AAC Championship Postgame Notes

General

  • UCF captains: Tony Guerad, Pat Jasinski, McKenzie, Milton, Tre'Quan Smith
  • Coin Toss: Memphis won toss and elected to receive. UCF chose to defend the south goal.
  • With three intercepted passes and one fumble lost, it was just the second time all season that UCF has only been on wrong side of turnover margin.
  • Today's game marked the first time all season UCF has trailed at halftime. UCF trailed in the fourth quarter for the first time all season in last week's win over USF.
  • An American Athletic Conference Championship record crowd of 41,433 filled Spectrum Stadium. The previous record was 35,721 in the 2015 title game between Houston and Temple.
  • UCF played in its first overtime game since Sept. 17, 2016 when the Knights dropped a 30-24 decision to Maryland. It was the first double overtime game since Oct. 13, 2012, when the Knights topped Southern Miss, 38-31.
  • It was the first American Athletic Conference Championship overtime game.
  • UCF won their third American Athletic Conference championship and fifth overall championship.


Offense

  • The Knights scored on their opening possession and have now scored on 9-of-12 opening possessions this season.
  • Otis Anderson rushed for a career-best 119 yards on a career-high 16 carries. His previous best was 84 yards on nine carries against UConn.
  • Milton's first-quarter TD pass to Jordan Akins gave him 32 for the season, establishing a new UCF record for TD passes in a season. He finished the game with five and a season total of 35.
  • Tre'Quan Smith's two TD receptions gives him 13 for the season, tying him for second place on the UCF single-season chart.
  • Smith now has 22 career touchdowns, tying him for third place on the UCF all-time chart.
  • Milton's five touchdown passes in the game are an American Athletic Conference Championship game record.
  • Smith's 100-yard receiving game was his 11th, tying Siaha Burley at No. 2 on the UCF career 100-yard receiving game chart.
  • Smith moved into third place on the UCF career receiving chart with a total of 2,659 yards.
  • Milton's 300-yard passing game was his seventh of the season, tying for most in UCF single-season history.
  • This is just the second time all season Milton has thrown multiple interceptions.
  • Dredrick Snelson recorded his first career 100-yard receiving game.
  • Snelson and Smith were both over 100 yards receiving. It's the first time two Knights have gone over 100 was Nov. 16, 2013 when J.J. Worton (179) and Rannell Hall (159) did it against Temple.
  • Milton has now gone over 400 yards passing twice this season. His 494 yards rank second on the UCF single-game chart (Ryan Schneider, 497 vs. Florida Atlantic, 9/13/03).


Defense

  • Shaquem Griffin's first-quarter fumble recovery gave the Knights at least one takeaway in each game this season.
  • Griffin's second-quarter sack and his fourth quarter sack upped his team-leading total to 5.5.
  • Joey Connors' third-quarter sack was his second of the season.
  • Tre Neal picked off his third pass of the season to secure the victory for the Knights. It was his first INT since collecting one against ECU on Oct. 14. All three have come in Spectrum Stadium.
  • Pat Jasinski recorded a season-high eight solo tackles. His 13 total tackles were his third double-digit tackling game of the season.

Special Teams

  • With his first-quarter field goal, Matthew Wright took over 6th place on the career field-goals chart at UCF with 40.