UCF knocked off No. 2 BYU 39-31 in double overtime Saturday in Orlando, a result that sent fans spilling onto the field and handed the Knights the first win over a top-five opponent in program history. The game turned on a string of disputed officiating calls down the stretch, including a replay reversal, a blocked field goal, a facemask decision and a roughing-the-kicker penalty that swung the outcome in the second overtime.
UCF entered as a 6.5-point underdog against a BYU team that had climbed to the nation's second spot, but the Knights, according to the New York Post, overcame a chaotic sequence of confusing calls in the fourth quarter to force the extra periods. Quarterback Keyone Jenkins had fumbled the ball after being sacked while UCF drove for a potential winning field goal, the Post reports, before a replay review reversed the call.
As detailed by WKMG ClickOrlando, officials overturned the sack ruling to an incomplete pass, and BYU was then flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct — a penalty that pushed UCF into field-goal range. BYU answered by blocking the attempt, which Fox Sports reported as a 47-yard try, though the station's report differs from another account that put the distance at 46 yards, to force overtime.
A Penalty-Packed Trip to Double Overtime
Both teams scored touchdowns in the first extra period, but the real turning point came on the ensuing BYU possession. Officials picked up a facemask flag against BYU after kicker Will Stone's helmet came off during the blocked-kick return, as USA Today reported, and BYU defensive end Kendal Wall was separately called for roughing the kicker after falling into UCF's kicker in the second overtime.
That roughing penalty gave UCF a fresh set of downs, the same USA Today account notes, and the Knights converted the opportunity into the go-ahead touchdown and a two-point conversion. BYU's defense then had one last chance, but quarterback Bear Bachmeier's fourth-down pass to Walker Lyons fell incomplete near the goal line, sealing the win, per Fox Sports.
Jenkins finished the night 25 of 41 for 293 yards and three touchdowns, adding a rushing score as well, according to the ClickOrlando report. His biggest throw came in the second overtime, a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Grayson Brousseau that put UCF ahead for good, Fox Sports reported. It was Jenkins's fifth start since replacing Alonza Barnett III, who has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, the Post notes.
Fans Rush the Field as History Is Made
When Bachmeier's final pass hit the turf, UCF fans poured onto the field, chanting “UCF” around the 50-yard line, according to the Post's account of the celebration. The win, which the school says is the program's highest-ranked victory in its history, snapped a two-game losing streak for the Knights, per the Orlando Sentinel.
UCF head coach Scott Frost called it the strangest ending to a game he had seen, and said he was proud of his players, according to the Post. Frost also pushed back on any notion that Jenkins was merely a fill-in starter, saying the quarterback was not a backup in his view and had delivered an unbelievable game, the Post reported.
BYU's Unraveling Follows a Historic Rise
The loss was BYU's first of the 2026 season, dropping the Cougars to 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big 12, while UCF improved to 4-3 and 2-2 in conference play, per Fox Sports. It also snapped a seven-game winning streak for BYU dating back to the previous season, the Sentinel reported, a run that had included an upset of then-No. 2 Notre Dame just a week earlier, according to Fox Sports.
BYU's rise to No. 3 in the US LBM Coaches Poll marked its highest ranking since USA Today began administering the poll in 1991, the outlet reported — though another USA Today account of Saturday's result referred to BYU as unranked Central Florida's No. 3 opponent rather than No. 2, a discrepancy in how the two USA Today pieces identified the Cougars' ranking. The upset also continued a stretch in which a top-two team had lost to an unranked opponent in each of the three weeks before Saturday, per ClickOrlando.
A Signature Win Decades in the Making
For UCF, the victory carries historic weight. The program's previous highest-ranked win had come against No. 6 Baylor in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl, the Sentinel reported, while its last win over any ranked team was a 45-3 rout of then-No. 15 Oklahoma State in 2023, the Sentinel added — a result ClickOrlando also cited in noting UCF's first ranked win since that Oklahoma State game.
Beyond that, Saturday marked UCF's first-ever win over an AP top-five opponent, according to Sports Illustrated, and the first time the Knights have beaten an AP-ranked opponent at home, per WESH 2 News. For a program still building its Big 12 résumé, it is a signature moment that Orlando won't soon forget.
