K-State was shaken last week after being upset at Missouri on a game-winning field goal from 61-yards deep. There are tons of uncertainties in multiple areas of this team with poor play and injury.

Starting at quarterback, Will Howard was obviously in a lot of pain throughout most of the second half with backup Avery Johnson getting a handful of snaps. Head coach Chris Klieman said in his weekly press conference on Tuesday that he’s questionable for Saturday’s game versus UCF. He added that we will know later in the week on his status for the game.

Klieman also said that Treshaun Ward is doubtful to play, so DJ Giddens will step into the lead back role. True freshman Joe Jackson and redshirt sophomore Anthony Frias II will likely also get touches this week.

Perhaps the most taxing injury to the team, though, is sixth-year linebacker Daniel Green needing season-ending surgery for his pectoral which he aggravated last week. Jake Clifton, his backup, is also possibly out with an injury, so it could likely be true freshman Austin Romaine starting at MIKE for K-State this Saturday.

On the plus side, it’s likely that K-State will return right tackle Christian Duffie, who has been out since fall camp with an injury. This will allow Cooper Beebe to stay settled in at left guard after having to play some right tackle amid his absence. Klieman said Duffie won’t play every snap, but he is hoping he can play anywhere from 20-35 snaps.

“Miscommunication, poor technique, poor eye discipline” were the reasons for the secondary’s failures, according to Klieman. They allowed five different pass catchers to have a reception of 25 yards or more, including Luther Burden III, who had 114 yards and two touchdowns.

This week, the secondary will face a wide receiver room that doesn’t have nearly the level of talent that Missouri did but should still be respected.

Senior Kobe Hudson is the leading wideout with over 100+ yards per game on average. Hudson transferred from Auburn to UCF before the 2022 season and had career highs in yards (647) and touchdowns (7) last year.

They also have senior Javon Baker, who transferred from Alabama to UCF with Hudson before 2022. He was the team’s leading receiver with 796 yards and five touchdowns.

It should be noted that UCF’s individual stats might be a tad inflated due to lack of strength of schedule. The Golden Knights won in Week 1 against Kent State 56-6, followed by a comeback win at Boise State 18-16, where they got a game-winning field goal on a drive that started with just 1:43 remaining.

On the second to last play of the drive, their quarterback John Rhys Plumlee got rocked on a run that sidelined him last week and will sideline him again this week.

The Golden Knights defeated FCS opponent Villanova at home last week 48-14 led by their backup left-handed dual-threat quarterback Timmy McClain.

McClain struggled in his only season as a starter in 2021 at USF. He had a completion percentage of 55.3% with five touchdowns to seven interceptions.

As for the ground game, they go with a multiple back look. Redshirt senior RJ Harvey leads in carries and yards with 39 and 239, respectively. They also like senior Johnny Richardson, who has just six fewer carries and averages more yards per carry with Richardson averaging 6.5 and Harvey getting 6.1.

Their offensive line is riddled with upper-classmen and led by right guard Lokahi Pauole. The fifth-year guard from Kapolei, HI will likely be a third-day pick in the 2024 NFL draft. He is a little undersized at 6-foot-4 and 305 pounds, but his technique and footwork will make him tough for the K-State defensive front to get around. He was First Team All-AAC last year.

Their best defender is edge rusher Tre’Mon Morris-Brash. He has feasted so far this year after being First Team All-AAC in 2022. The former four-star high school recruit has three tackles for loss in each of the last two games. His 6.5 TFLs for the year puts him fourth in the FBS. Last year, Morris-Brash had 13 TFLs and six sacks.

The Golden Knights are a bit lacking in the secondary, much like the Wildcats. UCF only has one linebacker (Walter Yates III), zero cornerbacks and one safety (Jireh Wilson) in PFF’s top 100 Player Grades.

Fifth-year linebacker Jason Johnson was arguably their best defender in 2022, but he has gotten off to a slow start this year. He doubled everyone else in total tackles with 126 (13th in FBS), and he had four tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a sack. Johnson was First Team All-AAC.

UCF head coach Gus Malzahn is a proven winner at the Power 5 level. Although he wasn’t able to find as much success as the Auburn faithful wanted, he was the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach for the 2010 Auburn team that won the national championship led by Cam Newton.

In his first year at Auburn, he took them back to the national title game with a last-second loss to Florida State in 2013 (AKA the Kelvin Benjamin game). Malzahn ended up getting the Tigers to three BCS bowl game appearances and has now helped UCF get back-to-back nine-win seasons in his first two years with the Golden Knights.

His teams always fight hard and never go down quietly, so expect the same thing from a team with a chip on its shoulders and something to prove in their first year as a Power 5 school.

Malzahn has fielded a team in Bill Snyder Family Stadium once and that was when Auburn defeated K-State 20-14 in 2014 on a Friday night.

UCF is the only NCAA team to go from Division III to a Power 5 team, and that will likely never be replicated ever again.

Prediction

It’s hard to get a true gauge for how good UCF is, but I would ere on the side of them being better than we expect.

Rhys Plumlee being out hurts a lot for the Golden Knights, so the Cats need to take advantage of that. It should be a “get back right” game for the secondary and a good chance for Romaine to get adjusted to playing big minutes in a conference game.

I failed to mention that UCF leads all FBS in yards per game with 617.7 because I don’t think that it’s a noteworthy stat for this game, but I bring it up now because it’s just such a fun, irrelevant stat.

This game I find very difficult to predict with all of the injuries to both sides, but K-State is favored by four points, according to ESPN (which uses Caesars Sportsbook). The over/under is 52.5 which to me seems to be about right.

K-State’s defense is going to force the Golden Knights to throw to beat them, which I don’t think they can do. I’m picking the Cats to win and cover regardless of who starts at quarterback.

K-State 35, UCF 20

Head-to-head record: 2-1

Against the spread: 2-1