Trailing 28-7 early in the third quarter typically isn’t a recipe for running the ball. Unless you’re handing it to RJ Harvey.
UCF’s star running back carried his team to a dramatic, 35-34 comeback victory over TCU two Saturdays ago, finishing with 180 rushing yards and two touchdowns on a career-high 29 carries, plus a 29-yard receiving touchdown. The Knights erased a 21-point second-half deficit to open Big 12 play with a win, improving to 3-0.
“He ran with a mission with the game on the line,” UCF coach Gus Malzahn said. “He’s one of those elite guys in the country.”
The fifth-year senior went into halftime with a respectable 66 yards on the ground before shredding TCU’s defense after the break, ripping off 114 yards at 6.3 yards per carry to flip the momentum and scoreboard in UCF’s favor.
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“I knew I had to step up, have a big game. … I’m mad I didn’t get over 200 (yards),” Harvey told reporters this week. “Honestly, I feel like nobody can stop me.”
That has been the case through three games this season, with a home showdown against Colorado and coach Deion Sanders on Saturday after last week’s bye. Harvey, who finished sixth in FBS with 1,416 rushing yards in 2023, is averaging 149.3 yards per game in 2024, good enough for fourth in the country. What makes UCF particularly dangerous is that Harvey doesn’t have to do it alone. Toledo transfer Peny Boone, Cincinnati transfer Myles Montgomery and speedy senior Johnny Richardson round out arguably the deepest running backs group in college football, with all four averaging at least 6 yards per carry. Add in dual-threat quarterback KJ Jefferson, and the Knights have the top rushing attack in FBS at 375.7 yards per game.
Gus Malzahn is 27-16 in his fourth season at UCF. (Mike Watters / Imagn Images)
Granted, most of the damage came in blowout wins over New Hampshire and Sam Houston State. The Knights fell short of that average against TCU, racking up 289 rushing yards, but Malzahn hopes the comeback against the team’s first power-conference opponent of the season is indicative of a larger trend. UCF lost five in a row to open league play in 2023, its first as a member of the Big 12. The challenges of making the jump from the Group of 5 and American Athletic Conference to the Power 4 manifested in several late-game collapses: blown second-half leads to Kansas State, Baylor and Oklahoma in a month, including a 29-point meltdown against the Bears. Those Knights didn’t have the horses to keep up.
“It was a lack of overall depth,” Malzahn said this summer. “You get into the thick of it, get some guys banged up, and some of the other programs have better quality depth.”
Malzahn worked to rectify that through the transfer portal, adding 24 transfers to the roster this offseason. Seven started against TCU, including six fifth- and sixth-year seniors: Jefferson, linebackers Deshawn Pace and Ethan Barr, defensive backs Mac McWilliams and Sheldon Arnold and tight end Evan Morris.
“There’s nothing like experience in college football,” Malzahn said. “The more experienced team you have, the better chance you have to be successful. We have a lot of older guys who have played a lot of football.”
That experience showed up on the road against TCU. Horned Frogs quarterback Josh Hoover torched the Knights for 402 passing yards and four touchdowns, putting UCF in an early hole. But after allowing a four-play, 75-yard touchdown drive on the opening possession of the third quarter, UCF’s defense tightened up just enough, forcing two punts and three field goals, the last one a desperation 58-yard attempt that sailed wide right as time expired.
Jefferson added two of his three passing touchdowns in the second half to complement Harvey and the ground game and flip the script from last season.
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“That win gave us a lot of confidence,” Harvey said. “Last year, we never got the job done in the second half. But this year it’s a totally different team. We have a lot to prove.”
Jefferson is a significant part of that difference. The former Arkansas quarterback transferred to UCF this offseason with 36 career starts under his belt and the type of versatile skills that can thrive in Malzahn’s offensive system. The fact opposing defenses have to account for Jefferson in the run game keeps defenders honest on run-pass action and play action and opens lanes for Harvey and company. It’s even earned Jefferson comparisons to Cam Newton, whom Malzahn coached at Auburn.
Jefferson is still finding his footing with the Knights through three games, but when the team needed him to step up late against TCU, the veteran delivered, including a pair of 20-plus-yard touchdown passes to senior wideout Kobe Hudson.
“Everybody knows we’re talented in that (running backs) room, but if you can run the football, it opens up other things,” Malzahn said.
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The bigger issue last season, however, was a defense that wilted against Big 12 competition, particularly against the run, allowing 4.9 yards per carry. The current three-game sample isn’t enough to get excited about a Big 12-best 2.5 yards per carry allowed in 2024, but the additions of players like Pace, Arnold and defensive linemen Nyjalik Kelly and Daylan Dotson have strengthened the defense at all three levels.
Is it improved enough to contend in the newly crowded and chaotic Big 12 race? UCF gets its next chance to prove as much Saturday against Colorado, fresh off the Buffs’ Hail Mary overtime win against Baylor. It’s still up for debate how much better this Colorado team is compared with the roster that finished dead last in the Pac-12 last season, but it boasts two game-changing talents in Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, as well as the Coach Prime effect: Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” pregame show is headed to Orlando, Fla., and the game gets the network’s 3:30 p.m. ET national spotlight. It’s probably the biggest showcase UCF has had since ESPN’s “College GameDay” went to Orlando in 2018.
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Harvey was a quarterback at the time for Edgewater High School, about 20 minutes from UCF’s campus, but he remembers the exposure and excitement the show brought to the city and the program. Saturday could have a similar impact — and lift the Knights to a 4-0 start for the first time since that 2018 season.
“It’s a great opportunity for UCF to have the light on us,” Harvey said.
These Knights will face stiffer conference tests against Iowa State, BYU, Arizona and Utah later in the schedule, as well as a short trip to Gainesville on Oct. 5 for a nonconference game that could put the final nail in Billy Napier’s tenure at Florida. If UCF truly is good enough to compete for a Big 12 title, it should take care of business at home against a Colorado team that needed a last-second miracle to beat Baylor. The uniqueness of Saturday is an opportunity to burnish those bona fides with plenty of eyeballs watching.
“We’re a young Power 4 team that is still growing. This is a great opportunity for our program on a national stage,” Malzahn told reporters this week. “We just have to seize the moment.”
(Top photo of RJ Harvey: Andrew Dieb / Imagn Images)
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Publish date : 2024-09-24 22:00:00
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