title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: Since its foundation in 1932, the SSNP adopted direct action and violence against those it deemed as the enemies of the Syrian People, to which it referred to as the "forces of darkness", while the founder referred to the Party as the "Sons of Life" (Abna` al-Hayat): Colonialism and particularly French colonialism in Syria and Lebanon, the feudal landowning and notable class, politicians it deemed to be traitors or corrupt, Zionist settlement of Palestine, Christian separatism in Lebanon, Islamic fundamentalism in Syria, a list to which could be added the communists, although this last addition would change in the course of the years as both would join ranks in the LNRF.


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: In 1949, it declared the "First Renaissance Revolution" against the Lebanese government, an armed confrontation with the Lebanese and Syrian security forces that ended in a disaster and the execution of Antun Saadeh by the Lebanese authorities on 8 July. Not too long later, party members assassinated the Lebanese Prime Minister Riad al-Solh who was instrumental in Saadeh's death penalty. To avoid being caught, the assailants committed suicide. When one of the assailants survived and woke up in the hospital, he completed his suicide attempt by tearing up his wounds and falling from the bed. The assassination of the general prosecutor who judged Saadeh was also conducted by a Party cell, and Party members are believed to have been involved in the assassination of Husni al-Zaim, the Syrian dictator who captured Saadeh and handed him over to the Lebanese authorities.


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: In 1982, party member Habib al-Shartouni assassinated the Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel, seen as betraying the country in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The party also undertook many operations against Israeli presence in Lebanon, including a military operation in broad daylight against Israeli officers stationed in Beirut, which triggered the beginning of the generalized armed struggle for Lebanese liberation. Party member Sana'a Mehaidli, known as the first female suicide bomber, detonated herself in her car along with an Israeli convoy in south Lebanon. The party joined arms with the Communists, the PLO, the Arab nationalists, and other groups to fight against the Israeli invasion – see Lebanese National Movement/Lebanese National Resistance Front.


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: Today, the party's military wing fights alongside the Syrian Arab Army against the Free Syrian Army and ISIS in the Syrian Civil War. Journalist Terry Glavin write in 2015 that it "lavishly indulges a habit of suicide-bombing and assassination" and runs "death squads on behalf of its patron... Bashar Al-Assad, mostly in the vicinity of Homs and the suburbs of Damascus".


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: The SSNP's ideology was an entirely secular form of nationalism; indeed, it posited the complete separation of religion and politics as one of the two fundamental conditions for real national unity, alongside economic and social reform.


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: The party's emblem is the whirlwind (in Arabic "Zawba'a", زوبعة). It was designed by the SSNP students at the American University of Beirut while the party was still clandestine and before the French authorities had uncovered it in 1936. Saadeh stated the whirlwind was found engraved on ancient Syrian artifacts, and it is known from for example Sumerian art. The SSNP emblem has been said to be a combination of the Islamic crescent and the Christian cross. The party flag features a red hurricane, called the "Zawba'a", within a white disc on a black background. Each arm symbolizes one of the four virtues of the party's mission: freedom, duty, discipline and power. According to SSNP lore, the black color symbolizes the Dark Ages of Ottoman rule, colonialism, sectarian division, national division, and backwardness. The "Zawba'a" allegedly represents the blood of the SSNP martyrs bound together as Muslims and Christians through freedom, duty, discipline and power as a hurricane to purge the Dark Ages and spark their nation's rejuvenation and renaissance. Critics and many scholars claim that the symbol was modeled after the Nazi swastika a claim that the party denies.


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: Arab nationalist thinker Sati' al-Husri considered that Saadeh "misrepresented" Arab nationalism, incorrectly associating it with a Bedouin image of the Arab and with Muslim sectarianism. Palestinian historian Maher Charif sees Saadeh's theory as a response to the religious diversity of Syria, and points to his later extension of his vision of the Syrian nation to include Iraq, a country also noted for its religious diversity, as further evidence for this. The party also accepted that due to "religious and political considerations", the separate existence of Lebanon was necessary for the time being.


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: From 1945 onward, the party adopted a more nuanced stance regarding Arab nationalism, seeing Syrian unity as a potential first step towards an Arab union led by Syria.


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi gives a somewhat contrasting interpretation, pointing to the position of the Greek Orthodox community as a large minority in both Syria and Lebanon for whom "the concept of pan-Syrianism was more meaningful than the concept of Arabism" while at the same time they resented Maronite dominance in Lebanon. According to Salibi,


title: Syrian Social Nationalist Party

text: Prof. Salibi remarks on the beginnings of Saadeh's party in the 1930s: "[A]mong its first members were students and young graduates of the American University of Beirut." This early party was "mainly Greek Orthodox and Protestants with some Shi'ites and Druzes... ." In Lebanon as a whole the party was not popular. "Christians were generally opposed to their Syrian unionism, while Moslems were suspicious of their reservations with regard to pan-Arabism. The Lebanese authorities were able to suppress them without difficulty."


title: Water wheel

text: A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving car. Water wheels were still in commercial use well into the 20th century but they are no longer in common use. Uses included milling flour in gristmills, grinding wood into pulp for papermaking, hammering wrought iron, machining, ore crushing and pounding fibre for use in the manufacture of cloth.


title: Water wheel

text: Some water wheels are fed by water from a mill pond, which is formed when a flowing stream is dammed. A channel for the water flowing to or from a water wheel is called a mill race. The race bringing water from the mill pond to the water wheel is a headrace; the one carrying water after it has left the wheel is commonly referred to as a tailrace.


title: Water wheel

text: Waterwheels were used for various purposes from agriculture to metallurgy in ancient civilizations spanning the Hellenistic Greek world, Rome, China and India. Waterwheels saw continued use in the Post-classical age, like the Middle Ages of Europe and the Islamic Golden Age, but also elsewhere. In the mid to late 18th century John Smeaton's scientific investigation of the water wheel led to significant increases in efficiency supplying much needed power for the Industrial Revolution. Water wheels began being displaced by the smaller, less expensive and more efficient turbine, developed by Benoît Fourneyron, beginning with his first model in 1827. Turbines are capable of handling high "heads", or elevations, that exceed the capability of practical-sized waterwheels.


title: Water wheel

text: The main difficulty of water wheels is their dependence on flowing water, which limits where they can be located. Modern hydroelectric dams can be viewed as the descendants of the water wheel, as they too take advantage of the movement of water downhill.


title: Water wheel

text: The latter can be subdivided according to where the water hits the wheel into backshot (pitch-back) overshot, breastshot, undershot, and stream-wheels.


title: Water wheel

text: The term undershot can refer to any wheel where the water passes under the wheel but it usually implies that the water entry is low on the wheel.


title: Water wheel

text: Overshot and backshot water wheels are typically used where the available height difference is more than a couple of meters. Breastshot wheels are more suited to large flows with a moderate head. Undershot and stream wheel use large flows at little or no head.


title: Water wheel

text: There is often an associated millpond, a reservoir for storing water and hence energy until it is needed. Larger heads store more gravitational potential energy for the same amount of water so the reservoirs for overshot and backshot wheels tend to be smaller than for breast shot wheels.


title: Water wheel

text: Overshot and pitchback water wheels are suitable where there is a small stream with a height difference of more than , often in association with a small reservoir. Breastshot and undershot wheels can be used on rivers or high volume flows with large reservoirs.


title: Water wheel

text: Commonly called a tub wheel, Norse mill or Greek mill, the horizontal wheel is a primitive and inefficient form of the modern turbine. However, if it delivers the required power then the efficiency is of secondary importance. It is usually mounted inside a mill building below the working floor. A jet of water is directed on to the paddles of the water wheel, causing them to turn. This is a simple system usually without gearing so that the vertical axle of the water wheel becomes the drive spindle of the mill.


title: Water wheel

text: A stream wheel is a vertically mounted water wheel that is rotated by the water in a water course striking paddles or blades at the bottom of the wheel. This type of water wheel is the oldest type of horizontal axis wheel. They are also known as free surface wheels because the water is not constrained by millraces or wheel pits.


title: Water wheel

text: Stream wheels are cheaper and simpler to build and have less of an environmental impact, than other types of wheels. They do not constitute a major change of the river. Their disadvantages are their low efficiency, which means that they generate less power and can only be used where the flow rate is sufficient. A typical flat board undershot wheel uses about 20 percent of the energy in the flow of water striking the wheel as measured by English civil engineer John Smeaton in the 18th century. More modern wheels have higher efficiencies.


title: Water wheel

text: Stream wheels mounted on floating platforms are often referred to as hip wheels and the mill as a ship mill. They were sometimes mounted immediately downstream from bridges where the flow restriction of the bridge piers increased the speed of the current.


title: Water wheel

text: An undershot wheel is a vertically mounted water wheel with a horizontal axle that is rotated by the water from a low weir striking the wheel in the bottom quarter. Most of the energy gain is from the movement of the water and comparatively little from the head. They are similar in operation and design to stream wheels.


title: Water wheel

text: The word breastshot is used in a variety of ways. Some authors restrict the term to wheels where the water enters at about the 10 o’clock position, others 9 o’clock, and others for a range of heights. In this article it is used for wheels where the water entry is significantly above the bottom and significantly below the top, typically the middle half.


title: Water wheel

text: The small clearance between the wheel and the masonry requires that a breastshot wheel has a good trash rack ('screen' in British English) to prevent debris from jamming between the wheel and the apron and potentially causing serious damage.


title: Water wheel

text: Breastshot wheels are less efficient than overshot and backshot wheels but they can handle high flow rates and consequently high power. They are preferred for steady, high-volume flows such as are found on the Fall Line of the North American East Coast. Breastshot wheels are the most common type in the United States of America and are said to have powered the industrial revolution.


title: Water wheel

text: A vertically mounted water wheel that is rotated by water entering buckets just past the top of the wheel is said to be overshot. The term is sometimes, erroneously, applied to backshot wheels, where the water goes down behind the wheel.


title: Water wheel

text: A typical overshot wheel has the water channeled to the wheel at the top and slightly beyond the axle. The water collects in the buckets on that side of the wheel, making it heavier than the other "empty" side. The weight turns the wheel, and the water flows out into the tail-water when the wheel rotates enough to invert the buckets. The overshot design is very efficient, it can achieve 90%, and does not require rapid flow.


title: Water wheel

text: Nearly all of the energy is gained from the weight of water lowered to the tailrace although a small contribution may be made by the kinetic energy of the water entering the wheel. They are suited to larger heads than the other type of wheel so they are ideally suited to hilly countries. However even the largest water wheel, the Laxey Wheel in the Isle of Man, only utilises a head of around . The world's largest head turbines, Bieudron Hydroelectric Power Station in Switzerland, utilise about .


