Conner Weigman's 3 second-half touchdowns rally No. 20 Houston past UCF 27-17

Updated Oct. 3, 2026 4:31 p.m. ET

Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — Conner Weigman threw for 239 yards and rushed for three second-half touchdowns, and No. 20 Houston rallied to beat Central Florida 27-17 on Saturday.

Weigman rushed for 50 yards, Re’Shaun Sanford II ran for 62 yards and Patrick Overmyer caught six passes for 76 yards for Houston (4-1, 1-1 Big 12).

Houston coach Willie Fritz said Weigman was “sick as a dog, but he played through it and played really well in the second half.”

“He’s very smart,” Fritz said of his quarterback. “He’s an intelligent football player. He gets the ball out of his hands. He knows where to go. He’s got a good, quick release, good velocity on the ball. He runs it better than probably people give him credit for.”

Trailing 17-0, Weigman had a 19-yard touchdown run with 3½ minutes left in the third.

On the next UCF drive, Latreveon McCutchin intercepted Keyone Jenkins and returned it 17 yards to the UCF 2. Two plays later, Weigman rushed it in from a yard out to cut the lead to three.

After the Knights went three-and-out, Weigman capped an 11-play, 62-yard drive with a 1-yard score with 10:15 remaining to give the Cougars a 21-17 lead. Jonathan Dimas made two field goals to push the margin to 10.

“We did not play very good in the first half, but we played really well in the second half,” Fritz said. “I went in there (at halftime) and started going through the mistakes that we made in the first half, and I said ‘There’s one bright spot, we have another 30 minutes to play.’”

Jenkins went 23 of 35 for 253 yards and a touchdown. He threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Josh Derry and ran for a 5-yard touchdown with six minutes remaining in the third quarter as the Knights (3-2, 1-1) built a 17-0 lead.

Jenkins exited for a drive following the interception and was limping in the fourth quarter. UCF coach Scott Frost said Jenkins was cramping.

“I thought he played good again,” Frost said. “The interception was just unfortunate. Great play by their guy. I wish we were a little more explosive offensively. We got to keep trying to be.”

Derry had seven receptions for 101 yards, and Duke Watson had 50 yards rushing for the Knights.

The takeaway

UCF: The Knights dropped to 0-2 on the road this season. … After going up 17-0, the Knights gained only 65 more yards and one first down over their final five drives.

Houston: The Cougars should at least maintain their position in the AP Top 25 poll. … Houston needed to rally after having issues finishing drives early on, getting stopped inside the UCF 10 on three straight drives in the second quarter. The Cougars were stopped at the UCF 3 on consecutive drives before Overmyer fumbled at the UCF 7 and into the end zone, recovered by the Knights.