The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • C13

COLORSTRIP: Orlando Sentinel FINAL SUNDAY, C13 UCF 44, TULSA 25 THE BUZZ The UCF Knights know where spend bowl season, but who will they face Dec. 29in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Liberty Bowl and Southeastern Conference officials were still trying to decide Saturday night among four teams: Mississippi State, Arkansas, Kentucky and Alabama. think any of the four would be a bad said Perry Winstead the Liberty chief financial officer. one of them has story lines, and great about this Mr. Electricity On a day filled with dazzling runs by UCF RB Kevin Smith and some impressive passes by Tulsa QB Paul Smith the Joe Burnett provided one of the most electric plays.

His 83-yard punt return for a touchdown gave UCF a 10-0lead after the extra point. Tanner Antle grabbed onto jersey and nearly pulled Burnett to the ground, but the Eustis High graduate spun 360 degrees and then just kept running. going down Burnett said. know that it was a big game. It was a championship game where got to go all-out.

got to leave everything got on the field. I regretted it if I went down on that Afterward, Tulsa Coach Todd Graham said he instructed his punter not to kick in direction. In the 2005 league championship game against Tulsa, Burnett returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown. Mistakes, mistakes The Golden Hurricane had three false-start penalties and saw an extra-point try by Jarod Tracy clang off the right upright all in the first quarter. Five more penalties followed, including a 12-men-on-the-field foul that negated a go-ahead touchdown early in the second quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Tulsa had first-and-goal from the UCF 1-yard line and failed to score any points. thought we did a poor job today Graham said. hangs tough After allowing 23 points and 290 passing yards in the first half, the UCF defense allow a point in the second half. Credit goes to the secondary, which finished the game with threeinterceptions twoby CB Johnell Neal one by FS Jason Venson The defense has recorded an interception in seven consecutive games. The three pickoffs gave UCF a total of 23 interceptions this season, breaking the old school record of 20, set in 1980 and 1992.

to Zombie Nation The announced crowd of 44,128 shook Bright House Networks Stadium whenever the public-address system blared Zombie Kernkraft 400 The song played seven times Saturday afternoon. Guest stars ESPN enlisted the help of some familiar faces for its broadcast Saturday. Former UCF QB Daunte Culpepper introduced the offense, while former UCF DB Asante Samuel introduced the defense. HIGHTOWER, JOSH ROBBINS OF THE SENTINEL STAFF One of 4 SEC teams will face UCF in Liberty Bowl OVERVIEW: The UCF Knights on Saturday captured their first league title, beating Tulsa 44-25in the Conference USA Championship Game. An announced crowd of not quite a sellout saw Knights RB Kevin Smith run for 284yards and four touchdowns.

TURNING POINT: Trailing 17-13 early in the second quarter, the Golden Hurricane appeared to have made the go-ahead score on QB Paul Smith 8-yard run into the end zone. But UCF Coach George challenged the play after assistant coach Dave Huxtable told him Tulsa had 12 men on the field. The score was overruled, and the Golden Hurricane were penalized 15 yards. probably the play of the said. The drive ended in an interception by Johnell Neal Two plays later, UCF scored a touchdown on a 46-yard run by Smith to take a 24-13lead after the extra point.

UNSUNG HERO: DE Leger Douzable accounted for twoof the sixsacks. NEXT: The Knights (10-3) will have a shot at their first 11-win season in school history when they play in the Liberty Bowl Dec. 29in Memphis, Tenn. ROBBINS OF THE SENTINEL STAFF THE RECAP FIRST QUARTER UCF FG Torres 28, 10:54 UCF Burnett 83 punt return (Torres kick), 7:52 TLSA Clay 22 pass from P.Smith (Tracy kick), 4:58 TLSA Collums 8 pass from P.Smith (kick failed), 1:56 SECOND QUARTER UCF Ke.Smith 3 run (Torres kick), 13:18 UCF Ke.Smith 46 run (Torres kick), 10:03 TLSA T.Johnson 27 pass from P.Smith (Tracy kick), 7:38 UCF Ke.Smith 4 run (Torres kick), 3:29 TLSA FG Tracy 321:38 THIRD QUARTER UCF FG Torres 21, 4:01 UCF FG Torres 45, :03 FOURTH QUARTER TLSA Safety, 10:56 UCF Ke.Smith 74 run (Torres kick), 7:12 A TlsaUCF 1st dwns2418 Rush35-3249-308 Passing438128 C-A29-576-13 Int.30 Ret. Yds0168 Punts5-29 3-42 Fumbles0-03-1 Pen-Yds8-743-25 TULSA INDIVIDUALS TlsaAttYdsAvg Adams18412.3 Whitmore4266.5 Williams5153.0 P.Smith8-506.2 PASSING TlsaCAIYd P.Smith28553426 D.Jhnsn11012 Whitmore0100 RECEIVING TlsaAttYdsAvg Marion79613.7 Clay611218.7 T.Johnson69916.5 Adams34414.7 Toliver2168.0 Chmbrln14040.0 Clemons11212.0 Collums188.0 Meyer166.0 Williams155.0 DEFENSIVE STATS TlsaSTInt Sck Chmbrln8900 Coleman6800.5 Krtpeyan4700.5 Hopkins 5600 Sims4500 Davis2400 Roberts2300 Craver2300 Germany1300 Antle2200 Nemons2200 Johnson2200 One tackle: Whaley, Jones, Destin, Boyd UCF INDIVIDUALS RUSHING UCFAttYdsAvg Ke.Smith392847.3 Israel6345.7 Francis177.0 PASSING UCFCAIYd Israel6130128 RECEIVING UCFAttYdsAvg Ross36321.0 Aiken13232.0 Joachim12222.0 Merritt11111.0 DEFENSIVE STATS UCFSTIntSck Henderson 91100 Neal9920 Burnett8800 Hallman6701 Young3601 Hogue4401 Rashad4400 Rogers3300 Francis2200 Douzable2202 Weams2200 Okammor1200 Miller1201 Venson1210 One tackle: Shologan, Carter, T.

