Senior defensive tackle Torrell Troup said there’s been a lot of excitement among teammates the past two days as the UCF Knights prepare to realize the one particular goal that’s been out of reach throughout the football program’s short existence.

One week earlier the Knights finished off what started out as an uneasy regular season by going on to earn their third-ever postseason bowl game invite. The Knights are headed to the St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field to play Rutgers on Saturday, Dec. 19 at 8 p.m.

Torrell Troup (Photo by Scott McCall)

The matchup is just the second bowl game of the season and pits two teams with identical 8-4 records and equally respectable defenses against one another.

“We want to go into this game with a good game plan and be mentally and physically ready to play because we want a win,” said Troup on Monday at Wayne Densch Sports Center.

Not only would a win be the first in a postseason bowl game for the Knights after unsuccessful trips to the Hawaii Bowl in 2005 and Liberty Bowl in 2007, but it would go a long way in UCF’s efforts (and Conference USA’s, for that matter) in helping prove they can compete with Bowl Championship Series teams in college football.

Rutgers has already accomplished that, to a degree. The Scarlet Knights are closing out a decade where they’ve basically rewritten the history of their program after having won three of four straight bowl game appearances since 2005.

Entering the final weekend of the regular season the Knights were at home watching all the madness play out on the big screen. They saw East Carolina defeat Houston to win the Conference USA title while spying on potential Big East opponents as other games were winding down. Not that it mattered to much who would accept the bowl bid opposite them.

Among the rumored opponents expected to be across the field from UCF were South Florida and Connecticut, along with Rutgers.

Earlier in the week UCF had already accepted the bid based on a number of variables. And none seemingly had anything to do with the level of competition they would face in a BCS team, at least not admittedly.

“Any team in the Big East is going to be a great challenge for us as a defense and as a team,” said redshirt senior Cory Hogue.

Cory Hogue (Photo by Scott McCall)

Players noted such reasons for wishing to play in St. Pete as the being a chance to play close to home, to practice in the usually mild Florida weather, and the short turnaround between Selection Sunday and gameday. The Knights are scheduled to begin preparations for the bowl game on campus later this week.

“Hopefully it’s like a home game,” said Troup of the short trip to the bay. “One more chance to play in front of our fans and one more chance to give our fans a good show.”

That’ll likely be the case if early indications of ticket interest are accurate.

Five other C-USA teams also accepted bowl bids with ECU earning a shot at Arkansas, of the Southeastern Conference, in Memphis, Tenn. The other matchups pale in comparison though to what the Knights now have in front of them.

Houston will take on Air Force in Texas and SMU is off to Hawaii to face Nevada, while Southern Miss will entertain Middle Tennessee State in New Orleans and Marshall returns to its Mid-American Conference roots in a meeting with Ohio in Detroit, Michigan. Conference USA went 4-2 last season in bowl games with their two losses coming against SEC and Big East teams.

For the Knights to help break that unsuccessful trend, for both the conference and themselves, they’ll lean on what was learned during past bowl-game experiences. That means blocking out the distractions that come with all the hype surrounding bowl week, something several members of the team now know a little bit about after taking part in those previous trips.

“We’ve got some older seniors that’s been here who have played in a couple bowl games and I know it would really mean a lot to them,” Troup said of finally getting the win. “It would mean a lot to everybody and give a boast (to the program) going into next year.”

Hogue happens to be one of those players. He’s a little relieved that there will be no flight to Hawaii this time around, as there was when he was a freshman. He feels having the home crowd behind them will pay dividends in the end.

“The more fans we have the more it’ll feel like a home game,” he said. “Hopefully it could be a good cap-off to the five years I’ve been here.”

– More St. Petersburg Bowl Coverage –

Official bowl game site at St. Petersburg Bowl

From around the Web at UCF Knights New and Notes

From around the Web at UCF Insider

From around the Web at Fire Coach O’Leary

Rutgers wide receiver injury update at NJ.com

Rutgers unhappy with selection at St. Petersburg Times

Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano on video at Scarlet Report

More of Rutgers Coach Schiano at Scarlet Scuttlebutt

A different point of bowl game view at End Homelessness