Reeves' Army

These are exciting times for the UCF Knights.

Last week, UCF won their appeal of their football postseason ban from the NCAA. This means UCF can take the first American Athletic Conference (AAC) title, and compete for its last BCS berth before the playoff scheme begins in 2014.

With that in mind, today UCF announced plans for 13 separate projects to expand and/or enhance on-campus athletic facilities, at a cost just a hair under $70 million.

Three of those projects are already underway. There is the Wayne Densch Center for Student Athlete Leadership, which is already under construction. There’s also a new club seat deck and press box at Jay Bergman Field which will begin construction in July, and an open-air club at Bright House Networks Stadium that is currently in the final stages of its planning. The football stadium club will begin construction in January 2014.

Other upgrades include a new tennis facility, renovation of our gymnastics facility, a new sports administration center by BHNS, and two rounds of expansion to BHNS itself. The first will be expansion of Roth Tower, adding more luxury suites on the west side of the stadium. The second is a third deck of seating, adding 10,000 seats on the east side of the stadium.

The new tennis facility will feature 12 outdoor courts, six covered courts and new locker rooms.

The BHNS expansions are estimated to total $35 million, but there is no timetable for their construction as of yet.

Most of the projects would be funded through fundraising by the UCF Athletic Association. The baseball additions will be financed through refinancing of a UCF line of credit.

UCF senior Deshorn Brown was drafted #6 overall in the MLS SuperDraft on Wednesday by the Colorado Rapids.

Brown had an impressive senior year transferring to UCF, scoring 13 goals and 3 assists. He led Conference USA in points per game, and was #5 overall in Division I. Those goals include three game-winning goals.

Happy New Year! Getting ready to start a rockin’ 2013.

I apologize for my lack of activity during Christmas. I was off on a cruise during Christmas, and got sick right before I got off the boat. And NO, it was not the norovirus outbreak that affected boats of the Cunard and Princess lines over the holiday.

I’ve been diagnosed with bronchitis, so I’m contagious for a little bit. I feel alright in general, but I don’t wanna get anybody else sick, so I won’t be at the AS Roma friendly on Wednesday.

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The Orlando Solar Bears have been declared to have the second-best new logo of 2012 by the users of SportsLogos.net.

The new team’s logo, which has an 8.4 rating (out of 10) on the site, got silver beneath only the brand new neo-retro logo revival for the Toronto Blue Jays, which got a 9.3.

Third place went to the logo of the 2012 MLB All-Star Game. The rest of the top 10 included logos for the Braves, Padres, Carolina Panthers, Baltimore Orioles (I don’t know why the return of the cartoon Oriole wasn’t rated higher) and the NASL’s Minnesota Stars.

The new version of Shades has gotten rave reviews. The hockey blog Icethetics called the Solar Bears logo the greatest ECHL logo of all time, though many of its commenters disagreed.

The worst logo of 2012 was the main London 2012 logo. The Tampa Bay Rowdies logo was rated fifth-worst new logo of 2012, with a rating of 4.4.

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Boise State has backed out of joining the Big East Conference in football in 2013, and returned to the Mountain West Conference in all sports.

CBS waved cash at the MWC to try to get the Broncos back. Their return is worth $25 million per year to the conference.

San Diego State now has a free out if the Big East cannot replace Boise State with another team west of the Rocky Mountains for 2013, but the Mountain West is holding up negotiations to bring the Aztecs back. So if the Aztecs did leave the Big East, they currently have no place to go for football.

It is currently unknown what this means for UCF next season in the Big East. If replacements are not found, it could abort the conference championship game.

2013 is looking bigger than ever for Orlando City:

• On the roster, Orlando City is looking to reload for 2013. They have acquired defender Bryan Burke from Los Angeles Blues, and there are several signings in the works over the next few weeks. Although he’s a backend player, Burke had three goals last season.
• Lotto is our new kit provider, and the designs are above. We have purple for home, white for away, and a red third kit. The away and third kits in particular look really sharp.
• Stadium work is continuing, and we have a preliminary design in the works. Pizzuti Group is the management firm in charge, and a survey about what fans want in a stadium design will begin soon.
• International friendlies are in the works. Orlando City will play Serie A side AS Roma on Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at Rollins College during their training visit. In addition, the team is working on summer friendlies with an EPL team and a team from Brazil.
• The team continues to work with Major League Soccer. Team owner Phil Rawlins says that NYC2 is not a certainty to be team #20, and Orlando continues to be a pioneer in MLS expansion in the southeast, ahead of recent rumblings connected to Miami, Tampa and Atlanta.

The 2013 home jerseys will arrive next week, and can be ordered now for delivery in time for Christmas. Season tickets remain available at the team office at 855-675-2489.

