Top 25 UCF Knights Football Games of the 21st Century: No. 5

Note: We define the 21st Century as Jan. 1, 2001, to the time of this series' publication.

No. 5: Perfection (Auburn, 2017)

The 2018 Peach Bowl put the exclamation point on the UCF Knights' 2017 season.

It was one of, if not the finest hour, for quarterback McKenzie Milton, who accounted for all three offensive touchdowns the Knights scored that night. He completed 16 passes for 241 yards and two touchdowns and led the team with 13 carries for 116 yards and a rushing touchdown. It's the seventh-most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single game in program history. For comparison, running backs Adrian Killins and Otis Anderson combined for 66 rushing yards.

It was those rushing yards and two field goals from kicker Matthew Wright that helped the Knights go up 13-6 at the half.

The Tigers got the upper hand for most of the third, getting ahead, 20-13, but Milton found Anderson for a 12-yard touchdown pass, one of two catches for the night, and Dredrick Snelson on an eight-yard touchdown pass, to put the Knights back on top. Snelson caught four total passes for 39 yards that night.

Now down a score, Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham tried to drive the ball down the field to tie it up with less than six minutes to go. Instead, linebacker Chequan Burkett picked the ball off and took it 45 yards to the end zone, putting UCF up two scores.

The Tigers eventually did make it a one-score game again and were back in the red zone with less than 30 seconds left, but the UCF defense struck again with a freshman Antwan Collier coming up with the game-clinching interception.

The journey from winless to undefeated in just two seasons was complete. This, and Auburn's wins over Alabama and Georgia that season, led to athletic director Danny White making the fateful declaration that changed UCF's place in the college football world forever: