{"id":122723,"date":"2021-09-03T12:14:13","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T16:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=122723"},"modified":"2021-09-03T12:14:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T16:14:13","slug":"photos-ucf-beats-boise-state-to-kick-off-malzahn-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/photos-ucf-beats-boise-state-to-kick-off-malzahn-era\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTOS: UCF Beats Boise State to Kick Off Malzahn Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UCF football team’s first game of the 2021 season with new head coach Gus Malzahn turned out to be worth the wait.<\/p>\n

After enduring a 2-hour-and-41-minute lightning delay that pushed back kickoff to 9:46 p.m., the Knights rallied to a 36-31 win in their long awaited matchup against Boise State.<\/p>\n

The game technically stretched over two days to complete, wrapping up at 1:26 a.m. Friday in front of a still lively crowd in the stands to witness the victory.<\/p>\n

The Knights overcame a 21-0 first-half deficit \u2014 matching a program record \u2014 and scored 23 consecutive points to earn the victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole college football world saw it,\u201d Malzahn said after the game. \u201cYou go down by 21-0 at home against a really good team and to fight back, keep believing, making plays and answering the bell again \u2014 they just kept doing it and you could feel it on the sidelines. There wasn’t any panic. I’m really proud of our staff too. Our staff did a really good job. Overall, it was a really, really quality victory that will help us moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n