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The Big East released its matchups for the 2013 football season today.

UCF will host USF, Rutgers, Houston and UConn, and will visit Temple, Cincinnati, Louisville and SMU.

Saturday is going to be an enormous day for sports in Orlando. And I intend to be in the eye of the storm.

It starts at 11am, when I will head to Buffalo Wild Wings UCF on University Blvd., just east of Rouse Road, for UCF’s final Conference USA Football Championship against Tulsa. The kickoff for the game is at high Noon.

As soon as that game ends, I will head over to XL Soccer World near Winter Park for the big Ruckus-ILF supporter summit and 2012 MLS Cup watch party. I will be there in my typical straw hat, Ruckus jersey and Houston Dynamo scarf.

Not only will unification of the supporters’ groups be at issue, but undoubtedly the stadium will become a hot topic after VSI made the shock claim of plans for a $400m retractable roof SSS and other facilities somewhere in Tampa.

VSI are the owners of a USL Pro expansion franchise for 2013, and also plan to build a modular temporary stadium similar to the one that hosted the Vancouver Whitecaps for most of 2011. The stadium will be built by Nüssli, the same contractors who built Empire Field.

The defense of the UCF Knights football team decided to take a nap most of the game this past Saturday afternoon, but they did enough to show dominance by the box score, beating UAB, 49-24, to close their Conference USA regular-season account.

UCF opened with a quick strike, converting a 3rd-and-1 into three straight long plays, capped off by an 18yd touchdown pass from Blake Bortles to J.J. Worton.

In the ensuing UAB drive, the UCF defense decided not to show initially, allowing the Blazers to drive to the UCF 9. From there, they fumbled the ball into the end zone, and A.J. Bouye recovered it for a UCF touchback. UCF hammered back, getting no third downs on the response, capped off with a Latavius Murray 3yd TD run. Murray had 32yd rushing on that drive, and Jeff Godfrey caught a 17yd pass.

After matching three-and-outs, UAB drove into the second quarter. They made it to the UCF 9, but went for it on 4th and 1, and got stuffed by Jonathan Davis, turning the ball over. UCF bogged down at their own 42yd line and punted away. UAB again got within 10, but got stopped once more, and settled this time for a field goal.

After a UCF three-and-out, UAB got pinned at their 1yd line. They were stuffed, and a punt went badly, with J.J. Worton returning it to the UAB 9. Two plays later, Latavius Murray ran it in 9 yards for the TD. Shawn Moffitt’s third PAT made it a 21-3 game.

UAB resorted to the passing game, and got some lucky long bombs on their next drive. But on 3rd and 10 from the UCF 14, Blazers quarterback Austin Brown got intercepted by Lyle Dankenbring, who netted a 78yd pick-six completely untouched. UAB would answer this time with a 76yd TD pass to Patrick Hearn on their next drive.

Quincy McDuffie got a huge 44yd kickoff return, and UCF wasted little time on the 2-minute drill, with Bortles nailing a 4yd pass to J.J. Worton at the end to give UCF a 35-10 lead at halftime.

UAB’s first drive of the second half made it to midfield, and no further. From there, Blake Bortles got a couple long passes to true freshman Breshad Perriman (15 and 30 yards, to be exact). Quincy McDuffie capped the drive with an 8yd TD run.

A 42-10 lead seems insurmountable, right? As Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast, my friend.” Jonathan Perry came in at quarterback for UAB and carried them on a 12-play, 75yd drive, capped off by a 2yd QB keeper for a touchdown.

UCF went on a long drive of their own, but got halted at the UAB 10yd line, deciding not to kick a FG with a 4-score lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Jonathan Perry again led the Blazers on an 85yd touchdown drive, capped with a 15yd pass to Darrin Reaves. They also recovered an onside kick, but got stopped at the UCF 23 on the ensuing drive.

At this point, UCF went for the dagger. Latavius Murray hammered a couple first downs, then Quincy McDuffie ran 43yd for the touchdown. Moffitt’s seventh PAT kick made the score 49-24. UAB drove 55 yards on their last drive before getting stopped at the UCF 25 with a 4th-down sack.

UAB won the offensive battle, 599 yards to UCF’s 473. But they also lost two turnovers to UCF’s zero, not counting their turnovers on downs.

Blake Bortles was 17-of-23 for 225 yards and 2 touchdowns. Quincy McDuffie ran 79 yards with 3 touchdowns, and Latavius Murray added 94 yards and a touchdown. Breshad Perriman, Jeff Godfrey and Dontravius Floyd each caught for over 40 yards, but J.J. Worton caught both of Bortles’s TD passes. UCF did not have a kick return of less than 20 yards, while UAB averaged 13 yards on kick returns as a team.

