UCF Football to Conclude Season in Boca Raton Bowl

The UCF Knights will wrap their 2020 season in Florida as they have accepted a bid to play in the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl. UCF’s opponent has yet to be announced, but UCF Athletics has already stated that it is “likely an ACC team.” Kickoff is slated for Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. The game will air on ESPN.

Tickets will go on sale to the public at a later date. FAU Stadium has been approved to hold 20 percent capacity, and UCF donors and season-ticket holders will receive more information from the UCF Ticket Office, per UCF’s release.

FAU Stadium seats 30,000 people, so no more than 6,000 would be allowed entry under the 20 percent capacity threshold.

“Our players and staff are excited to be in this bowl game,” head coach Josh Heupel said in the release. “It gives our guys one more time to play together and gives us one more chance to go 1-0. We’ve done a lot of good things this year, and we look forward to this next opportunity.”

The end of this season will take UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel back to where he got his first collegiate start. He hopped over Brandon Wimbush on the depth chart and was given the reins to the offense against the Florida Atlantic Owls on Sept. 7, 2019. Although he completed just 7 of 19 passes, the true freshman racked up 245 passing yards and three total touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) in a 48-14 victory.

Since that night, Gabriel has posted a 54:11 touchdown-to-interception ratio across 20 starts. He leads the nation this season in passing yards and total offense. He is also atop the AAC in passing TDs, passing efficiency and yards per attempt.

The Knights’ season-ending destination shouldn’t surprise anyone; our Eric Lopez and Andrew Gluchov both predicted yesterday that UCF would go bowling in Boca Raton. In fact, Andrew has tied UCF to the Boca Raton Bowl in this column every week since Nov. 8:

Now, we wait to see which Atlantic Coast Conference squad will be on the other sideline. Let the speculation begin.