The UCF football team experienced far worse defeats last year than Saturday's 51-14 loss to No. 5 Michigan.
The Knights lost three games last season by a margin of more than 40 points, with the worst — a 49-point margin — coming at the hands of Houston. George O'Leary even stepped down as the head coach after 12 seasons following the blowout loss to the Cougars.
Big losses were usually followed by in-house bickering and frustration, which led to the kind of mental breakdowns that can produce winless season. That's not the case for the 2016 Knights, coaches and players said Monday.