The UCF Knights kicked off the 2024 college football season with a loud bang, posting an emphatic 57-3 win over New Hampshire behind an outstanding performance from their running back crew led by senior quarter RJ Harvey, who is already drawing eyeballs from several football critiques and considerations for being the No.1 running back in the Nation.
The 54-point win over New Hampshire is one of the biggest margins of victory by a UCF Football Team in an opening-day match.
Despite a so-so knight from new quarterback KJ Jefferson, the UCF rushing corps stepped up big time as they collectively rushed for 454 yards against New Hampshire.
Three running backs recorded a touchdown in the game, with Jefferson scoring the other rushing touchdown for UCF. Penny Boone, a transferee out of Toledo, ran for 81 yards with one touchdown, while another transferee out of Cincinnati, Myles Montgomery, covered 77 yards on eight carries with one TD.
But the star of the show was RJ Harvey, who returned for his senior season at UCF after posting 1,296 yards on 211 carries with 16 touchdowns in 2023. The fleet-footed Harden juked and cooked New Hampshire’s defence, covering 142 yards on 11 carries with two touchdowns.
Harvey’s longest rush in the match was a scintillating 60-yard brace at the one-yard mark, setting up for another rushing TD in the following play.
Because of his impressive opening-day performance, UCF fans and football critics cannot help but think that Harvey is entering a new territory, one that puts him in the same class as other elite running backs such as Ollie Gordon II of Oklahoma State, TreyVeyon Henderson of Ohio State and Trevor Etienne of Georgia.
UCF linebacker DeShawn Pace has even called Harvey the No.1 running back in the nation – a title many runningbacks had aspired to achieve before him.
