UCF not ranked in preseason college football Coaches Poll. How can Knights crack top 25?

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2 days ago

It's been more than 975 days.
And the streak will continue for at least a little while longer.
The preseason US LBM Coaches Poll came out on Aug. 4, and the UCF Knights did not receive any votes. It makes sense.
After a 4-8 record in 2024 and an offseason of transfer portal and coaching staff turnover, there is plenty of skepticism — and plenty of unknowns — surrounding the 2025 Knights. They have not been featured in a national poll since late November of 2022, right before their loss to Tulane in the American Athletic Conference title game.
What would it take for UCF to crack the rankings this season? The answer is simple: Stack a lot of wins.
But let's dive deeper.
Which Big 12 teams are ranked in preseason Coaches Poll?
Five of the Big 12's 16 teams made the list.
Arizona State — 11th, 11-3 last year
Kansas State — 20th, 9-4 last year
Iowa State — tied for 21st with Texas A&M, 11-3 last year
BYU — 23rd, 11-2 last year
Texas Tech — 24th, 8-5 last year
Three of the five won 11 games in 2024, and no one claimed fewer than eight victories. Texas Tech, the 24th-ranked squad and the only five-game loser, earned that spot by recruiting one of the country's best portal classes.
Arizona State heads into the fall as the conference's top-ranked team after reigning as league champ and advancing to the College Football Playoff last year. One note: The Sun Devils entered the 2024 campaign in last place in the conference's preseason poll.
All they did was win 11 games and threaten Texas into double overtime in the CFP quarterfinals. Turnarounds and surprises can happen.
Four other Big 12 teams received votes: Baylor, TCU, Colorado and Kansas.
At 5-7, the Jayhawks possessed the worst 2024 record of any Big 12 team that drew votes.
Recent UCF football records: Hot starts, then long slumps
UCF might not know exactly what it will take to make the top 25. But it knows what isn't enough.
Last year, Gus Malzahn's group started 3-0, rattling off blowout victories over New Hampshire and Sam Houston and a comeback win over TCU.
The Knights were not ranked after the TCU game.
In their next contest, they lost to Colorado, triggering a five-game slide that killed any hopes of relevance.
Similar story in 2023.
UCF kicked off the schedule with consecutive triumphs over Kent State, Boise State and Villanova. No ranking, though.
That Knights team also dropped five straight and finished 6-7.
In 2022, they toppled South Florida in their regular-season finale, improving to 9-3 and keeping their top-25 spot. They burst into the rankings a month earlier, at the end of October, when their defeat of No. 20 Cincinnati put them at No. 25. Their record was 6-2.
UCF ended the season 9-5.
It was ranked during every season from 2017 through 2020.
Verdict: How could UCF football make top 25?
So UCF will probably require more than three straight wins to open 2025 to crash the coaches poll.
Would 4-0 get them there? That would include wins over Bill Belichick's North Carolina Tar Heels and Big 12 foe Kansas State.
Would it take a 5-0 mark?
Basically, the Knights need to vault into Big 12 contention. That's a tall task based on August expectations. But coaches would notice.
For the season, the rankings will necessitate at least eight or nine wins based on last season's results.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: UCF Knights football rankings: Does path to top 25 Coaches Poll exist?