title: Water wheel

text: Overshot wheels require a large head compared to other types of wheel which usually means significant investment in constructing the headrace. Sometimes the final approach of the water to the wheel is along a flume or penstock, which can be lengthy.


title: Water wheel

text: A backshot wheel (also called pitchback) is a variety of overshot wheel where the water is introduced just before the summit of the wheel. In many situations, it has the advantage that the bottom of the wheel is moving in the same direction as the water in the tailrace which makes it more efficient. It also performs better than an overshot wheel in flood conditions when the water level may submerge the bottom of the wheel. It will continue to rotate until the water in the wheel pit rises quite high on the wheel. This makes the technique particularly suitable for streams that experience significant variations in flow and reduces the size, complexity, and hence cost of the tailrace.


title: Water wheel

text: The direction of rotation of a backshot wheel is the same as that of a breastshot wheel but in other respects, it is very similar to the overshot wheel. See below.


title: Water wheel

text: Some wheels are overshot at the top and backshot at the bottom thereby potentially combining the best features of both types. The photograph shows an example at Finch Foundry in Devon, UK. The head race is the overhead timber structure and a branch to the left supplies water to the wheel. The water exits from under the wheel back into the stream.


title: Water wheel

text: A special type of overshot/backshot wheel is the reversible water wheel. This has two sets of blades or buckets running in opposite directions so that it can turn in either direction depending on which side the water is directed. Reversible wheels were used in the mining industry in order to power various means of ore conveyance. By changing the direction of the wheel, barrels or baskets of ore could be lifted up or lowered down a shaft or inclined plane. There was usually a cable drum or a chain basket on the axle of the wheel. It is essential that the wheel have braking equipment to be able to stop the wheel (known as a braking wheel). The oldest known drawing of a reversible water wheel was by Georgius Agricola and dates to 1556.


title: Water wheel

text: As in all machinery, rotary motion is more efficient in water-raising devices than oscillating one. In terms of power source, waterwheels can be turned by either human respectively animal force or by the water current itself. Waterwheels come in two basic designs, either equipped with a vertical or a horizontal axle. The latter type can be subdivided, depending on where the water hits the wheel paddles, into overshot, breastshot and undershot wheels. The two main functions of waterwheels were historically water-lifting for irrigation purposes and milling, particularly of grain. In case of horizontal-axle mills, a system of gears is required for power transmission, which vertical-axle mills do not need.


title: Water wheel

text: The earliest waterwheel working like a lever was described by Zhuangzi in the late Warring States period (476-221 BC). It says that the waterwheel was invented by Zigong, a disciple of Confucius in the 5th century BC. By at least the 1st century AD, the Chinese of the Eastern Han Dynasty were using water wheels to crush grain in mills and to power the piston-bellows in forging iron ore into cast iron.


title: Water wheel

text: In the text known as the "Xin Lun" written by Huan Tan about 20 AD (during the usurpation of Wang Mang), it states that the legendary mythological king known as Fu Xi was the one responsible for the pestle and mortar, which evolved into the tilt-hammer and then trip hammer device (see trip hammer). Although the author speaks of the mythological Fu Xi, a passage of his writing gives hint that the water wheel was in widespread use by the 1st century AD in China (Wade-Giles spelling):


title: Water wheel

text: Fu Hsi invented the pestle and mortar, which is so useful, and later on it was cleverly improved in such a way that the whole weight of the body could be used for treading on the tilt-hammer ("tui"), thus increasing the efficiency ten times. Afterwards the power of animals—donkeys, mules, oxen, and horses—was applied by means of machinery, and water-power too used for pounding, so that the benefit was increased a hundredfold.


title: Water wheel

text: In the year 31 AD, the engineer and Prefect of Nanyang, Du Shi (d. 38), applied a complex use of the water wheel and machinery to power the bellows of the blast furnace to create cast iron. Du Shi is mentioned briefly in the "Book of Later Han" ("Hou Han Shu") as follows (in Wade-Giles spelling):


title: Water wheel

text: In the seventh year of the Chien-Wu reign period (31 AD) Tu Shih was posted to be Prefect of Nanyang. He was a generous man and his policies were peaceful; he destroyed evil-doers and established the dignity (of his office). Good at planning, he loved the common people and wished to save their labor. He invented a water-power reciprocator ("shui phai") for the casting of (iron) agricultural implements. Those who smelted and cast already had the push-bellows to blow up their charcoal fires, and now they were instructed to use the rushing of the water ("chi shui") to operate it ... Thus the people got great benefit for little labor. They found the 'water(-powered) bellows' convenient and adopted it widely.


title: Water wheel

text: Water wheels in China found practical uses such as this, as well as extraordinary use. The Chinese inventor Zhang Heng (78–139) was the first in history to apply motive power in rotating the astronomical instrument of an armillary sphere, by use of a water wheel. The mechanical engineer Ma Jun (c. 200–265) from Cao Wei once used a water wheel to power and operate a large mechanical puppet theater for the Emperor Ming of Wei ( 226–239).


title: Water wheel

text: The ancient Greeks invented the waterwheel independently and used it in nearly all of the forms and functions described above, including its application for watermilling. The technological breakthrough occurred in the technologically developed Hellenistic period between the 3rd and 1st century BC.


title: Water wheel

text: The compartmented water wheel comes in two basic forms, the wheel with compartmented body (Latin "tympanum") and the wheel with compartmented rim or a rim with separate, attached containers. The wheels could be either turned by men treading on its outside or by animals by means of a sakia gear. While the tympanum had a large discharge capacity, it could lift the water only to less than the height of its own radius and required a large torque for rotating. These constructional deficiencies were overcome by the wheel with a compartmented rim which was a less heavy design with a higher lift.


