How far will the UCF Knights go in their final football season before moving to the Big 12?

It’s a last hurrah for UCF.

Well, at least as a Group of 5 member.

The Knights are leaving the American Athletic Conference for the Big 12 next season.

It’s the latest step in a journey that was kick-started in recent years by former athletic director Danny White, who is now at Tennessee, and former head coach Scott Frost, now at Nebraska.

They were in charge for the Knights’ 2017 season, when they went unbeaten. UCF improved to 13-0 by defeating Auburn in the Peach Bowl, which added fuel to the program’s contention that it had deserved one of the four spots in the College Football Playoff.

But the CFP selection committee didn’t agree because of the Knights’ strength of schedule, which included wins over only two Power Five conference teams, Maryland and Auburn (the latter after the playoff field had been set).

The head coach at Auburn for UCF’s milestone victory was Gus Malzahn, who is entering his second season as the Knights’ coach as they transition into a Power Five program. Cincinnati and Houston also will move from the AAC to the Big 12 next season, and the three programs are the favorites to vie for this season’s AAC title.

UCF is coming off a nine-win season. Considering the standards the program has set for itself, the Knights’ fans might have been disappointed. However, injuries piled up for UCF, with two key ones on offense, making a 9-4 record a relative success — especially since the finale was a 29-17 victory over the Florida Gators in the Gasparilla Bowl.

Quarterback Dillon Gabriel and running back Isaiah Bowser missed most of the season. Gabriel transferred to Oklahoma; Bowser is looking to rebound this year for the Knights.

Malzahn tapped the transfer portal to add some pieces to a veteran returning squad. John Rhys Plumlee was named the starting quarterback in August.

He previously played at Ole Miss, where in 2019 he started eight games and racked up 1,023 rushing yards as a dual-threat quarterback. UCF has had its share of such dual threats with McKenzie Milton and Gabriel preceding Rhys Plumlee.

Bowser looked the part of the go-to running back in the bowl victory over UF. He ran for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

Bowser isn’t the only threat out of the backfield.

Last year’s leading rusher, Johnny Richardson, is back along with Marc-Antony Richards and new arrival Demarkcus Bowman. A former top recruit out of Lakeland High, Bowman made stops at Clemson and Florida before heading to UCF.

The receiving game has Ryan O’Keefe returning. He caught 84 passes for 812 yards with seven touchdowns. Aside from O’Keefe, the position group lost tons of production from 2021.

That’s an area Malzahn targeted in the transfer portal, bringing in Kobe Hudson from Auburn to partner with O’Keefe. Also, tight end Kemore Gamble, who played at Miami Southridge High, transferred from Florida.

The key to UCF’s offense, which managed to average 32 points and 402.5 total yards per game last season despite injuries, will rest on the line doing enough to give its playmakers time to dazzle.

The defense returns nine starters. But linebacker Tatum Bethune, who led the team with 108 tackles, has transferred to Florida State. Also gone is defensive end Big Kat Bryant, who played his final college season at UCF and had a team-leading six sacks among his 52 tackles. He signed as a free agent with the Dallas Cowboys.

Malzahn also hit the transfer portal to shore up those holes and add depth. But he didn’t need to add much to the pass defense.

The Knights ranked sixth in the nation in pass efficiency defense last year, and they returned plenty of talent in the secondary. Pro Football Focus picked safety Quadric Bullard, cornerback Corey Thornton and cornerback Davonte Brown as preseason All-AAC first-team players.

With a healthy offense and suffocating pass defense, UCF is aiming to contend for an AAC title as a springboard to its move to the Big 12.