Less than 24 hours after UCF defeated North Carolina handily last Saturday, Knights offensive line coach Shawn Clark passed away. He had been hospitalized on Sept. 9 with a medical emergency.
“The reaction of our players and coaches to the news this morning is a testament to Shawn’s character and the impact he had on every life that he touched,” UCF head coach Scott Frost said on Sunday. “He was loved.”
In the days that followed, the Knights worked through their grief while also preparing for their Big 12 opener. UCF (3-0) visits Kansas State (1-3, 0-1) on Saturday in Manhattan, Kan.
During the Knights’ 34-9 win over North Carolina, quarterback Tayven Jackson picked up touchdowns in the air and on the ground with 223 passing yards and 66 rushing yards. Myles Montgomery and Jaden Nixon added rushing scores to give the Knights 10 rushing touchdowns on the season between five players.
Kansas State, meanwhile, had a bye week following a 24-21 defeat to the Arizona Wildcats on Sept. 12. Kansas State hopes to leverage a feisty home crowd to pick up its second home win of the season — and Frost senses what’s ahead for his squad.
“I coached at Manhattan, Kansas, my first coaching job,” Frost said. “I know what kind of environment that is. I coached with coach (Chris) Klieman. I know what kind of coach he is. … That’s going to be a huge challenge.”
Judging by Kansas State’s performance against Arizona, though, UCF’s rushing attack might find room. The Wildcats allowed 189 yards to running back Ismail Mahdi while quarterback Noah Fifita rushed for two scores.
“On defense, sometimes it’s not going to be fit perfectly, but if we get disruption and get into the backfield, some better things are going to happen,” Klieman said. “We haven’t had enough TFLs, tackles for loss, and whether that’s the scheme, whether it’s kids playing tentative to not wanting to mess up, we’ve got to kind of eliminate that in my opinion and just fire off and create some havoc.”
Saturday marks only the third time the two sides have faced each other, with the Wildcats winning their first Big 12 matchup against the Knights in September 2023.
