Game Notes | Depth Chart
After earning a 35-28 road win at Memphis last weekend, 22nd-ranked UCF will look to make it consecutive road wins as the Knights travel to New Orleans for a matchup with No. 17 Tulane on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Saturday, Nov. 12
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT
TV: ESPN2
Talents: Anish Shroff, Brock Osweiler, Taylor McGregor
Radio: FM 96.9/AM 740 The Game
Live Stats: click here
A UCF WIN WOULD...
• Be UCF's 10th win over Tulane, fifth consecutive in the all-time series with the Green Wave and third straight win of the season
• Be UCF's second ranked win this season
• Give Gus Malzahn his third win over Tulane as a head coach
• Give the Knights their fourth road win at Tulane
• Be better than a loss
SERIES BREAKDOWN
| Overall | UCF leads, 9-2 |
| in New Orleans | UCF leads, 3-2 |
| in Orlando | UCF leads, 6-0 |
| Last Meeting | W, 14-10 (11/6/21) |
| Last Meeting in New Orleans | W, 34-31 (11/23/19) |
| Streak | UCF won 4 |
KNIGHT NOTES
• With the win over the Tigers, the Knights moved up to No. 22 in the second College Football Playoff rankings released on Tuesday night and UCF is also No. 22 in the Associated Press and No. 21 in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Top 25 Polls.
• Saturday's game will be the first ranked matchup for UCF since the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 2019, when the seventh-ranked Knights dropped a close game against No. 11 LSU in Glendale, Arizona.
• It will also be a battle for first place in the American Athletic Conference standings, as Tulane currently sits atop the league with a 5-0 record and UCF is tied for second with a 4-1 mark. With a win on Saturday, the Knights would own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Green Wave.
• UCF's red zone defense continues to rank as the best in the country, as opponents have scored on just 61% of their trips to the red zone, converting on 22-of-36 attempts. The Knights have only allowed 12 touchdowns in the red zone in 36 trips for opponents, a 33% rate. UCF has forced at least one red zone stop in seven of its nine games this season, headlined by three red zone stops at Memphis last weekend.
• UCF is averaging 501 yards of total offense per game this season, which ranks seventh nationally and leads the AAC. UCF's 737 yards of total offense against Temple are the second most of any team in the country this season, behind Ohio State's 763 yards against Toledo. UCF is the nation's only team to surpass 600 yards of total offense in three games this season. In addition to the season-high mark in the win over the Owls, the Knights recorded 653 yards in the road win at Florida Atlantic and tallied 605 yards in the season opener against South Carolina State.
• The Knights' rushing attack is among the best in the nation as well, averaging 239.9 rushing yards per game to rank eighth nationally and lead the AAC. Fifth-year running back Isaiah Bowser is 16th nationally with 11 rushing touchdowns, which also leads the conference. Dating back to the bowl game last year, Bowser has at least one rushing touchdown in eight of his last 10 games, scoring 13 total during that span.
ABOUT TULANE
Tulane is in its seventh season under head coach Willie Fritz, who has compiled a 39-44 record since taking over the program prior to the 2016 season. Fritz has engineered one of the nation's best turnarounds from a season ago, as the Green Wave were 2-10 last year and are now 8-1 and undefeated in league play. Tulane is coming off a 27-23 win at Tulsa last week and defeated Memphis 38-28 in its most recent home game on Oct. 22.
The Green Wave own one of the nation's top defenses, as they have allowed just 16.9 points per game to rank 11th nationally and lead the AAC. Tulane has allowed the fewest first downs of any team in the conference with 145 in nine games, an average of 16.1 per game.
Saturday's game will be the 12th all-time meeting between the programs, as UCF leads the series 9-2 following last year's 14-10 win in Orlando. In their last trip to Tulane on Nov. 23, 2019, the Knights earned a 34-31 win behind 319 yards passing and 165 rushing yards.
UCF has won the last four meetings against Tulane and owns a 3-2 record in games played in New Orleans. Last year's contest was a defensive battle with the Knights scoring in the first quarter, neither team scoring in the second quarter, the Green Wave scoring all 10 of their points in the third quarter and UCF adding a touchdown in the fourth quarter to win by four.
CLIMBING THE RANKINGS
Following a 35-28 road win at Memphis last weekend, the UCF football team has moved up to No. 22 in the second College Football Playoff rankings released on Tuesday night.
UCF entered rankings after taking down No. 20 Cincinnati on Oct. 29. It marked the first time the Knights have been ranked in the CFP Rankings since 2018 and the first in the AP Poll since week three of the 2020 season.
The Knights are also No. 22 in the Associated Press and No. 21 in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Top 25 Polls this week.
MATCHUP TO KEEP AN EYE ON
Saturday's game at Tulane will feature an exciting matchup of strength versus strength, as UCF leads the conference and ranks seventh nationally in total offense (501.0) and Tulane leads the league and ranks 16th in the nation in total defense (307.3).
The Knights have recorded more than 330 yards of total offense in every game this season, while the Green Wave have only allowed more than 380 yards this season three times.
BEST IN THE COUNTRY
UCF's red zone defense continues to rank as the best in the country, as opponents have scored on just 61% of their trips to the red zone, converting on 22-of-36 attempts. The Knights have only allowed 12 touchdowns in the red zone in 36 trips for opponents, a 33% rate. UCF has forced at least one red zone stop in seven of its nine games this season, headlined by three red zone stops at Memphis last weekend.
SOMETHING ABOUT MEMPHIS
Junior cornerback Davonte Brown has recorded two career interceptions and both have come against Memphis. He snatched a bouncing ball out of the air for his first interception of the season against Memphis last weekend and tallied the first of his career against the Tigers in 2021.
Redshirt senior Divaad Wilson also picked off a pass against Memphis to bring the Knights' season total to four with Wilson's third interception of the season.
MIKEY ON THE SPOT
In his first action of the season, sophomore quarterback Mikey Keene came up big for UCF leading a pair of Knights scoring drives including the game-winner in the fourth quarter in the win over Cincinnati. Keene finished the game 15-for-21 with 176 yards, completing 71% of his passes.
Thrust into action in a similar manner in 2021 with an injury to Dillon Gabriel, Keene was ready for the challenge against one of the league's best defenses.
Against Memphis, Keene started the game and finished 22-for-28 passing for 219 yards with three touchdowns to lead the Knights to the road win.