The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • C10

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: SPT DATE: 12-04-2005 EDITION: FLA ZONE: FLA PAGE: C10.0 DEADLINE: 21.51 OP: ashiver COMPOSETIME: 22.56 CMYK Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: SPT DATE: 12-04-2005 EDITION: FLA ZONE: FLA DEADLINE: 21.0 OP: ashiver COMPOSETIME: 22.56 CMYK C10 Orlando Sentinel SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2005 C1 1 THE BUZZ Sports Miscues prove costly to Knights THE UCFoffto2-0start Too much money? -As! I ra imiami On Nov. 23, a Sentinel Sports-front illustration envisioned what the Citrus Bowl would look like filled to capacity with UCF fans for the inaugural Conference USA Championship Game UCF FROM CI give Knights they C-USA very pleased with Orlando's title game Historians will record the score of Saturday's Conference USA Championship and show UCF coming up 17 points shy. The league office will remember something else as well how well it and UCF pulled this off. C-USA Commissioner Britten Banowsky beamed throughout the day, marveling at his league's first football title game, won by Tulsa 44-27. "It's a golden day for us," he said.

"For us, it couldn't have been scripted any better. We really tip our hats to the people of Orlando, all they did to support this." A UCF home-game record of 51 ,978 showed up on a cloudless day, one in which the league entertained sponsors in a north end zone tent and patio. As C-USA presidents considered whether to have this game, some expressed concerns that it would not make money. UCF Athletic Director Steve Orsini said it would net at least $400,000 and probably well above that much. "Everyone walked away thinking this was about as good as it gets," Banowsky said.

"On a scale of 1 to 1 0, this was a 1 0." Fly in, win, fly out Tulsa (8-4) showed no ill effects of its Friday travel odyssey. The Golden Hurricane left Tulsa eight hours later than planned because of a faulty hydraulic pump on its charter plane. The team actually got to the Tulsa airport and went back to campus for a brief practice before returning to the airport and sitting around for another three-hour delay. The charter landed in Orlando shortly after 9 p.m. Players ate dinner at 1 0 p.m.

and had team meetings at 7:45 a.m. Saturday. "You heard of lunch and brunch? We had whatever the difference is between dinner and breakfast," Tulsa Coach Steve Kragthorpe said. "Our guys stayed focused. It wasn't a big deal." Sidelined and dejected One of the longest faces Saturday belonged to WR Mike Walker, whose injured left knee rendered him unable to play.

Walker watched from the sideline as the Knights struggled to produce 339 yards of offense. Walker had arthroscopic surgery two weeks ago and said he will have reconstructive surgery on his ACL within 1 0 days, after final exams. He will not play in the Hawaii Bowl. Neither will LB Glenroy Watkins. He will have surgery in January to repair a torn ACL, MCL and torn cartilage.

Burning it up CB Joe Burnett now has a two-game streakof returning punts for touchdowns. He had a 68-yarder Saturday, following up a 58-yard scoring return Nov. 1 9 vs. Rice. He is the third player to have at least two punt returns for scores.

Etc. UCF Coach George O'Leary will be named a finalist this week for the Eddie Robinson Award, one of a handful of national coach-of-the-year honors. Other finalists: Penn State's Joe Paterno, Notre Dame's Charlie Weis, UCLA's Karl Dorrell and Texas's Mack Brown. Dorrell is a former UCF assistant. Matt Prater was perfect in his last home game, booting field goals of 46 and 40 yards and making all three extra points.

Prater has 46 career field goals, moving to No. 3 on UCF's career list. Kevin Smith's 31 -yard touchdown run in the second period was his longest scoring run of the year. ALAN SCHMADTKE GARY W. GREENORLANDO SENTINEL A UCF fan doesn't have much to cheer about in the 2nd half.

Still, Knights players appreciated the big crowd. By RICH MCKAY SENTINEL STAFF WRITER Throngs of UCF fans arrived full of enthusiasm for Saturday's Conference USA title game some of them hours before the noon kickoff. But sullen and pain-faced, the home-record crowd of 51,978 was shuffling out of the stands before the end of fourth quarter. A shirtless trio of Alex Saiz, 23, Ben Gafoor, 20, and Adam Friedman, 23, had arrived at the game jubilant, U-C-F spelled out on their chests with black and gold body paint. The buddies headed for bleachers section 210 vowing to risk sunburn or chilled winds for the team.