title: Water wheel

text: The earliest literary reference to a water-driven, compartmented wheel appears in the technical treatise "Pneumatica" (chap. 61) of the Greek engineer Philo of Byzantium (ca. 280−220 BC). In his "Parasceuastica" (91.43−44), Philo advises the use of such wheels for submerging siege mines as a defensive measure against enemy sapping. Compartmented wheels appear to have been the means of choice for draining dry docks in Alexandria under the reign of Ptolemy IV (221−205 BC). Several Greek papyri of the 3rd to 2nd century BC mention the use of these wheels, but don't give further details. The non-existence of the device in the Ancient Near East before Alexander's conquest can be deduced from its pronounced absence from the otherwise rich oriental iconography on irrigation practices. Unlike other water-lifting devices and pumps of the period though, the invention of the compartmented wheel cannot be traced to any particular Hellenistic engineer and may have been made in the late 4th century BC in a rural context away from the metropolis of Alexandria.


title: Water wheel

text: The earliest depiction of a compartmented wheel is from a tomb painting in Ptolemaic Egypt which dates to the 2nd century BC. It shows a pair of yoked oxen driving the wheel via a sakia gear, which is here for the first time attested, too. The Greek sakia gear system is already shown fully developed to the point that "modern Egyptian devices are virtually identical". It is assumed that the scientists of the Museum of Alexandria, at the time the most active Greek research center, may have been involved in its invention. An episode from the Alexandrian War in 48 BC tells of how Caesar's enemies employed geared waterwheels to pour sea water from elevated places on the position of the trapped Romans.


title: Water wheel

text: Around 300 AD, the noria was finally introduced when the wooden compartments were replaced with inexpensive ceramic pots that were tied to the outside of an open-framed wheel.


title: Water wheel

text: The Romans used waterwheels extensively in mining projects, with enormous Roman-era waterwheels found in places like modern-day Spain. They were reverse overshot water-wheels designed for dewatering deep underground mines. Several such devices are described by Vitruvius, including the reverse overshot water-wheel and the Archimedean screw. Many were found during modern mining at the copper mines at Rio Tinto in Spain, one system involving 16 such wheels stacked above one another so as to lift water about 80 feet from the mine sump. Part of such a wheel was found at Dolaucothi, a Roman gold mine in south Wales in the 1930s when the mine was briefly re-opened. It was found about 160 feet below the surface, so must have been part of a similar sequence as that discovered at Rio Tinto. It has recently been carbon dated to about 90 AD, and since the wood from which it was made is much older than the deep mine, it is likely that the deep workings were in operation perhaps 30–50 years after. It is clear from these examples of drainage wheels found in sealed underground galleries in widely separated locations that building water wheels was well within their capabilities, and such verticals water wheels commonly used for industrial purposes.


title: Water wheel

text: Taking indirect evidence into account from the work of the Greek technician Apollonius of Perge, the British historian of technology M.J.T. Lewis dates the appearance of the vertical-axle watermill to the early 3rd century BC, and the horizontal-axle watermill to around 240 BC, with Byzantium and Alexandria as the assigned places of invention. A watermill is reported by the Greek geographer Strabon (ca. 64 BC–AD 24) to have existed sometime before 71 BC in the palace of the Pontian king Mithradates VI Eupator, but its exact construction cannot be gleaned from the text (XII, 3, 30 C 556).


title: Water wheel

text: The first clear description of a geared watermill offers the late 1st century BC Roman architect Vitruvius who tells of the sakia gearing system as being applied to a watermill. Vitruvius's account is particularly valuable in that it shows how the watermill came about, namely by the combination of the separate Greek inventions of the toothed gear and the waterwheel into one effective mechanical system for harnessing water power. Vitruvius' waterwheel is described as being immersed with its lower end in the watercourse so that its paddles could be driven by the velocity of the running water (X, 5.2).


title: Water wheel

text: About the same time, the overshot wheel appears for the first time in a poem by Antipater of Thessalonica, which praises it as a labour-saving device (IX, 418.4–6). The motif is also taken up by Lucretius (ca. 99–55 BC) who likens the rotation of the waterwheel to the motion of the stars on the firmament (V 516). The third horizontal-axled type, the breastshot waterwheel, comes into archaeological evidence by the late 2nd century AD context in central Gaul. Most excavated Roman watermills were equipped with one of these wheels which, although more complex to construct, were much more efficient than the vertical-axle waterwheel. In the 2nd century AD Barbegal watermill complex a series of sixteen overshot wheels was fed by an artificial aqueduct, a proto-industrial grain factory which has been referred to as "the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world".


title: Water wheel

text: In Roman North Africa, several installations from around 300 AD were found where vertical-axle waterwheels fitted with angled blades were installed at the bottom of a water-filled, circular shaft. The water from the mill-race which entered tangentially the pit created a swirling water column that made the fully submerged wheel act like true water turbines, the earliest known to date.


title: Water wheel

text: Apart from its use in milling and water-raising, ancient engineers applied the paddled waterwheel for automatons and in navigation. Vitruvius (X 9.5–7) describes multi-geared paddle wheels working as a ship odometer, the earliest of its kind. The first mention of paddle wheels as a means of propulsion comes from the 4th–5th century military treatise "De Rebus Bellicis" (chapter XVII), where the anonymous Roman author describes an ox-driven paddle-wheel warship.


