Since 2000, UCF is 1-0 each against Alabama and Georgia, lol

On Monday night, Alabama and Georgia will play for the College Football Playoff National Championship from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Bama claims 16 national titles, the most recent coming in 2015, and Georgia has won two, in 1942 and 1980.

But folks, there is a team out there that’s won just five conference championships that has won its last meeting with both Alabama and Georgia. That team is undefeated UCF, which has already declared itself national champion before the title game begins.

Alabama entered 3-4 on the season and was hosting UCF as its homecoming opponent. The Tide’s head coach was Mike DuBose in his fourth year. The Knights were 5-3 and had been in the FBS for five years. Mike Kruczek was in his third season as head coach.

With 2:24 left in the fourth quarter, Alabama quarterback Andrew Zow, who threw four picks on the day, threw a 10-yard touchdown to put his team up 38-37.

But UCF wouldn’t go away, and Knights quarterback Ryan Schneider led his team to the Tide 20-yard line. That set up the game-winning field goal, a 37-yarder from Javier Beorlegui that would live in both UCF and Alabama fans’ minds for years to come.

Here’s Roll Bama Roll on that game in 2000:

Oh, hey, another team with a transcendent quarterbacking performance and another game with defensive collapses. I suspect that this may be a common theme. Aided by Mike Dubose’s tackle-optional buffoonery, Ryan Schneider eviscerated the Tide on Homecoming. He was fired that weekend.

UCF still stands as one of just 19 teams with all-time winning records against the Tide.

The Knights had grown during the decade between these two games. They won Conference USA in 2010, George O’Leary’s second conference title at the helm. The 10-win Knights earned a Liberty Bowl bid against Georgia.

The Bulldogs were having a down year in Mark Richt’s 10th season in Athens — in fact, it was his worst regular season finish as Georgia’s head coach, going 6-6. Still, with talented playmakers like A.J. Green and Aaron Murray and a four-bowl winning streak, the Dawgs were favored heading in.

Let’s just say things didn’t exactly go as planned. It was 3-3 at halftime, and Georgia took a 6-3 lead midway through the third quarter. In the fourth, UCF scored the first touchdown as a 10-yard run from Latavius Murray gave the Knights a 10-6 lead with 9:01 left.

UCF’s defense forced two Georgia punts in the fourth quarter, but the Dawgs got the ball back with 20:20 to go. Murray led the Dawgs into UCF territory, but the Knights’ defense didn’t break. Murray’s desperation pass to the end zone on fourth down was batted down as time expired.

“We played a great BCS program and I’m just happy for the players, for the seniors,” O’Leary said, via the Orlando Sentinel. “That was the one thing they didn’t have a bowl win. And now they have that.”

(This was the second time Georgia and UCF met. UGA controversially beat UCF by one point in 1999.)