Near the end, they were nowhere in sight. "What's the difference?" said 2002 graduate Ken Tamsberg, 26, as he left. "The bottom line is, it's over." The 44-27 final score punctured many hopes. This should have been the Knights' year, said Brandon O'Brien, a member of a campus booster club, the UCF Rowdy Knights. O'Brien, 20, was one of the fans who rushed the Citrus Bowl field in September and tore down a goal post after the team broke its 17-game losing streak with a victory over Marshall.

Fearing a repeat of that stunt, which cost the UCF Athletics Association $5,000, a small army of Orlando police officers, some on horseback, took up stations at the stadium Saturday. But they weren't needed. Fans left peacefully. Despite being on the losing end of the scoreboard, UCF senior defensive end Paul Carrington said he enjoyed every bit of the build-up for the game. "The last game when we set the record 50,220 fans vs.

Virginia Tech in 2000, I was actually a recruit sitting in the stands," Carrington said. "I knew this place was capable of getting loud, and I had no doubt it would be just like that today." Junior center Cedric Gagne-Marcoux was feeling the Citrus Bowl vibes as well. "I had goose bumps," he said. "Gosh. I was telling our fans earlier this season, 'Don't quit on us.

We want to win for you guys. We care about you "They showed up today and were present the whole game, even when we were behind. They cheered the whole time. That was great. That means so much." Justin Messenger, 26, and a UCF engineering student, took the loss in stride.

"I enjoy the fact that we made it to a conference," Messenger said. "We should take pride in that. This team has come a long way." Kyle Hightower of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Rich McKay can be reached at rmckayorlandosentinel.com. who showed up to see them on a sun-kissed December afternoon.

But high-decibel noise levels, a 68-degree day and home-field advantage weren't enough to erase their mistakes. "You have to give Tulsa a lot of credit. They were the better football team today," said UCF Coach George O'Leary, whose offense committed three of its turnovers and had only 55 yards in the decisive second half. Kevin Smith rushed for 108 yards, five after halftime. Yet this game was not the blowout the final score suggests.

The Knights were punching with 13 minutes to play, threatening to make this a one-score game. Trailing 41-27, a short punt set them up on Tulsa's 41 -yard line, and the crowd woke up. Dontavius Wilcox broke free for 17 yards, but it was the 10 yards he didn't get that hurt. Wilcox stumbled at the 15, seemingly over air, regained himself, and then fell at the 10 with the end zone in sight. Wilcox got up and spiked the ball into the turf.

He knew, too. "I get a little crease, and I slip there," he said. "I got touched when the linebacker safety Bobby Klinck swiped my feet and lost my footing. When I gained my footing back, I tried to take off before I got all of my balance back, and I just went down right there." Tulsa reared up. Brandon Lohr sacked Moffett on third-and-goal from the 6.

Moffett's fourth-down scramble was 8 yards shy of the goal line. "If we'd have been able to stick that one in, we'd have been down by one touchdown," Moffett said. "That would have put energy in the crowd and the team." The Golden Hurricane answered with a 14-play, 83-yard drive that ate up 7 minutes, 30 seconds and produced a field goal and a 44-27 lead. Ballgame. Championship.

Tulsa (8-4) left with the C-USA trophy under one arm and an invitation to the Liberty Bowl under the other. An hour later, UTEP accepted a berth in the GMAC Bowl, clearing the way for the Hawaii Bowl to pick the Knights. Moffett, the key to UCF's offense, endured his worst game since an October loss at Southern Miss and his first multi-interception game since October 2004. One interception was returned 58 yards to UCF's 2-yard line, setting up Tulsa's 21-7 lead. The other set up a touchdown that put the Golden Hurricane ahead 41-27 late.

Moffett, the leader of the offense, pressed to make something happen, something he'd been able to do several times down the stretch this year. Four other passes were tipped and could have been intercepted. O'Leary let him go. "He has been our quarterback through the eight wins, and by no means was he the reason for the loss," the coach said. "I think when you lose, you lose as a team.