title: Water wheel

text: Ancient water-wheel technology continued unabated in the early medieval period where the appearance of new documentary genres such as legal codes, monastic charters, but also hagiography was accompanied with a sharp increase in references to watermills and wheels.


title: Water wheel

text: The earliest vertical-wheel in a tide mill is from 6th-century Killoteran near Waterford, Ireland, while the first known horizontal-wheel in such a type of mill is from the Irish Little Island (c. 630). As for the use in a common Norse or Greek mill, the oldest known horizontal-wheels were excavated in the Irish Ballykilleen, dating to c. 636.


title: Water wheel

text: The earliest excavated water wheel driven by tidal power was the Nendrum Monastery mill in Northern Ireland which has been dated to 787, although a possible earlier mill dates to 619. Tide mills became common in estuaries with a good tidal range in both Europe and America generally using undershot wheels.


title: Water wheel

text: Cistercian monasteries, in particular, made extensive use of water wheels to power watermills of many kinds. An early example of a very large water wheel is the still extant wheel at the early 13th century Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda, a Cistercian monastery in the Aragon region of Spain. Grist mills (for corn) were undoubtedly the most common, but there were also sawmills, fulling mills and mills to fulfil many other labour-intensive tasks. The water wheel remained competitive with the steam engine well into the Industrial Revolution. At around the 8th to 10th century, a number of irrigation technologies were brought into Spain and thus introduced to Europe. One of those technologies is the Noria, which is basically a wheel fitted with buckets on the peripherals for lifting water. It is similar to the undershot water wheel mentioned later in this article. It allowed peasants to power watermills more efficiently. According to Thomas Glick's book, "Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia", the Noria probably originated from somewhere in Persia. It has been used for centuries before the technology was brought into Spain by Arabs who had adopted it from the Romans. Thus the distribution of the Noria in the Iberian peninsula "conforms to the area of stabilized Islamic settlement". This technology has a profound effect on the life of peasants. The Noria is relatively cheap to build. Thus it allowed peasants to cultivate land more efficiently in Europe. Together with the Spaniards, the technology spread to the New World in Mexico and South America following Spanish expansion


title: Water wheel

text: The assembly convened by William of Normandy, commonly referred to as the "Domesday" or Doomsday survey, took an inventory of all potentially taxable property in England, which included over six thousand mills spread across three thousand different locations.


title: Water wheel

text: The type of water wheel selected was dependent upon the location. Generally if only small volumes of water and high waterfalls were available a millwright would choose to use an overshot wheel. The decision was influenced by the fact that the buckets could catch and use even a small volume of water. For large volumes of water with small waterfalls the undershot wheel would have been used, since it was more adapted to such conditions and cheaper to construct. So long as these water supplies were abundant the question of efficiency remained irrelevant. By the 18th century, with increased demand for power coupled with limited water locales, an emphasis was made on efficiency scheme.


title: Water wheel

text: By the 11th century there were parts of Europe where the exploitation of water was commonplace. The water wheel is understood to have actively shaped and forever changed the outlook of Westerners. Europe began to transit from human and animal muscle labor towards mechanical labor with the advent of the water wheel. Medievalist Lynn White Jr. contended that the spread of inanimate power sources was eloquent testimony to the emergence of the West of a new attitude toward, power, work, nature, and above all else technology.


title: Water wheel

text: Harnessing water-power enabled gains in agricultural productivity, food surpluses and the large scale urbanization starting in the 11th century. The usefulness of water power motivated European experiments with other power sources, such as wind and tidal mills. Waterwheels influenced the construction of cities, more specifically canals. The techniques that developed during this early period such as stream jamming and the building of canals, put Europe on a hydraulically focused path, for instance water supply and irrigation technology was combined to modify supply power of the wheel. Illustrating the extent to which there was a great degree of technological innovation that met the growing needs of the feudal state.


title: Water wheel

text: The water mill was used for grinding grain, producing flour for bread, malt for beer, or coarse meal for porridge. Hammermills used the wheel to operate hammers. One type was fulling mill, which was used for cloth making. The trip hammer was also used for making wrought iron and for working iron into useful shapes, an activity that was otherwise labour-intensive. The water wheel was also used in papermaking, beating material to a pulp. In the 13th century water mills used for hammering throughout Europe improved the productivity of early steel manufacturing. Along with the mastery of gunpowder, waterpower provided European countries worldwide military leadership from the 15th century.


title: Water wheel

text: Millwrights distinguished between the two forces, impulse and weight, at work in water wheels long before 18th-century Europe. Fitzherbert, a 16th-century agricultural writer, wrote "druieth the wheel as well as with the weight of the water as with strengthe [impulse]". Leonardo da Vinci also discussed water power, noting "the blow [of the water] is not weight, but excites a power of weight, almost equal to its own power". However, even realisation of the two forces, weight and impulse, confusion remained over the advantages and disadvantages of the two, and there was no clear understanding of the superior efficiency of weight. Prior to 1750 it was unsure as to which force was dominant and was widely understood that both forces were operating with equal inspiration amongst one another. The waterwheel sparked questions of the laws of nature, specifically the laws of force. Evangelista Torricelli's work on water wheels used an analysis of Galileo's work on falling bodies, that the velocity of a water sprouting from an orifice under its head was exactly equivalent to the velocity a drop of water acquired in falling freely from the same height.


title: Water wheel

text: The water wheel was a driving force behind the earliest stages of industrialization in Britain. Water-powered reciprocating devices were used in trip hammers and blast furnace bellows. Richard Arkwright's water frame was powered by a water wheel.


