UCF Stuns Kansas 33-32 on Last-Second Touchdown, Snapping 12-Game Road Losing Streak

UCF blew a 19-point lead and then won anyway. Alonza Barnett III hit Caden Piening for a 6-yard touchdown at the left pylon in the final seconds, Will Stone kicked the extra point, and the Knights beat Kansas 33-32 on Saturday at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, ending a 12-game road losing streak.

The win was UCF's first on the road since a one-point victory at TCU on Sept. 14, 2024, according to the Tampa Bay Times. It lifted coach Scott Frost's team to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12, one win from bowl eligibility. Kansas fell to 3-6 and 1-5 in conference play.

The final minute

Kansas had scored 25 straight points to take its first lead since the first quarter. Dylan Edwards ran in from 2 yards out with 1:06 left, and quarterback Isaiah Marshall threw to Nik McMillan for the two-point conversion, putting the Jayhawks ahead 32-26.

UCF then went 73 yards in 10 plays in about a minute. Barnett threw for 65 yards on the drive. A completion to Waden Charles that was first ruled incomplete was overturned on replay review, giving the Knights a 15-yard gain late in the drive, and a pass interference penalty moved them closer. From the 6, Barnett found Piening at the left pylon, and the call on the field was upheld after another review. ESPN's play log lists the score with one second on the clock; UCF's account put it at four seconds.

"There was no doubt on the sideline that we weren't going to go out and win that game," Piening told reporters, according to The Associated Press. It was only the second catch of the day for Piening, a redshirt freshman, and his third touchdown in eight games.

Barnett's return

Barnett started and played his first full game since returning from a hamstring injury, according to the AP. It was his first start since Sept. 12, the Tampa Bay Times reported. He completed 18 of 31 passes for 251 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, and ran for 36 yards on 12 carries.

"We were in a couple third downs, a couple of second and longs, but I could look in everybody's eyes and they believed," Barnett said.

How UCF built a 26-7 lead

The start was rough. Kansas intercepted Barnett on UCF's first play from scrimmage and returned it to the 3-yard line, and Marshall scored on a 1-yard run for a 7-0 lead. UCF answered with a 37-yard Stone field goal after reaching the Kansas 19.

In the second quarter, a fourth-and-1 gamble paid off when Duane Thomas Jr. ran 10 yards for a touchdown, though Stone's extra point failed. Stone added a 23-yard field goal on an 11-play drive, and UCF led 12-7 at halftime after holding Kansas to 61 yards of offense in the first half.

The Knights came out of the locker room with two quick touchdown drives. Taevion Swint scored on a 1-yard run, his first touchdown of the season, and Barnett hit Josh Derry for a 44-yard touchdown that made it 26-7 with 9:52 left in the third quarter. According to UCF, the two scores came closer together than any pair of Knights touchdowns this season.

Kansas rallies

Marshall carried the Jayhawks back. He broke a 30-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, Khijohnn Cummings-Coleman scored from a yard out early in the fourth, and Martin Connington's 34-yard field goal with 5:29 left made it 26-24 before Edwards' late touchdown.

"All of a sudden, they got rolling and we couldn't get a stop," Frost said. "There were so many plays that we had a chance to finish the game in a less dramatic way, and we didn't."

The scoring, from ESPN's box score:

By the numbers

Derry caught eight passes for a game-high 143 yards, his 11th career 100-yard receiving game and his second at UCF. Landen Chambers led the Knights with 40 rushing yards on 13 carries. Linebacker Tackett Curtis had a team-high 11 tackles and two quarterback hurries, and Antione Jackson and Braeden Marshall each recovered a fumble. Jayden Williams forced one of those fumbles.

UCF was not penalized once. Both teams were perfect in the red zone, the Knights going 5 for 5 and Kansas 4 for 4, according to the AP.

Marshall completed 21 of 32 passes for 210 yards and led Kansas with 125 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. The Jayhawks outgained UCF 404 to 358 but lost two fumbles. The announced crowd was 31,008.

Where UCF's season stands

The win came a week after UCF's worst result of the season, a 41-9 home loss to Baylor on Oct. 30, according to ESPN's schedule results. The Knights had won at home and lost on the road for most of the fall: they opened 2026 with home wins over Bethune-Cookman, Georgia State and TCU, and later beat BYU 39-31 in Orlando, but lost at Pittsburgh 12-7 on Sept. 12, at Houston 27-17 and at Oklahoma State 42-28.

The loss at Pittsburgh was also the last game Barnett had started before Saturday. The road skid that ended in Lawrence carried over from 2024 through all of Frost's first season back at UCF in 2025 and into this one.

Saturday's game also matched two teams that met in Orlando last season, when Kansas rallied in the second half for a 27-20 win over the Knights on Oct. 4, 2025.

What's next

UCF returns to Orlando to host Arizona State at the Acrisure Bounce House next Saturday, Nov. 14, with a chance to clinch bowl eligibility. The game will stream on ESPN+, and a kickoff time has not been announced. UCF then hosts Iowa State on Friday, Nov. 20, before closing the regular season at Colorado on Nov. 28. Kansas plays at West Virginia on Nov. 14.