ANNAPOLIS, Md. — When Gus Malzahn spoke with reporters following UCF’s loss at Tulane in the AAC title game more than three weeks ago, he stressed the importance of gaining momentum into the offseason by earning a win in the team’s bowl game.
It what’s the Knights did at the end of last season when UCF beat the Florida Gators for the first time in the Gasparilla Bowl.
The Knights (9-5, 6-2 AAC) were unable to do the same Wednesday when they fell 30-13 to Duke in the Military Bowl at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
“We’re disappointed for our seniors to not get them out on a positive note,” Malzahn said. “Those seniors have done such a great job for our program and that’s the disappointing thing.”
UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee went 21 of 34 passing for 182 yards and 1 interception. He carried the ball 14 times for 21 yards.
Plumlee, who was sacked for a Military Bowl record 6 times, took responsibility for the loss.
“Not good enough,” he said when asked how he would evaluate his performance. “We struggled as an offense and when we struggle as an offense, part of playing quarterback is you get a lot of the blame and a lot of the praise as well but tonight there’s no other way to put it — just not good enough.”
Malzahn defended his quarterback and said the struggles on offense had more to do with the entire unit than one player.
UCF entered the game averaging 34 points but instead scored a season-low 13 for the second time this year.
“Bottom line, we just didn’t play good enough offensively,” Malzahn said. “We got sacked quite a few times which is really uncharacteristic. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that many rushing yards, which is disappointing too.”
The game was tied at 7 following the first quarter before the Blue Devils (9-4, 5-3 ACC) scored 16 unanswered points across the second and third frames.
Nine of those points came from Duke freshman kicker Todd Pelino, who went 3 of 3 on field goals including a career-long 48-yard kick as time expired at the end of the first half.
UCF running back Isaiah Bowser scored his second touchdown of the game at the 9:03 mark of the fourth quarter to pull the Knights within 10.
Bowser, who led the team with 39 rushing yards on 11 carries and 2 scores, passed Latavius Murray for the second-most rushing touchdowns (16) in a single year in program history.
Nonetheless, the Blue Devils responded by putting a cap on the game.
Duke quarterback Riley Leonard ran in from 3 yards out to give Duke 30 points with 2:29 remaining.
The sophomore went 19 of 28 passing for 173 yards while leading the Blue Devils with 63 rushing yards on 10 carries and 2 touchdowns.
“It is what is,” UCF junior defensive end Josh Celiscar said. “We’re still a team and we’re still going to be together. We’ve just got to keep working hard and get better.”
The Knights enter an offseason that will include a departure from the AAC and a jump to the Big 12 Conference.
Despite ending the year with back-to-back losses in the AAC title game and the Military Bowl, Malzahn feels confident about what comes next for his team.
“We’ve got a lot of guys back and young guys that are very talented who had a chance to play,” he said. “We’ll be able to take away a lot of positives. Obviously, we wanted to win both of them but we played a lot of football.
“We look forward to improving in the offseason.”
