Knights share favorite memories as Bounce House celebrates 20 years

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It doesn’t take visiting teams long to realize why UCF’s stadium is called the Bounce House.

“I remember walking through the (visiting) tunnel and everybody’s just bouncing up and down, and I’m like, ‘I might get hit,’” former UCF longsnapper Dalton Riggs said, recalling his first visit as a member of the BYU team.

Talk about home-field advantage: when fans begin jumping up and down, the whole 45,000-seat stadium can shake, rattle and roll, sometimes to the shock and dismay of visiting teams and their fans.

It’s been a part of UCF’s football history since the venue broke ground in 2006.

And while it’s had its fair share of names, including the current Acrisure Bounce House Stadium, plenty of memories have been made along the way.

Sean Beckton Sr. has been a part of the UCF football program, first as a standout wide receiver from 1987-90 and then as an assistant coach, including serving as the Knights’ receivers coach.

“I’ve been telling everybody one of the top ones always is when we opened it up against Texas (2007),” said Beckton. “Some of my favorites have been the South Florida rivalry. Yeah, obviously the ‘out and up’ to (Breshard) Perriman to win the (2013) game; the Mike Hughes touchdown to win the (2017) game. You can’t forget the Memphis game and then the championship (in 2017).”

Beckton points to the fans’ proximity to the field as one benefit of the Bounce House.

“I’ve had a lot of teams from the opposing side call back and say, ‘Man, I didn’t realize that place was that loud when it got in a situation where they really needed to be loud or the excitement of it.’ You really don’t know about it because we experience it all the time and have been around it,” he added.

Quarterbacks coach McKenzie Milton created a treasure trove of memories during his time at UCF; many of those came in the Bounce House. Milton was the starting quarterback under coach Scott Frost for three seasons, helping guide the program to back-to-back American Athletic Conference Championships and consecutive appearances in New Year’s Six bowl games.

He was in charge of the offense in 2017 when the Knights put together a program-best 13-0 record, capped off by defeating Auburn in the Peach Bowl.

Some of his favorites include the 2017 USF game, a back-and-forth affair that was highlighted by Hughes’ 95-yard kickoff return with 1:28 left that lifted the Knights to a 49-42 comeback win.

Milton also points to the 2018 Cincinnati game as one of his favorites.

It began with ESPN’s College GameDay making its first visit to campus and ended with UCF pulling off a 38-13 upset win over the ranked Bearcats.

“I wasn’t there for it, but the (American Athletic) conference championship after I got hurt (in 2018),” said Milton. “Seeing it on TV like that was pretty neat. It was a full-circle moment for me, and the culture that got established here was there years ago. Those were my top three moments.”

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For Frost, it’s the AAC Championship Game against Memphis in 2017 that still resonates with him.

“It was special to me, even though there were some weird circumstances around it,” Frost said of the 62-55 double-overtime win. “Accepting the conference championship trophy on this field after my last game here, the first time around, it was just such a special group of guys and when you put in a lot of hard work, sometimes that leads to special things, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s worth it anyway because this is more about the process and the journey than it is the destination.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that know that and appreciate what we did in 2017, but when you do go through that journey, there’s something special at the end, I think that makes it even more meaningful.”

Former running back Adrian Killins (2016-19) remembers the impact the fans had on the 2018 Cincinnati win.

“The atmosphere was so electric. Cincinnati got the ball first and they jumped offsides twice, and home field advantage worked for us,” Killins said during the UCF Kickoff Luncheon.

Safety Demari Henderson has experienced more than his fair share of games at the Bounce House. The Seminole High School product is entering his fifth and final season with the Knights.

Some of his favorites include the Knights’ 45-3 upset win over then-No. 15 Oklahoma State on Nov. 11, 2023. It was UCF’s annual Space Game in the program’s first season in the Big 12.

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His other favorite moment was scooping up a fumble and returning it 15 yards for a touchdown against Baylor five games earlier.

“Everybody asks what you’re gonna do when you get into the end zone. When you get there, everything goes blank, and the crowd goes crazy. My teammates were jumping on me. It was such a good feeling,” recalled Henderson.

Safety Braeden Marshall, a Lake Mary product, says his favorite game was also the win over Oklahoma State.

“Just the game that we had and the atmosphere playing at the time,” said Marshall, who is appearing in his fourth season with the Knights. “Oklahoma State had great players like (running back) Ollie Gordon at the time. It was a great feeling to come out on top.”

Defensive tackles coach Kenny Martin has been a part of UCF’s coaching staff since 2021, when he was first brought on board by new coach Gus Malzahn. Martin recalls first experiencing the Bounce House during the Knights’ season opener against Boise State.

“That was our first game. Everybody told me how it kind of caves in on you as you run out of the tunnel and usually coaches don’t run out of the tunnel. So I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to experience this.’ So I came out of the tunnel with the team and I was like, ‘This is crazy. The Bounce House really bounces.’”

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram at @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.

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