title: Water wheel

text: The most powerful water wheel built in the United Kingdom was the 100 hp Quarry Bank Mill water wheel near Manchester. A high breastshot design, it was retired in 1904 and replaced with several turbines. It has now been restored and is a museum open to the public.


title: Water wheel

text: The biggest working water wheel in mainland Britain has a diameter of and was built by the De Winton company of Caernarfon. It is located within the Dinorwic workshops of the National Slate Museum in Llanberis, North Wales.


title: Water wheel

text: The largest working water wheel in the world is the Laxey Wheel (also known as "Lady Isabella") in the village of Laxey, Isle of Man. It is in diameter and wide and is maintained by Manx National Heritage.


title: Water wheel

text: During the Industrial Revolution, in the first half of the 19th century engineers started to design better wheels. In 1823 Jean-Victor Poncelet invented a very efficient undershot wheel design that could work on very low heads, which was commercialized and became popular by late 1830s. Other designs, as the Sagebien wheel, followed later. At the same time Claude Burdin was working on a radically different machine which he called "turbine", and his pupil Benoît Fourneyron designed the first commercial one in the 1830s.


title: Water wheel

text: Development of water turbines led to decreased popularity of water wheels. The main advantage of turbines is that its ability to harness head is much greater than the diameter of the turbine, whereas a water wheel cannot effectively harness head greater than its diameter. The migration from water wheels to modern turbines took about one hundred years.


title: Water wheel

text: Water wheels were used to power sawmills, grist mills and for other purposes during development of the United States. The diameter water wheel at McCoy, Colorado, built in 1922, is a surviving one out of many which lifted water for irrigation out of the Colorado River.


title: Water wheel

text: Two early improvements were suspension wheels and rim gearing. Suspension wheels are constructed in the same manner as a bicycle wheel, the rim being supported under tension from the hub- this led to larger lighter wheels than the former design where the heavy spokes were under compression. Rim-gearing entailed adding a notched wheel to the rim or shroud of the wheel. A stub gear engaged the rim-gear and took the power into the mill using an independent line shaft. This removed the rotative stress from the axle which could thus be lighter, and also allowed more flexibility in the location of the power train. The shaft rotation was geared up from that of the wheel which led to less power loss. An example of this design pioneered by Thomas Hewes and refined by William Armstrong Fairburn can be seen at the 1849 restored wheel at the Portland Basin Canal Warehouse.


title: Water wheel

text: Somewhat related were fish wheels used in the American Northwest and Alaska, which lifted salmon out of the flow of rivers.


title: Water wheel

text: Australia has a relatively dry climate, nonetheless, where suitable water resources were available, water wheels were constructed in 19th-century Australia. These were used to power sawmills, flour mills, and stamper batteries used to crush gold-bearing ore. Notable examples of water wheels used in gold recovery operations were the large Garfield water wheel near Chewton—one of at least seven water wheels in the surrounding area—and the two water wheels at Adelong Falls; some remnants exist at both sites. The mining area at Walhalla once had at least two water wheels, one of which was rolled to its site from Port Albert, on its rim using a novel trolley arrangement, taking nearly 90 days. A water wheel at Jindabyne, constructed in 1847, was the first machine used to extract energy—for flour milling—from the Snowy River.


title: Water wheel

text: Compact water wheels, known as Dethridge wheels, were used not as sources of power but to measure water flows to irrigated land.


title: Water wheel

text: Water wheels were used extensively in New Zealand. The well-preserved remains of the Young Australian mine's overshot water wheel exist near the ghost town of Carricktown, and those of the Phoenix flour mill's water wheel are near Oamaru.


title: Water wheel

text: The early history of the watermill in India is obscure. Ancient Indian texts dating back to the 4th century BC refer to the term "cakkavattaka" (turning wheel), which commentaries explain as "arahatta-ghati-yanta" (machine with wheel-pots attached). On this basis, Joseph Needham suggested that the machine was a noria. Terry S. Reynolds, however, argues that the "term used in Indian texts is ambiguous and does not clearly indicate a water-powered device." Thorkild Schiøler argued that it is "more likely that these passages refer to some type of tread- or hand-operated water-lifting device, instead of a water-powered water-lifting wheel."


title: Water wheel

text: According to Greek historical tradition, India received water-mills from the Roman Empire in the early 4th century AD when a certain Metrodoros introduced "water-mills and baths, unknown among them [the Brahmans] till then". Irrigation water for crops was provided by using water raising wheels, some driven by the force of the current in the river from which the water was being raised. This kind of water raising device was used in ancient India, predating, according to Pacey, its use in the later Roman Empire or China, even though the first literary, archaeological and pictorial evidence of the water wheel appeared in the Hellenistic world.


title: Water wheel

text: Around 1150, the astronomer Bhaskara Achārya observed water-raising wheels and imagined such a wheel lifting enough water to replenish the stream driving it, effectively, a perpetual motion machine. The construction of water works and aspects of water technology in India is described in Arabic and Persian works. During medieval times, the diffusion of Indian and Persian irrigation technologies gave rise to an advanced irrigation system which bought about economic growth and also helped in the growth of material culture.


