2013 Record: 12-1

2014 Las Vegas Season Win Total: 8.5*

2014 Season Win Total Picks NCAA Football: 'Under'

The Golden Knights are coming off one of the best seasons in school history, which included a league championship and a Fiesta Bowl upset of Baylor. Central Florida will have a hard time replacing first round NFL draft choice Blake Bortles at quarterback. But if they do then the rest of the pieces seem to be in place for another strong year in Orlando.

Bortles, leading rusher Storm Johnson, and both tackles have moved on from last year's offense, which produced 34.6 points per game. It will definitely take time for the attack unit to gel. But Central Florida's defense, which finished in the Top 20 in points allowed and rushing, welcomes back nine starters. That side of the ball will have to carry the load until the offense finds its footing.

Central Florida has a very difficult open to the season. They will take on Penn State in Dublin, Ireland in the season opener. Next they have to travel to Missouri following a bye week. Their first league game is also on the road, at Houston, and comes one week before a tough tilt with independent BYU.

Things soften up considerably from there. The BYU game starts a stretch of five home games in six weeks for the Golden Knights. And their final two road games, at South Florida and at East Carolina, are manageable both in terms of distance, opponents, and the fact that UCF won't be playing in cold weather.

UCF went 7-1 last year in games decided by a touchdown or less. A lot of that can be contributed to the skill and savvy of the departed Bortles. Without that experience in the backfield I think that UCF is going to come back to earth. They won't be overlooked this year and I think they will lose all three of their big nonconference games. That means they would have to run the table in the AAC to get to nine wins this year and I don't see that coming to fruition.

I think the Golden Knights will have a hangover off last year's success. Play them 'under'.

2014 Central Florida Golden Knights Schedule

DATE OPPONENT TIME (ET) Location Result

Sat, Aug 30th, 2014 at Penn State 08:30 AM Croke Park Stadium - Dublin, Ireland

Sat, Sep 13th, 2014 at Missouri 12:00 PM Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium

Sat, Sep 20th, 2014 Bethune-Cook 06:00 PM Bright House Stadium

Thu, Oct 2nd, 2014 at Houston 07:00 PM Houston Football Stadium

Thu, Oct 9th, 2014 BYU 07:30 PM Bright House Networks Stadium

Sat, Oct 18th, 2014 Tulane TBA Bright House Networks Stadium

Sat, Oct 25th, 2014 Temple TBA Bright House Networks Stadium

Sat, Nov 1st, 2014 at Connecticut TBA Rentschler Field

Fri, Nov 14th, 2014 Tulsa 08:00 PM Bright House Networks Stadium

Sat, Nov 22nd, 2014 SMU TBA Bright House Networks Stadium

Fri, Nov 28th, 2014 at S. Florida TBA Raymond James Stadium

Thu, Dec 4th, 2014 at E. Carolina TBA Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium

All Times EST

*Season Win Total Odds from Raphael Esparza. Esparza was a Las Vegas sportsbook manager for 13 years at some of the largest books on The Strip. He is a proven oddsmaker and this is his projected total.

Robert Ferringo was the top football handicapper in the country last year, earning nearly $8,000 in total football profit in 2013-14 and posting one of the best seasons in America. He hit 62.1 percent for the entire NFL season (95-58) and was amazing down the stretch, closing with 11 of 14 winning NFL weeks and 12 of 15 overall winning football weeks. Robert has posted 3 of 4 winning football seasons, 6 of 7 winning NFL seasons, 30 of 44 winning football months, and 6 of 7 winning NFL preseasons. Also, Robert's proprietary KING College Football Betting System posted another winning season (now 2-for-2) and is 83-58 over the last two years (58.9 percent).

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