UCF Season Opener Halted by Lightning, QB Fancher Knocked Out
The start of the 2025 UCF football season didn’t exactly go as smoothly as many fans had hoped. The Knights opened their year at the newly renamed Acrisure Bounce House against Jacksonville State, but the night quickly turned into a dramatic mix of weather delays, injuries, and high emotions.
The game had kicked off right on time Thursday evening, August 28, but by the middle of the second quarter everything changed. With 10:45 left in the period, lightning was detected within eight miles of the stadium, forcing officials to halt play. Fans had already been dealing with heavy rain earlier in the night, and the weather interruption stretched for more than two hours, making it one of the longest delays in recent UCF memory.
Before the skies lit up, the Knights had already endured a major setback on the field. Starting quarterback Cam Fancher was knocked out of the game midway through the second quarter after taking a hard hit from Jacksonville State cornerback Tre’Quan Fegans on a third-and-18 play. Fancher lost the football, and defensive end Emmanuel Oyebadejo scooped it up and ran into the end zone. For a moment it looked like UCF had given up the first points of the game.
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But after review, the touchdown was wiped away. Fegans had been flagged for targeting, which not only nullified the score but also resulted in his ejection. The Knights got the ball back, but the injury to Fancher changed the complexion of the night. He did not return after the weather break, and Tayven Jackson stepped in as quarterback when play resumed.
When both teams finally returned to the field after more than two hours of waiting, it was still a scoreless game. Warmups were rushed, halftime was shortened to just 10 minutes, and the rhythm of the night felt disjointed. For UCF fans, it was a strange way to welcome back head coach Scott Frost in his highly anticipated return to Orlando.
Frost’s comeback has been one of the biggest storylines of the Knights’ offseason. He famously led UCF from an 0-12 disaster in 2015 to a 13-0 season capped by a Peach Bowl victory over Auburn in 2017, before leaving for Nebraska. Now, eight years later, he’s back at the Bounce House with a roster that looks almost entirely different. More than half of the players are newcomers, including transfers from across the country, freshmen, and even former athletes from other sports.
But as history showed on opening night, college football rarely goes as scripted. A lightning delay, an injured starting quarterback, and an unsettled crowd marked the beginning of what’s expected to be an unpredictable season. Still, UCF entered this matchup riding a streak of nine straight season-opening wins, and fans were eager to see whether Frost could extend that run to ten despite the early chaos.
For the Knights, the night became less about perfection and more about perseverance. The storm passed, the game resumed, and the Frost era—part two—officially began, though not without plenty of drama to set the tone.
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