There are a lot of individuals that could have played better." Tulsa, which trailed only UCF in the league in turnover ratio, won the battle 4-0 on Saturday. "My whole mind-set was if we didn't turn the ball over," Tulsa quarterback Paul Smith said, "we'd win the game." "I take my hat off to them," UCF's Cedric Gagne-Marcoux said. "They were in great shape. They were fired up. That's what football's all about making plays, creating turnovers, which they did.

They did, we didn't." It's a puzzle the Knights can solve over the next 20 days. Or maybe on a long flight to Honolulu. Alan Schmadtke can be reached at aschmadtkeorlandosentinel.com. Tlsa UCF 1st downs Rush-Yds Passing C-A Int. Ret.

Yds Punts Fumbles Pen-Yds Time 23 17 48-196 35-149 205 190 13-20 13-27 0 2 77 82 1-0 3-2 4-31 7-75 34:46 25:14 GARY W. GREENORLANDO SENTINEL UCF fans didn't totally fill the Citrus Bowl on Saturday, but the nearly 52,000 in attendance did seta record for largest home crowd in school history. Fans arrived early to party, but also left early when the Knights' hopes of victory faded as Tulsa rolled to the win. FIRST QUARTER UCF Thornton 43 pass from Moffett (Prater kick), 10:58. Drive: 80 yards, 8 plays, 3:57.

Key plays: Smith 5 run and 2 run forfirst downs on third-and-short. TU Adams 15 pass from Smith (DeVault kick), 6:30. Drive: 80 yards, 8 plays, 4:28. Key plays: Smith 6-for-6 passing for 85 yards, including two third-and-long conversions. TU Adams 6 run (DeVault kick), 1:10.

Drive: 68 yards, 8 plays, 1:44. Key plays: Mills 24 pass from Smith to UCF 19, plus 10-yard face mask penalty. SECOND QUARTER TU Parrish 2 run (DeVault kick), 14:47. Drwe: 2 yards, 1 play, :04. Key play: Graham 58 interception return of Moffett pass to Ross.

UCF Smith 31 run (Prater kick), 12:30. Drive: 92 yards, 7 plays, 2:1 7. Key plays: Smith 34 run, Marshall 18 pass from Moffett onthird-and-10. UCF FG Prater 46, 8:45. Drive: 5 yards, 4 plays, 1 :36.

Key play: Kindred 28 punt to UCF's 34 UCF Burnett 68 punt return (Prater kick). TU FG DeVault 29, 3:53. Drive: 33 yards, 6 plays, 3:01. Key plays: UCF celebration penalty on previous touchdown, Adams 15 run, Nichols 14 pass from Smith to UCF 16. TU Mills 29 pass TULSA INDIVIDUALS Moffett sees lessons in loss Pain from this loss is just part of growing pains from Smith (DeVault kick), 2:06.

Drive: 65 yards, 2 plays, :36. Key play: Mills diving 26 pass from Smith to UCF 39. UCF FG Prater 40, 0:00. 53 yards, 10 plays, 1:59. Key plays: Johnson 1 0 pass from Moffett, Marshall 22 pass from Marshall, Moffett 5 run on fourth-and-3 from Tulsa 37.

THIRD QUARTER TU FG DeVault 18, 8:52. Drive: 15 yards, 5 plays, 2:33. Key plays: Coleman recover Moffett fumble forced by Bunting at UCF 15. TU Adams 25 run (DeVault kick), 6:17. Drive: 47 yards, 5 plays, 1:18.

Key play: Roberts interception return of Moffett pass to Tulsa 47. FOURTH QUARTER TU FG DeVault 26, 2:24. Drive: 83 yards, 14 plays, 7:30. Key plays: Tulsa stop UCF on downs at UCF 8, Mills 13 pass from Smith on third-and-9 to UCF 12. A 51,978.

UCF INDIVIDUALS BIANCHI FROM CI THE RECAP UCF scored a season-high 20 points in the second quarter of Saturday's Conference USA Championship Game and had 27 points at halftime. Tulsa, however, had 31 and it shut out the Golden Knights in the second half for a 44-27 victory before a UCF-record 5 1 ,978 at the Florida Citrus Bowl. The Knights (8-4) got an up-close look at Tulsa TE Garrett Mills and gave him their votes for All-Ameri-can. Mills had eight catches for 1 52 yards and a touchdown for an offense that totaled 401 yards. Tulsa (8-4) exploited UCF's linebackers and safeties on offense and took four turnovers from UCF's offense.

