Behind Enemy Lines: What UCF is Saying About Baylor

Both teams will be coming off a loss in their conference opener when Baylor (1-3, 0-1) and UCF (3-1, 0-1) meet for the first time as Big 12 opponents in Orlando on Saturday. The game will also feature two head coaches who are no strangers to facing each other in a showdown. 

Dave Aranda and UCF head coach Guz Malzahn have been a part of some amazing games against each other when Aranda was at Utah State, Wisconsin and LSU and Malzahn was at Auburn. However, this time will be the first with both being at the helm and Malzahn has the edge in experience.

During his opening statement earlier this week, Malzahn expressed his excitement to face off against Aranda and the Bears.

“I’m looking forward to playing this game. Baylor won this league two years ago and they have an outstanding coach in Dave Aranda, who I’ve went against numerous times,” said Malzahn. “I know him well, he’s really good at what he does and they’ve got good players.”

Malzahn also touched on not being deceived by Baylor’s record, given the caliber of opponents they’ve faced in two of their losses this season.

“I know they’ve gotten off to a tough start, but they’ve played two of the top teams in the country in Utah and Texas, and honestly they should have beaten Utah,” said Malzahn. “I think that puts everything into perspective. We’re going to get their best and we know that, but we’ve got to play better than we did last week.”

The Bears' first road trip of the season has the potential to be completely insane. UCF has been waiting for this moment for over a decade and the Bounce House is about to be rocking on Saturday when the Knights play their first game ever as a Power 5 program.

On top of that, the Knights will be honoring the 2013 team that defeated Baylor in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl. Malzahn has walked the sidelines of some of the most hostile environments in the nation, and puts the Bounce House right up there with the best of the best.

“This is one of the better venues to play football in and I think everybody in the Big 12 is about to find that out,” said Malzahn. “I’ve been just about everywhere and I’ll put this environment up against any.”

One unfortunate thing for fans of college football on Saturday will be that both teams may be without their starting quarterbacks. Shapen is more likely to come back for Baylor this week after his leg injury against Texas State, but John Rhys Plumlee will still be on the sideline for the Knights.

Malzahn addressed his approach to planning for Baylor with the uncertainty of seeing Shapen or Sawyer Robertson in as QB1 for the Bears.

“I know their offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes really well, he was our offensive line coach at Auburn when we won the national championship in 2010 with Cam Newton,” said Malzahn. “He’s a really good coach and he presents a lot of different challenges. We’ll see who plays quarterback, but we’ll just have to be ready for whoever their starter is.”

Kickoff between the Bears and Knights is set for 2:30 p.m. and will be televised on FS1. As always, get the latest on Baylor Football from SicEm365.com and tune into our pregame show on the 365 Sports YouTube Channel or KWTX on local television in Central Texas!