ORLANDO — After receiving a  No. 21 ranking earlier this week, the UCF Knights took that honor and ran with it.

Blake Bortles threw for 286 yards, while going 20-24 and having 4 touchdown passes as the University of Central Florida Knights hammered the University of Connecticut Huskies, 62-17 at the Bright House Networks Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 37,924.

“We have six championship games and we have five of them. Each week we have to treat them like a championship game and attack it,” UCF head coach George O’Leary told reporters after the game. “I thought the differences on the field was speed. I challenged the kids all week to stay hungry and go after the game.

“Practice is hard, games are fun. They (Players) are fairly humbled, our fans aren’t. A lot of them like to talk and they need to show up to the games.”

The Knights entered the game after taking a wild 38-35 road victory at Louisville the week prior, which eventually paid dividends for George O’Leary’s men who made the AP Rankings.

With the halftime score of 45-10, the Knights added 17 points on the scoreboard, much of the second half played without quarterback Blake Bortles, as George O’Leary inserted Justin Holman for the remaining part of the game.

“We were definitely in sync as a unit. We were able to execute what we planned on doing,” said Bortles. “We’re going to go out and play games like it’s a championship game. To win the conference, we have to win each game because if we lose we’re out of the running.”

Despite only having one loss this season, UCF didn’t wait long to get on the scoreboard as Storm Johnson’s 10-yard rush touchdown pass from Blake Bortles gave the Knights a 6-0 lead.

UCF managed to score on the first nine drives, taking the lead to 55-10 all the way in the third quarter.