UCF beats Georgia to earn first postseason win
Murray’s TD run leads Knights
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Central Florida wants to be in a BCS automatic-qualifying conference some day. A program that didn’t start playing football until 1979 just burnished its resume in a big way by beating a team from a power league.
Latavius Murray scored on a 10-yard touchdown run with 9:01 left, and UCF held on to beat Georgia 10-6 Friday in the Liberty Bowl and cap the best season in school history with the program’s first postseason victory.
The Knights (11-3) had never won more than 10 games in a season and had lost their first three bowl games. The Conference USA champs made this win even sweeter by knocking off a Southeastern Conference team in the process.
“It takes time to get a program going, but I think the depth is there now, and I think we’ll be a solid program next year,” coach George O’Leary said. “It doesn’t happen unless the school makes a commitment.”
Georgia (6-7) snapped a four-game bowl winning streak with its first loss since the 2006 Sugar Bowl. Worse for the Bulldogs is being saddled with their first losing season since 5-6 in 1996. Georgia coach Mark Richt didn’t accept the runner-up trophy, instead telling an official to get it to him later.
“We’re all disappointed,” Richt said. “We didn’t want to finish with a loss. We didn’t want to finish with a losing record. … There are reasons why we ended up the way we did. We’ve got to make changes. We’ve got to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.”
Murray finished with 104 yards on 18 carries, but it was the Knights’ defense that pulled out this victory.
UCF came in with C-USA’s stingiest defense and 18th best in the nation. The Knights held Georgia to 280 yards total offense, well below the Bulldogs’ average of 393.8.