title: Water wheel

text: After the spread of Islam engineers of the Islamic world continued the water technologies of the ancient Near East; as evident in the excavation of a canal in the Basra region with remains of a water wheel dating from the 7th century. Hama in Syria still preserves some of its large wheels, on the river Orontes, although they are no longer in use. One of the largest had a diameter of about and its rim was divided into 120 compartments. Another wheel that is still in operation is found at Murcia in Spain, La Nora, and although the original wheel has been replaced by a steel one, the Moorish system during al-Andalus is otherwise virtually unchanged. Some medieval Islamic compartmented water wheels could lift water as high as . Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi's "Kitab al-Hawi" in the 10th century described a noria in Iraq that could lift as much as , or . This is comparable to the output of modern norias in East Asia, which can lift up to , or .


title: Water wheel

text: The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in widespread use by the 9th century. A variety of industrial watermills were used in the Islamic world, including gristmills, hullers, sawmills, shipmills, stamp mills, steel mills, sugar mills, and tide mills. By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial watermills in operation, from al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia. Muslim and Christian engineers also used crankshafts and water turbines, gears in watermills and water-raising machines, and dams as a source of water, used to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines. Fulling mills and steel mills may have spread from Islamic Spain to Christian Spain in the 12th century. Industrial water mills were also employed in large factory complexes built in al-Andalus between the 11th and 13th centuries.


title: Water wheel

text: The engineers of the Islamic world developed several solutions to achieve the maximum output from a water wheel. One solution was to mount them to piers of bridges to take advantage of the increased flow. Another solution was the shipmill, a type of water mill powered by water wheels mounted on the sides of ships moored in midstream. This technique was employed along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in 10th-century Iraq, where large shipmills made of teak and iron could produce 10 tons of flour from corn every day for the granary in Baghdad. The flywheel mechanism, which is used to smooth out the delivery of power from a driving device to a driven machine, was invented by Ibn Bassal (fl. 1038–1075) of Al-Andalus; he pioneered the use of the flywheel in the saqiya (chain pump) and noria. The engineers Al-Jazari in the 13th century and Taqi al-Din in the 16th century described many inventive water-raising machines in their technological treatises. They also employed water wheels to power a variety of devices, including various water clocks and automata.


title: Water wheel

text: A recent development of the breastshot wheel is a hydraulic wheel which effectively incorporates automatic regulation systems. The Aqualienne is one example. It generates between 37 kW and 200 kW of electricity from a waterflow with a head of . It is designed to produce electricity at the sites of former watermills.


title: Water wheel

text: Overshot (and particularly backshot) wheels are the most efficient type; a backshot steel wheel can be more efficient (about 60%) than all but the most advanced and well-constructed turbines. In some situations an overshot wheel is preferable to a turbine.


title: Water wheel

text: The development of the hydraulic turbine wheels with their improved efficiency (>67%) opened up an alternative path for the installation of water wheels in existing mills, or redevelopment of abandoned mills.


title: Water wheel

text: The kinetic energy can be accounted for by converting it into an equivalent head, the velocity head, and adding it to the actual head. For still water the velocity head is zero, and to a good approximation it is negligible for slowly moving water, and can be ignored. The velocity in the tail race is not taken into account because for a perfect wheel the water would leave with zero energy which requires zero velocity. That is impossible, the water has to move away from the wheel, and represents an unavoidable cause of inefficiency.


title: Water wheel

text: The power is how fast that energy is delivered which is determined by the flow rate. It has been estimated that the ancient donkey or slave-powered quern of Rome made about one-half of a horsepower, the horizontal waterwheel creating slightly more than one-half of a horsepower, the undershot vertical waterwheel produced about three horsepower, and the medieval overshot waterwheel produced up to forty to sixty horsepower.


title: Water wheel

text: The pressure head formula_15 is the difference in height between the head race and tail race water surfaces. The velocity head formula_16 is calculated from the velocity of the water in the head race at the same place as the pressure head is measured from. The velocity (speed) formula_17 can be measured by the pooh sticks method, timing a floating object over a measured distance. The water at the surface moves faster than water nearer to the bottom and sides so a correction factor should be applied as in the formula below.


title: Water wheel

text: A parallel development is the hydraulic wheel/part reaction turbine that also incorporates a weir into the centre of the wheel but uses blades angled to the water flow.


title: Water wheel

text: The University of Southampton School of Civil Engineering and the Environment in the UK has investigated both types of Hydraulic wheel machines and has estimated their hydraulic efficiency and suggested improvements, i.e. The Rotary Hydraulic Pressure Machine. (Estimated maximum efficiency 85%).


title: Water wheel

text: These type of water wheels have high efficiency at part loads / variable flows and can operate at very low heads, < . Combined with direct drive Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Alternators and power electronics they offer a viable alternative for low head hydroelectric power generation.


title: Water wheel

text: Dotted notation. A dot above the quantity indicates that it is a rate. In other how much each second or how much per second. In this article q is a volume of water and formula_18 is a volume of water per second. q, as in quantity of water, is used to avoid confusion with v for velocity.


title: Stella Tennant

text: Stella Tennant (17 December 1970 – 22 December 2020) was a British model and fashion designer, who rose to fame in the early 1990s and had a career that spanned almost 30 years. From an unconventional aristocratic family, she worked with Helmut Lang, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and Gianni Versace. She worked for haute couture names like Valentino, and Dior by John Galliano and with photographers Steven Meisel, Bruce Weber, Paolo Roversi, and Tim Walker. Over the years she appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Hermès and Burberry.


