PHILADELPHIA - The UCF football team put together its best overall performance on Saturday, improving to 5-3 on the season with a 49-7 victory over Temple at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Knights (5-3, 3-2 AAC) sprinted out to a 21-0 halftime lead, and poured it on in the second half, before allowing the lone Owls (3-5, 1-3 AAC) touchdown in the final minute of the game to give up the shutout.
UCF freshman Mikey Keene threw five touchdown passes and a career-high 229 yards through the air to lead the Knights offense, hitting tight end Alec Holler and Ryan O'Keefe for a pair of touchdowns each and Brandon Johnson for one.
Isaiah Bowser led the running attack behind UCF's offensive line, rushing 19 times for 89 yards and his seventh score of the season.
The Knights got three turnovers on a trio of fumble recoveries, improving to 4-0 on the year when recording fewer turnovers than their opponent.
Quadric Bullard, Tatum Bethune, and Johnny Richardson each forced one fumble, the last coming immediately after an interception by the Owls. Bullard also recovered a fumble, along with Keenan Hester and Brandon Johnson.
Bullard came into the game ranked fourth in the nation with two fumble recoveries, picking up his third on Saturday.
D-BLOCK
• It marked the first time UCF shut its opponent out in the first half since doing so to South Florida Nov. 29, 2019.
• Holding Memphis scoreless in the third and fourth quarters on Oct. 22 and then Temple scoreless in the first three quarters in this game, it marked the first time holding an opponent scoreless for five consecutive quarters since shutting out Florida A&M (Aug. 29) and keeping FAU (Sept. 7) out of the end zone in the first quarter in 2019.
• It marked the fourth time this season that the Knights have held their opponent to less than 300 yards of total offense, all four wins.
MIKEY'S MOMENT
• Mikey Keene threw five touchdown passes in the game, matching his career total in his previous five games.
• He is the seventh Knight to throw for five or more touchdowns in a single game, joining Dillon Gabriel, McKenzie Milton, Ryan Schneider, Daunte Culpepper, Darin Hinshaw and Darin Slack.
• Keene threw for a career-high 229 yards on 15-of-21 passing.
COACH MALZAHN
"I'm just really excited for our team. I think we played a complete game. We may have played our best game of the season. We've been talking to our guys about the second part of the season. We've had trouble on the road. Our guys came out and played very good defensively. It was maybe our best defensive effort and maybe our best complete game offensively."
MIKEY KEENE
"It was a fun game, playing out there. We executed our game plan perfectly. There were a few things we could take back. For one, we were very fortunate after I threw that pick, Brandon Johnson made a great play, got on the ball, so that was very fortunate. We came out, executed our game plan, the result was the result, and it was a lot of fun coming out here and getting the W."
UCF Knights · 2021 UCF Football at Temple - Highlights