With the win, UCF won the Conference USA East Division, and have a chance to leave the conference with their third title. They will head to Tulsa on Saturday afternoon at 11am CST (Noon local time) to determine that. Tulsa lost their finale against Southern Methodist this past Saturday, and UCF showed heart at the end of their match to Tulsa. The question is, was the defensive issue for UCF just a matter of looking past their opponent? Can they learn the lessons of their previous meeting and leave Conference USA on top?

The Big East Conference announced today that in 2013, the conference will be split into two roughly-geographical divisions: Eastern and Western.

The Western Division will be comprised of Boise State, San Diego State, Houston, Memphis, SMU and Temple. The Eastern Division will be comprised of UCF, USF, Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers and UConn.

This debunks earlier rumors that non-geographic divisions would be used. The only odd match is Temple, based in Philadelphia, playing in the West. They could not put any other team there, since they did not want to break up the other rivalries.

The non-geographic division idea is still rumored to be on the table for when Navy is added in 2015. The Big East is still looking for a 14th team to join with Navy, and are believed to be targeting Air Force and BYU.

The UCF family lost a friend over the weekend.

Gregory Faull, the owner of Tailgaters Smokehouse, a sports bar on UCF campus, was found dead yesterday in his mansion in Belize. He was 52.

Faull founded Gregory V. Faull General Contractors, which he dissolved this past April when he retired. He was very friendly to the UCF soccer programs, and highly accomodating to The Ruckus when they came out for soccer matches.

His next-door neighbor, John McAfee (former owner of McAfee security software), is suspected in his murder. Faull’s wife says they had been quarreling recently.

It certainly wasn’t easy, or very cleanly-played, but the UCF Knights women’s soccer team advanced to the second round of the NCAA D-I women’s soccer tournament last night, following 1-1 in regular and extra time with a 5-3 penalty shootout win over Miami.

With the Knights spending a bulk of the match down 1-0, the fans were frustrated by several questionable calls, including a shoddy choice of foul calls, and at least one errant offsides. Ashley Nicol finally headed in the equalizer at 85′ to send the match into extra time, which elapsed with no decider.

Lianne Maldonado, who had 5 saves, was pulled for the Connie Organ for the shootout. Neither goalkeeper was much of a factor, as shot after shot went in. On the fourth round, Miami’s Ally Andreini doinked her shot off the right side of the woodwork for the miss. Allie Gerry shot the winner for the Knights.

UCF will play at Florida in the second round, schedule pending.

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The Orlando Solar Bears continue their season this afternoon when they host the Gwinnet Gladiators. Game time this Veterans Day is 3pm.

Last night, the Solar Bears beat the Elmira Jackals, 5-3, to improve their record to 6-4-3.

The Orlando Sentinel has a story today about a recent Solar Bears signing, forward Derrick Burnett. Burnett went to the Air Force Academy on a scholarship to play ice hockey, which put him into a service obligation. He ended up stationed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where he is a range officer trainer.

He will play with the Solar Bears part time for now, as the second lieutenant still has a commitment to the military.

The attendance for last night’s match was 7,190. The team currently sits third in the ECHL in average attendance, at 6,360. It would be great to get some word-of-mouth going and fill Amway Center more for Veterans Day today. Tickets start at $12.25 (plus Ticketmaster fees) when bought in advance, so hurry. The game page on the website will close at noon.

Orlando City announced today that Jamie Watson, Dennis Chin and Miguel Gallardo are among ten players who will return to the team in 2013.

As reported earlier, Matt Luzunaris was released from his contract to seek new opportunities in Europe. Watson has ended his loan deal with Minnesota Stars, which saw him play before at least three dozen fans from The Ruckus in St. Petersburg last month. He suffered a broken foot in that match, but he ought to be okay for the beginning of next season.

Also returning are Rob Valentino, Luke Boden, Justin Clark, Anthony Pulis, Mechack Jerome, James O’Connor and Adama Mbengue. This will give the Lions a good core to build from for 2013, with the only major loss being Luzunaris.

Ian Fuller was mentioned only as an “assistant head coach”, and not a player. He might have retired as a player. I will try to research that.

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The UCF Knights women’s soccer team was drawn into the 2012 NCAA Division I women’s soccer tournament on Monday, and were drawn to host Miami in the first round.

Yesterday, UCF revealed that the game is scheduled for Saturday, November 10, at 6pm EST, at UCF Soccer and Track Stadium, next to UCF Arena.

Admission is $8 for non-student adults, and $5 for those over 55, those under 18, and UCF students with their student ID. The first 100 UCF students (with their ID) will get in free.

The season ticket scarves are no longer valid for admission, as this is an NCAA event.

Also, the UCF men’s soccer team begins the Conference USA tournament tonight at 8:30pm against hosts UAB.