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UCF Knights football coach Scott Frost explains Davi Belfort decision<\/p>\n
The UCF Knights subbed in backup QB Davi Belfort in place of starter Tayven Jackson for the final drive of a 30-27 loss to Houston on Nov. 7.<\/p>\n
ORLANDO \u2014 In the biggest moment of their annual signature showdown, the UCF Knights<\/a> inserted their backup quarterback.<\/p>\n Redshirt freshman Davi Belfort<\/a> subbed in for starter Tayven Jackson<\/a> with 2:23 remaining in the fourth quarter Friday, Nov. 7. Houston led 30-27<\/a>, but the Knights<\/a> possessed the ball at their own 46-yard line.<\/p>\n A sold-out Acrisure Bounce House rocked. A national TV audience on FS1 watched. And a prime opportunity to not only grow the mystique of the Space Game but to start creating Belfort\u2019s own personal legend awaited.<\/p>\n The Virginia Tech transfer scrambled twice for first downs, charging UCF to the Cougars\u2019 27-yard line. But on his offense\u2019s final snap of the evening, Belfort threw late over the middle and was intercepted.<\/p>\n The Knights suffered their first-ever Space Game defeat.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, Tayven had a hamstring (injury) earlier in the game, and we had taped it up,\u201d head coach Scott Frost said about the shift to Belfort. \u201cJust figured in that situation (Houston<\/a>) would be probably coming after us. We needed someone who could get away from the pass rush a little and maybe create something. And for the most part, it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n For the most part, yes.<\/p>\n Belfort ran five times for 36 yards. He sparked an offense that looked largely ineffective all night, one that was outgained 433-282.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was excited to go in,\u201d Frost said. \u201cHe came up to me and said, \u2018Coach, let\u2019s go win this thing.\u2019 We kind of came up with a couple of new plays for him before that drive. They hit. He did a good job executing them. It\u2019s why I feel terrible for him. I thought he had a really good drive until that last play.\u201d<\/p>\n The last play served as his lone pass attempt.<\/p>\n With 11 seconds left and UCF already in field-goal range, Belfort looked deep over the middle. Duane Thomas Jr. sprung open.<\/p>\n The toss simply arrived late, and Houston\u2019s Kentrell Webb grabbed it at the goal line.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not really in me to run the ball up the middle and go to overtime,\u201d Frost said. \u201cWe had a play that we liked. It\u2019s one of our base plays that he knew. We trust him. I thought Speedy (Thomas) was open. I\u2019ve got to look at the tape. Maybe we just didn\u2019t get to him fast enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven if that\u2019s an incomplete pass, we go out and kick the field goal. I\u2019m not just going to call inside zone and get two (yards) in that situation. We had a chance to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Belfort was not made available to the media afterward, but his teammates liked what they saw.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI love that kid,\u201d offensive lineman Preston Cushman said. \u201cI know he\u2019s hurting after his ball at the end of the game, but we\u2019re not on him about that because he made that drive go and got some crucial yards with his legs. I\u2019m so excited for that kid\u2019s future and for us to just mentor him and build around him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were behind him all the way,\u201d running back Jaden Nixon added.<\/p>\n The appearance was Belfort\u2019s third of his college career. He also suited up in garbage time against North Carolina A&T<\/a> in September and West Virginia<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n He rose to the primary backup spot behind Jackson, as Cam Fancher missed the last three contests with a rib injury.<\/p>\n Jackson, meanwhile, continued to struggle against the Cougars.\u00a0<\/p>\n He completed 15 of his 29 passes for 136 yards. It was the fifth time in his seven starts that he failed to reach 200 yards through the air. He also fired a pick-6 in the second quarter.<\/p>\n The Knights\u2019 offense accounted for only 20 points. The unit has exceeded that total once in its last six outings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to execute better, if I\u2019m being honest,\u201d Frost said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to get a little better at a lot of things \u2026 You can\u2019t just come up with a bunch of gimmicks and tricks to move the ball. We just need to do the basic things better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCF Knights football coach Scott Frost explains Davi Belfort decision The UCF Knights subbed in backup QB Davi…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":364333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[691,8015,8019,10891,103333,2871,1369,3189,17957,2488,3188,176337,723,1318,26978,2487,4345,118057,15738,942,50,450,950,10612,51696,3190,62,1458,645,2490,358,3187,30191],"class_list":{"0":"post-364332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-american","10":"tag-american-football","11":"tag-central","12":"tag-central-florida-knights-football","13":"tag-college","14":"tag-college-sports","15":"tag-content","16":"tag-cougars","17":"tag-enabled","18":"tag-fl","19":"tag-fl-content-sharing-ucf","20":"tag-florida","21":"tag-football","22":"tag-frost","23":"tag-highlights","24":"tag-houston","25":"tag-houston-cougars-football","26":"tag-knights","27":"tag-neutral","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-overall","30":"tag-overall-neutral","31":"tag-scott","32":"tag-scott-frost","33":"tag-sharing","34":"tag-sports","35":"tag-sports-news","36":"tag-story","37":"tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","38":"tag-texas","39":"tag-tx","40":"tag-ucf"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115513681372340448","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}