BYU vs UCF score prediction: Cougars plant their flag in Orlando in blowout fashion

The unbeaten and 11th-ranked Cougars are on a collision course with the 3-4 and floundering UCF Knights this Saturday. On paper, this should be an easy win for Kalani Sitake's football team. With a bloodthirsty defense and an offense that's finally clicking, matching up with a football team that has lost 4 straight games should be an exciting proposition.

Yet, there's a gut feeling about this battle that gets me--and many others--anxious. The Cougars are inexplicably betting underdogs this weekend. Despite their unbeaten streak and a big win last weekend, BYU is consistently underrated.

It's an easy feeling for Cougar fans to view these UCF Knights in a similar way to the black knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Though he keeps getting chopped to bits, he won't give up. That tenacity, however misguided, makes me nervous that BYU might be marching directly into a trap.

That trap? The Knights' elite rushing offense, with running back RJ Harvey, and dual threat (but really just a runner) QB Jacurri Brown leading the charge, could be just the thing to control the game. Ollie Gordon and Garret Rangel ran all over the BYU defense, and if UCF can find similar success on the ground (they average about 200 yards per game on the ground), the Cougars could be in trouble.

But the case for BYU is much more compelling in this one. That poor performance against the Cowboys was an exception, not the status quo. For a defense that had been touted as one of the best in the Big 12 Conference, giving up massive chunk plays against one of the best running backs in college football shouldn't be seen as the end of the world--especially as the Cougars finished the game with a W.

The BYU offense, led by Jake Retzlaff, has surprised many, and I expect the Cougars to run up the score on a less-than-stellar UCF defense. Doing plenty of damage through the air to open up running lanes for LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati should keep the offense rolling, and if the offense can take care of the football, a turnover-hungry defensive unit should pick up the slack in the turnover margin.

Even a die-hard UCF fan like Knightly Review's Ericka Brockish is pessimistic about the Knights chances to claim an upset as the final whistle sounds.

"BYU [wins] no question," Brockish exhaled, "I love my Knights but with the way this season is going, at this point, I would rather UCF lose so that we can get Gus out of there and get someone else in who will be able to keep guys in the building."

Limit mistakes, play assignment-sound, and keep it fun and loose in true Kalani fashion, and this game should be BYU's to lose. I think BYU bounces back and wins big in this one.

Final score: BYU 48, UCF 23