Bowden open to FAU-FSU matchup

[DawgPound]

Ummm no..not even close.  I'd put Nebraska higher on the list on early day big games.

[Knight_Light]

Ummm no..not even close.  I'd put Nebraska higher on the list on early day big games.

Totally agree.

While the FSU game was fun for a huge throng of UCF fans that went up to the game...no one outside of FLA ever heard about that Noles game vs Div I-AA UCF.

But just 2 years later, UCF received a TON of national pub after going toe-to-toe with that year's eventual National Champion Nebraska Cornhuskers...a team that was LOADED and blew away a ton of teams by 30-60 pts!!

Here was Nebraska schedule/results for that year:

Nebraska 59, Akron 0

Nebraska 38, UCF 24 (UCF lead 17-14 at half of course)

Nebraska 27, Washington 14 (in Seattle)

Nebraska 56, Kansas State 26

Nebraska 49, Baylor 21 (in Waco)

Nebraska 29, Texas Tech 0

Nebraska 35, Kansas 0 (in Lawrence)

Nebraska 69, Oklahoma 7

Nebraska 45, Missouri 38

Nebraska 77, Iowa St 14

Nebraska 27, Colorado 24

Nebraska 54, Texas A&M 14 (Big 12 Champ Game in San Antonio)

Nebraska 42, Tennessee 17 (Orange Bowl)

That season (1997) was the year UCF received a Top 25 vote, even after starting the season with 3 straight road games, even though UCF went 0-3....as UCF lost 3 tough games in a row (OT at Ole Miss by 1 pt...as UCF went for 2 after scoring their first OT TD...and Daunte tripped over an OL foot while looking at a 5 feet HOLE as he could have walked into the end zone for the W; a 2 pt loss at South Carolina...as the Gamecocks rallied late to grab the 2 pt home victory...and of course the game at Nebraska).

ESPN bow tie guy at the time (Kirkpatrick? Something like that) did a ESPN report on UCF the week after the Nebraska game and prior to UCF's home opener vs Idaho.

That '97 home opener set a record crowd for UCF at the time (42,000) as the City of Orlando folks were unprepared for the huge walk-up (UCF didn't sell many season tix at the time) and traffic jam (408 was a parking lot till almost half time!)...as scores of folks were turned away/ticked off at the traffic and long tix lines.

FSU game was fun...but the game vs that year's National Champ (shared) helped put UCF on the map.

PS. What made the Nebraska game that much better?

I was one of the lucky few UCF fans (UCF only received 400 tix from Nebraska) that was able to see that game LIVE (zero tv), plus enjoy THE BEST FANS in all of college football and one of the holy mecca's in all the land (Lincoln, NE).

[KingBull]

Totally agree.

While the FSU game was fun for a huge throng of UCF fans that went up to the game...no one outside of FLA ever heard about that Noles game vs Div I-AA UCF.

But just 2 years later, UCF received a TON of national pub after going toe-to-toe with that year's eventual National Champion Nebraska Cornhuskers...a team that was LOADED and blew away a ton of teams by 30-60 pts!!

Here was Nebraska schedule/results for that year:

Nebraska 59, Akron 0

Nebraska 38, UCF 24 (UCF lead 17-14 at half of course)

Nebraska 27, Washington 14 (in Seattle)

Nebraska 56, Kansas State 26

Nebraska 49, Baylor 21 (in Waco)

Nebraska 29, Texas Tech 0

Nebraska 35, Kansas 0 (in Lawrence)

Nebraska 69, Oklahoma 7

Nebraska 45, Missouri 38

Nebraska 77, Iowa St 14

Nebraska 27, Colorado 24

Nebraska 54, Texas A&M 14 (Big 12 Champ Game in San Antonio)

Nebraska 42, Tennessee 17 (Orange Bowl)

That season (1997) was the year UCF received a Top 25 vote, even after starting the season with 3 straight road games, even though UCF went 0-3....as UCF lost 3 tough games in a row (OT at Ole Miss by 1 pt...as UCF went for 2 after scoring their first OT TD...and Daunte tripped over an OL foot while looking at a 5 feet HOLE as he could have walked into the end zone for the W; a 2 pt loss at South Carolina...as the Gamecocks rallied late to grab the 2 pt home victory...and of course the game at Nebraska).