Johnson, Dorvilus, Wallace but Kevin still carried the team. UCF LIKE A HURRICANE of the UCF program under Coach George Here we are in Year 4 of the era and at least right now his team looks no better than it did in Year 1. And, yes, the Knights were 0-11 in Year What a tremendous turnaround. What a resounding resurrection. UCF lost since that abysmal afternoon in Tampa and has reeled off a school-record sevenstraight victories.

is the Coach of the Year and Smith has become one of the greatest running backs in the annals of college football. If he rushes for just 181yards seven below his per-game average in the Liberty Bowl, he will surpass Barry Sanders as the most productive single- season rusher in the history of Division I-A football. But right now, none of that matters. Because you have to be Kevin Smith or Kyle Israel or Joe Burnett or any of the other stars of the team to savor a conference title. like Magic Johnson once said, on a championship team get publicity, but everyone can say a Those UCF offensive linemen who steamrolled Tulsa and opened up the holes for Smith to run through Saturday all champions.

Those defensive linemen who hounded and harassed Tulsa quarterback Paul Smith to the tune of sixsacks and three interceptions all champions. Those who screamed and stomped and turned Bright House Stadium into a gigantic quaking, shaking bounce house all champions, too. After the game, under the bleachers, many of those fans crowded around Kevin Smith for an hour-long impromptu autograph session. At one point, Smith pulled off his cleat and presented it to 13-year-old David Kahn. you believe it? I got Kevin shoe! I got Kevin Kahn screeched as he sprinted through the crowd.

Why the big deal about a sweaty shoe? you Kahn said incredulously, holding up his podiatric prize, this shoe has now run for more than 2,400 Even better than that, kid. run for a conference title. be able to take this with me Smith says in his stocking feet. is why you play sports, so you can someday win a That someday is today. With or without shoes, Kevin Smith runs with legends and UCF walks like a champion.

Mike Bianchi can be reached at Smith huge part of special season BIANCHI FROM C1 Whenever the question has come up this season about what has been the biggest contributing factor to the success of his defense, UCF Coach George needed much time to think about it: The defensive line, no question. While there might have been room for argument at times over the past six weeks, after its performance in the 44-25victory over Tulsa Saturday, the defensive line left little doubt for even the most skeptical observer. Six weeks after sacking one of the most prolific passers in Tulsa quarterback Paul Smith four times, the defensive line got him sixtimes Saturday. In their first meeting on Oct. 20, the pressure up front forced Smith into four interceptions, mostly negating his 316 passing yards and three touchdowns.

On Saturday, Smith again started fast with threefirst- half touchdowns, but much like the October game, became rattled late. It led to their first scoreless second half on offense this season. offense, which came in with a Division I-A- best 528 yards of offense per game, outgained the Knights 470-436. But the Golden were held scoreless on offense in the second half, their only points in the final 30 minutes coming via a safety early in the fourth quarter. knew we had to stop them more times than they stopped said junior cor- nerback Johnell Neal, who had twoof the three interceptions.

always pretty in the second half, but we got it Smith said he was surprised at how well the Knights were able to keep him off balance two games in a row, but said their personnel is probably what aided them. got a great Smith said afterward. play as well as anyone that we played. On the field, they are as good as any front we have played. linebacking corps did a good job as Tulsa Coach Todd Graham go as far as saying the defensive front was equal to that of Oklahoma, who beat the Hurricane earlier this season.

But it far off, he said. can tell you we protected alot better against he said. lot of it is they have explosive guys up front. I think the key to their defense. They understand what they Kyle Hightower can be reached at STEPHEN M.

DOWELL SENTINEL UCF defensive end Bruce Miller sacks Tulsa quarterback Paul Smith during Conference USA Championship Game. Defensive line stands out The Knights sack Paul Smith 6 times and pick off the quarterback 3 times. By KYLE HIGHTOWER SENTINEL STAFF WRITER THE DIFFERENCE-MAKERS Product: OSBS PubDate: 12-02-2007 Zone: MET Edition: ROP Page: User: mhumphrey Time: Color: CMYK.