"We're usually good at creating turnovers, and we couldn't do that today," Knights DE Paul Carring-ton said. "That's how Tulsa beat us." The turning point CB Joe Burnett's 68-yard punt return put UCF ahead 24-21 at 7:02 before halftime, but he was hit with a costly celebration penalty. UCF kicked off from its 20-yard line, Tulsa started from its 45. Over the next 5 minutes, Tulsa scored 1 0 points for a 31 -27 halftime lead. Unsung heroes Tulsa's defensive line.

It sacked UCF's Steven Moffett four times, forced him from the pocket a dozen other times and created two fumbles and two interceptions. Key injuries None reported. Looking ahead The Knights are headed to the Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24. Not a bad consolation prize.

Final word "I guess playing from behind finally caught up to us." Moffett ALAN SCHMADTKE Player Att Yds Avg Ke.Smith 15 108 7.2 Wilcox 6 36 6.0 Peters 6 15 2.5 Moffett 8-10 1.2 PASSING Player Moffett 13 27 2 190 RECEIVING Player Att Yds Avg urday with a perpetual smile plastered on his face. "Never in my wildest dreams did we think we could draw 50,000 or more for our inaugural championship," Banowsky said before the game. "The momentum UCF's program has picked up this season is incredible." The residual benefits of Saturday's game are countless. The national TV exposure will help open some recruiting doors. The city and the student body rallying around the team will help attendance next year.

By wirining eight of their last 1 0 games and getting a bid to the first bowl game in school history, players have obviously bought into the O'Leary way. And, yes, by losing their biggest game yet, they may have taken their biggest stride yet. Experiencing a devastating loss is a necessary and nauseating growing pain. "I don't ever want to feel like this again," said Burnett, the freshman. Feel the misery.

Feel the agony. Feel the regret. And remember it. The bitter taste of defeat has a nutritional value all its own. losing margin for UCF.

He had thrown only six interceptions all season before that, ending a streak of 16 games without two or more picks. A year ago, Moffett might have been slow to accept culpability at times for his errors, but on Saturday, the new Moffett the one Coach George O'Leary has called the MVP of the Knights' turnaround called himself out. "I'm at a loss for words," Moffett said. "I had four turnovers today. This whole season, my thing has been not to turn the ball over.

They Golden Hurricane did some things well. But you can't let that affect you. I gotta play better." UCF trailed 14-7 at the end of the first period, but Moffett was 5-for-5 passing for 92 yards and a touchdown, seemingly poised to go toe-to-toe with Tulsa quarterback Paul Smith. But on the first play of the second period, Moffett threw the first of his two interceptions into the hands of Tulsa's Nick Graham, who returned it 58 yards to UCF's 2-yard line. One play later, Tulsa went up 21-7.

O'Leary said he thought that play might have been the biggest contributor to Moffett's uneasiness the rest of the way. "Every time you lose, it's easy to blame the quarterback," O'Leary said. "Obviously, when you have four turnovers and three involving the quarterback, then you look at that position. He made some mistakes, but I take nothing away from him." "Once we got down, we started to try to rush a little bit because we wanted to execute so bad," Moffett said. But with a bowl game still to come, Moffett said he wouldn't dwell on things he can't go back and change.

At least, not for too long. "Last year we didn't have any wins," he said. "To lose the championship game is disheartening, but at the same time, you are still in the championship. It's all something to build on." Kyle Hightower can be reached at khightowerorlandosentinel.com. rocketing and ratcheting up your intensity, playing your best, seizing the moment.

Instead, UCF squandered the opportunity. With a school-record crowd of 5 1 ,978 on their side, the Golden Knights were shut out in the second half and managed only 55 yards of offense. Make no mistake, Tulsa was the better team Saturday, but UCF contributed to its own demise by making some horrendous mistakes. How do you explain a team leading the conference in turnover margin during the regular season and then committing four turnovers in the most important game of the season? "The next step for us is to learn how to win the big game," said UCF quarterback Steven Moffett, who threw two interceptions and fumbled once. 'We won all the games we needed to get here.