ESPN bow tie guy at the time (Kirkpatrick? Something like that) did a ESPN report on UCF the week after the Nebraska game and prior to UCF's home opener vs Idaho.

That '97 home opener set a record crowd for UCF at the time (42,000) as the City of Orlando folks were unprepared for the huge walk-up (UCF didn't sell many season tix at the time) and traffic jam (408 was a parking lot till almost half time!)...as scores of folks were turned away/ticked off at the traffic and long tix lines.

FSU game was fun...but the game vs that year's National Champ (shared) helped put UCF on the map.

PS. What made the Nebraska game that much better?

I was one of the lucky few UCF fans (UCF only received 400 tix from Nebraska) that was able to see that game LIVE (zero tv), plus enjoy THE BEST FANS in all of college football and one of the holy mecca's in all the land (Lincoln, NE).

Wow looks like 1997 was loaded with moral victories for UCF.  Congrats!

[Triple B]

Ummm no..not even close.  I'd put Nebraska higher on the list on early day big games.

Totally agree.

While the FSU game was fun for a huge throng of UCF fans that went up to the game...no one outside of FLA ever heard about that Noles game vs Div I-AA UCF.

But just 2 years later, UCF received a TON of national pub after going toe-to-toe with that year's eventual National Champion Nebraska Cornhuskers...a team that was LOADED and blew away a ton of teams by 30-60 pts!!

Here was Nebraska schedule/results for that year:

Nebraska 59, Akron 0

Nebraska 38, UCF 24 (UCF lead 17-14 at half of course)

Nebraska 27, Washington 14 (in Seattle)

Nebraska 56, Kansas State 26

Nebraska 49, Baylor 21 (in Waco)

Nebraska 29, Texas Tech 0

Nebraska 35, Kansas 0 (in Lawrence)

Nebraska 69, Oklahoma 7

Nebraska 45, Missouri 38

Nebraska 77, Iowa St 14

Nebraska 27, Colorado 24

Nebraska 54, Texas A&M 14 (Big 12 Champ Game in San Antonio)

Nebraska 42, Tennessee 17 (Orange Bowl)

That season (1997) was the year UCF received a Top 25 vote, even after starting the season with 3 straight road games, even though UCF went 0-3....as UCF lost 3 tough games in a row (OT at Ole Miss by 1 pt...as UCF went for 2 after scoring their first OT TD...and Daunte tripped over an OL foot while looking at a 5 feet HOLE as he could have walked into the end zone for the W; a 2 pt loss at South Carolina...as the Gamecocks rallied late to grab the 2 pt home victory...and of course the game at Nebraska).

ESPN bow tie guy at the time (Kirkpatrick? Something like that) did a ESPN report on UCF the week after the Nebraska game and prior to UCF's home opener vs Idaho.

That '97 home opener set a record crowd for UCF at the time (42,000) as the City of Orlando folks were unprepared for the huge walk-up (UCF didn't sell many season tix at the time) and traffic jam (408 was a parking lot till almost half time!)...as scores of folks were turned away/ticked off at the traffic and long tix lines.

FSU game was fun...but the game vs that year's National Champ (shared) helped put UCF on the map.

PS. What made the Nebraska game that much better?

I was one of the lucky few UCF fans (UCF only received 400 tix from Nebraska) that was able to see that game LIVE (zero tv), plus enjoy THE BEST FANS in all of college football and one of the holy mecca's in all the land (Lincoln, NE).

But, sadly for UCF fans, you failed to build upon the "success" of 1997 ...

[DawgPound]

Steve Sloan made sure we didn't build on Daunte's successes.  We had the 9-2 season in 1998 and turned down joining CUSA thinking something better would have come along.  If CUSA had a 12 team conference when UL and TCU were still there, who knows what would have gone down years later?

Sloan is an idiot and UCF is STILL paying for his stupidity.