UCF Responds to ‘Rural Central Florida’ Comments

Written By Tucker Harlin

Credit: GatorSports

By Tucker Harlin

UCF and Florida are set to meet at the beginning of October in the swamp.

These two schools are just under two hours away from each other in drive time, but they’ve only met three times for a football game. The reason for the limited meetings is because the Knights have only been in this level of football since 1996.

The Knights and Gators first squared off when the Knights were independent in 1999 and then again in 2006 after they joined Conference USA. Both of these were September non conference blowouts won by Florida.

However, the last 15 years have seen a change in the trajectory of both programs.

Florida hasn’t been the same since the departure of Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer while UCF enjoyed several successful seasons as a national group of five power.

The two met most recently in the 2021 Gasparilla Bowl.

The Gators had crashed and burned in the final weeks of the season, leading to the firing of Dan Mullen. The Knights were in their first year under Gus Malzahn, who led them to a respectable 8-4 mark.

The Knights defeated the uninspired Gators 29-17 and have bragged about it ever since.

Now a member of the Big 12, UCF didn’t need any more motivation to hype itself up ahead of its date in Ben Hill Griffin October 5.

But it received more motivation this week.

Gators head coach Billy Napier admitted to media members that his players were struggling to focus on the field due to distractions on social media from “guys in their basements in rural central Florida.”

With Florida on the horizon and “Central Florida” being in the name, it was easy for the Knights to troll Napier’s statement. So they did.

UCF’s NIL collective, Kingdom NIL, released a line of t-shirts that read “Rural Central Florida” on Tuesday.

Tucker Harlin
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