Next thing we need to do is learn how to win championships." Of course, there is much more positive than negative to come from this season. UCF didn't win Conference USA's championship, but it won Conference USA's admiration. You should have seen conference commissioner Britton Banowsky bouncing around Sat By KYLE HIGHTOWER SENTINEL STAFF WRITER After UCF's 44-27 loss to Tulsa in Saturday's Conference USA Championship Game, Golden Knights quarterback Steven Moffett sat in front of his locker, drying off after washing away the physical dirt of a humbling defeat. He barely nodded as a UCF staff member explained his postgame interview responsibilities, reaching unsuccessfully for an item in his locker. "I guess it finally caught up to us," he said later.

"We didn't execute in the second half the way we did in the first half. The first three or four times we had the ball, we went three-and-out. That's last-year stuff. We can't have that any more." As improbable as it might seem, looking in Moffett's eyes, you could tell he had forgotten what losses like Saturday's or the 11 during his sophomore campaign felt like. Moffett finished with four turnovers (two interceptions and two fumbles), leading to 17 Tulsa points, which was the Sometimes, a huge loss tells you more about a program's progress than even a big win.

There is an evolution that must take place on the road from small-time to big-time, and part of that evolution involves misery. Only when you feel the pain and the pangs does your program actually matter. You're not truly big-time until wirining becomes so important that losing becomes so unbearable. For the 26 previous years UCF has been playing football, the defeats didn't really hurt. When the Golden Knights lost to Nebraska a few years ago after leading at half-time, it didn't really matter.

When Daunte Culpepper tripped over his own offensive lineman on a two-point conversion in a defeat to Ole Miss, there were no real ramifications. And when the Knights lost to Georgia on a phantom offensive pass interference penalty, what did it really cost them? But when you lose a chance at a school-first conference championship, well, brother, that stings. Because, when it's all over and The Great Scorekeeper records his final tally, all that really matters is Marshal Dar.Johnson Thornton Ross Joachim Ke.Smith 7 109 15.6 2 15 7.5 1 43 43.0 1 13 13.0 1 7 7.0 1 3 3.0 RUSHING Player Att Yds Avg Parrish 23 100 4.3 Adams 12 84 7.0 P.Smith 9 22 2.4 Davis 2 -4 2.0 Moss 2 -6 3.0 PASSING Player A I Yd P.Smith 13 20 0 205 RECEIVING Player Att Yds Avg Mills 8 152 19.0 Adams 2 29 14.5 Davis 2 10 5.0 Nichols 1 14 14.0 DEFENSIVE STATISTICS Player UT TT Int. Sck McGowan 6 7 0 0 Coleman 6 7 0 1 Bunting 6 7 0 2 Klinck 3 5 0 0 Graham 3 5 10 Johnson 3 4 0 0 Blackshire 2 3 0 0 Madison 2 3 0 0 Chmbrln 13 0 0 Daniels 2 2 0 0 Germany 2 2 0 0 Lohr 2 2 0 1 Nemons 2 2 0 0 Hopkins 2 2 0 0 Evans 12 10 1 tackle: Latu, Karate- DEFENSIVE STATISTICS Player UT TT Int. Sck 9 10 0 8 8 0 7 7 0 6 7 0 5 7 0 0 0 0 GARY W.

GREENORLANDO SENTINEL Coach George O'Leary hangs his head during the final minutes of UCF's loss to Tulsa on Saturday. championships won. It's like legendary golfer Byron Nelson once said: "You cannot take money to the grave with you, but you can take titles and championships." Oh, sure, this has been a remarkable turnaround for O'Leary and his program, but Saturday showed just how far they still have to go. The Golden Knights learned to win this year; now they must learn to fly. To be a champion, you must soar into a game like this, Crrngtn Venson Burnett Sandy Hogue Cook Buscemi Neal Nelson Douzable Rashad Reid 4 5 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 tackle: Johnson, Okam-mor, Welsh, Parkes, Moffett, Shologan, Brown GARY W.

GREENORLANDO SENTINEL peyan, Roberts, Clink-scale, Adams UCF QB Steven Moffett scrambles away from Tulsa's Nelson Coleman on Saturday. He had 2 fumbles and 2 interceptions in the game. 1 The Bottom Line: UCF may not have won the C-USA title this season, but the program introduced itself to more football fans in Central Florida and the team still has a shot to end its season triumphantly on national TV at its first bowl game in Hawaii. 4 COLORSTRIP: I.