. Pete,'' said Hogue, who led the Knights in tackles (99 total stops), ranked third in tackles for loss (11.5) and had two of UCF's 37 sacks. ``We won't have to fly and it will be a nice drive over there. We're excited and real glad that they accepted us.''
UCF doesn't return to practice until next Thursday after the team takes time off to rest up and endure school finals. The team will practice in Orlando Dec. 10-14 and then depart for St. Petersburg on Dec. 15. Kickoff for the Dec. 19 game is at 8 p.m.
UCF will likely play either Rutgers, UConn or arch-rival USF in the game. The Bulls, who close the regular season Saturday at UConn, have expressed little desire to play in the game because they were there last season. The St. Pete Bowl has the sixth pick from the Big East, meaning it will likely end up with whatever team that the Papa John's Bowl (Birmingham, Ala.) and the International Bowl (Toronto) pass over.
Ross, for one, likes that the St. Pete Bowl comes before Christmas so that the Knights can possibly take advantage of their momentum from the regular season. UCF won its final six conference games, gaining especially big wins against Marshall, Houston, Tulane and UAB down the stretch.
``We want to play the game now,'' said Ross, who was second on the team in receptions (37), third in receiving yards (412) and tied for second in TD catches (three). ``Right now we're playing the game well in the three phases. We want to get back out on the field and play this game while we're supposedly hot.''
As one of just two Conference USA teams that will face a team from a BCS-affiliated conference, the Knights are eager to see how they compare to a team from the Big East. In the 2005 Hawaii Bowl, UCF lost to Nevada in overtime and in the 2007 Liberty Bowl UCF dropped a close game to SEC member Mississippi State.
The push is on now for UCF to fill Tropicana Field with fans. The school pushed hard to get into the St. Pete Bowl so that the game would be available to more of the fanbase. Approximately 10,000 fans travelled to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl in 2007, and the school is fully expecting to significantly better that number this time around.
After all, Ross said, fans are going to want to be there when the Knights capture the first bowl win in school history.
``When we went to Liberty Bowl, it felt like an away game and we still had a good crowd go with us. But this game is home and close and our fans have no excuse now,'' Ross said. ``It will be warm the way everybody likes it. (Tropicana Field) only holds 28,000, so we're hoping to see a lot of Black and Gold to pack that place full.''
John Denton's Knights Insider appears several times per week on UCFAthletics.com. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.