Following a dominant 45-3 victory against No. 15 Oklahoma State on Saturday, UCF football has been named the Cheez-It National Team of the Week, the All-America Committee of the Football Writers Association of America announced Monday.
UCF recorded its first top-15 win since 2017 when the Knights defeated seventh-ranked Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the first top-15 home win since 2009 against No. 13 Houston.
The 42-point win over Oklahoma State marked the largest margin of victory over a ranked opponent in UCF history, topping the 25-point margin from the Cincinnati game in 2018.
The selection marks the third time UCF has earned the national team of the week honor from the FWAA and the first time since Nov. 19, 2018, when the Knights extended the nation’s longest winning streak to an American Athletic Conference and school record 23 games at the time.
Oklahoma State, ironically, was last week's Cheez-It National Team of the Week. The Cowboys had won their last five games and not lost since September before UCF defeated the squad Saturday night.
UCF’s dominant defense held OSU without a touchdown for the first time in more than a full calendar year, as the Cowboys last game without finding the endzone was a 48-0 shutout loss at Kansas State on Oct. 29, 2022.
Averaging 180.1 rushing yards per game, Oklahoma State had -6 rushing yards at halftime and ended the game with just 52, which is the fewest for the program since Nov. 15, 2014, when the Cowboys tallied 34 against Texas.
Offensively, the Knights recorded 592 total yards and scored 45 points, both marks are the most for UCF in a Big 12 game.
Since 2002, the FWAA has named a National Team of the Week. Coming into the 2023 season, 284 teams have been honored, including 101 different Division I programs. Each honored team will receive a custom Cheez-It "care package" along with a hand-crafted game ball made in America by Dallas-based Big Game USA, the nation's leading manufacturer of custom footballs.
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Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of 1,100 men and women who cover college football. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include game-day operations, major awards and its annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its award programs, contact Steve Richardson at tiger@fwaa.com.
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