ORLANDO, Fla. — Six weeks after the low point in their season, R.J. Harvey and UCF were riding high after routing No. 15 Oklahoma State.
Harvey rushed for 206 yards and three touchdowns, including a 92-yard exclamation point touchdown in the third quarter following the Knights' fourth takeaway of the game that put the game firmly out of reach in a 45-3 win over Oklahoma State on Saturday.
"Since the beginning of the season, we knew our potential and knew we were better than our record showed," Harvey said. "I was happy to see us have our best game today."
Six weeks earlier, the Knights (5-5, 2-5 Big 12) blew a 28-point lead in a 38-35 loss to Baylor on Sept 30.
"Every game we have to finish," UCF cornerback Damari Henderson said. "We've been preaching all year we have to finish. Every game we haven't finished. Our coaches told us we have to finish."
Harvey eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark on the season and has run for more than 100 yards in five straight games — the first Knights back to do that since Kevin Smith in 2007 — and his 92-yard TD was the second-longest run in school history. Harvey had 157 of his yards in the second half.
The Knights had lost five straight games before defeating Cincinnati last week for their first Big 12 win of the season.
The UCF defense was stellar with three interceptions and forcing Oklahoma State's star running back Ollie Gordon to fumble for only the second time this season. Henderson had two interceptions and recovered the fumble in the game.
Oklahoma State (7-3, 5-2) never could get its ground game going and it stalled out the offense as the Cowboys saw their six-game win streak snapped.
"They outcoached us," Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. "They made the plays and we didn't. They did a really good job at coaching. They are good with what they do on offense. And then we couldn't capitalize offensively in certain situations and it snowballed into what ended up happening."
Gordon entered the game leading the nation in rushing yards but tallied only 25 yards on 12 carries for the game. That snapped a streak of six straight 100-yard rushing games for the Cowboys' back. It was Gordon's fewest rushing yards in a game since the Sept. 16 loss to South Alabama.
Without that, Oklahoma State's offense sputtered to get going and quickly found itself down. Coming off its first Big 12 win, UCF hit the gas from the start of the game and never let up.
"We chase high execution, hitting all cylinders," Plumlee said. "That's what we chase. It's really, really exciting when we can display how good we can be. It's really special to me because it feels like all cylinders were hitting tonight. That's what we've been wanting to display."
Quarterback John Rhys Plumlee threw for 299 passing yards and three touchdowns, including a 75-yard throw to Kobe Hudson in the second quarter to make it a 24-0 lead. Hudson caught all three of Plumlee's touchdown throws.
This was UCF's day to be on top.
"During the losing streak, we just stayed close," Harvey said. "Nobody got down. We knew our potential. We just need to execute each play and not turn the ball over."