title: Stella Tennant

text: Tennant won VH1/Vogue Model of the Year Award in 2001, Model of the Year at the 2011 British Fashion Awards and the Contribution to British Fashion award at the Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year 2016 awards; she was also inducted into the Scottish Fashion Awards Hall of Fame as Model of the Year in 2012. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, she was one of the British supermodels, with models Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, walking the runway in the closing ceremony.


title: Stella Tennant

text: In 2016, she co-designed a collection with Lady Isabel Cawdor for the Chanel owned London-based brand, Holland & Holland, she also ran Tennant & Son, a line of hand-knitted cashmeres and a luxury homewares company with her sister. For the last decade, she devoted most of her time looking after her four children and promoting sustainable causes.


title: Stella Tennant

text: She died suddenly on 22 December 2020 shortly after her 50th birthday. Her family announced the following month that she had died by suicide after being unwell for a prolonged period of time.


title: Stella Tennant

text: Stella Tennant was born on 17 December 1970 in London, England, the youngest of three children to the Hon. Tobias Tennant, son of the 2nd Baron Glenconner, and his wife, Lady Emma Cavendish.


title: Stella Tennant

text: She was the granddaughter of Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire and his wife Deborah Mitford, the youngest of the Mitford sisters. Stella was the great niece of the flamboyant socialite Stephen Tennant, and was directly descended from Bess of Hardwick, a notable figure of Elizabethan English society, and a fourth cousin, once removed, to Diana, Princess of Wales.


title: Stella Tennant

text: Raised on a 1,500-acre (6 km) sheep farm that her parents ran at Newcastleton, in the Scottish Borders, Tennant went to the local primary then attended St Leonards School in St Andrews followed by Marlborough College before completing a degree in sculpture at the Winchester School of Art.


title: Stella Tennant

text: In 1993, Tennant sent photographs of herself to a high fashion magazine, and a friend introduced her to fashion writer Plum Sykes (Victoria Rowland). She had recently had her nasal septum pierced, which was an unusual look for models at the time. Steven Meisel then used her on the cover of Italian "Vogue". Soon after, Karl Lagerfeld announced Tennant as the new face of Chanel, with an exclusive contract. He is reported to have thought her reminiscent of Coco Chanel. She also modelled frequently for other influential fashion photographers of the 1990s, including Mario Testino, David Sims and Mark Borthwick. Priya Elan, writing in her "Guardian" obituary, credits her, together with Kate Moss and Erin O'Connor, with having "introduced an era of androgyny on the catwalk".


title: Stella Tennant

text: Tennant appeared on fashion catwalks for Shiatzy Chen, Bill Blass, Dior and Chanel. She was a muse of the designers Karl Lagerfeld, Gianni Versace, Alexander McQueen, Nicolas Ghesquière, Riccardo Tisci and Victoria Beckham. She also appeared in numerous other advertising campaigns, including Calvin Klein, Hermès, and in 2002 in an influential campaign for Burberry. In 2010, she starred in L.K.Bennett's Spring Summer campaign photographed by Tim Walker. During the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, Tennant, along with Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, was one of the British models wearing fashions created by British designers specifically for the event.


title: Stella Tennant

text: In 2016, Tennant and Lady Isabella Cawdor premiered a new ready to wear collection they designed for the gunmaker and clothing retailer Holland & Holland. She continued to sculpt, and with her sister, a gilder, operated a luxury homewares company, Tennant & Tennant.


title: Stella Tennant

text: Tennant married French photographer and osteopath David Lasnet in the village of Oxnam, Roxburghshire, on 22 June 1999. They had four children together. The family lived near Duns, in the small village of Edrom in Berwickshire, also in the Scottish Borders. In August 2020, Tennant and Lasnet announced they had separated.


title: Stella Tennant

text: Tennant died on 22 December 2020, aged 50, in Duns, Scottish Borders, Scotland. According to her family, she died by suicide after struggling with her mental health.


title: Stella Tennant

text: In 2009, Tennant worked with green lifestyle organisation Global Cool to promote using less energy at home. She made a video and became one of the faces of its campaign titled Turn Up the Style, Turn Down the Heat. She also supported initiatives aimed at reducing fashion's effect on the environment, including Oxfam's "Second Hand September".


title: Stella Tennant

text: In August 2014, Tennant was one of 200 celebrities who signed a letter to "The Guardian" newspaper expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.


title: Stella Tennant

text: In June 2012, Tennant was inducted as Model of the Year into the Scottish Fashion Awards Hall of Fame at its annual awards event.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: In linear algebra, the characteristic polynomial of a square matrix is a polynomial which is invariant under matrix similarity and has the eigenvalues as roots. It has the determinant and the trace of the matrix among its coefficients. The characteristic polynomial of an endomorphism of a finite-dimensional vector space is the characteristic polynomial of the matrix of that endomorphism over any base (that is, the characteristic polynomial does not depend on the choice of a basis). The characteristic equation, also known as the determinantal equation, is the equation obtained by equating the characteristic polynomial to zero.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: In spectral graph theory, the characteristic polynomial of a graph is the characteristic polynomial of its adjacency matrix.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: In linear algebra, eigenvalues and eigenvectors play a fundamental role, since, given a linear transformation, an eigenvector is a vector whose direction is not changed by the transformation, and the corresponding eigenvalue is the measure of the resulting change of magnitude of the vector.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: More precisely, if the transformation is represented by a square matrix formula_1 an eigenvector formula_2 and the corresponding eigenvalue formula_3 must satisfy the equation


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: (although the zero vector satisfies this equation for every formula_8 it is not considered as an eigenvector).


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: which is a monic polynomial in of degree if is a matrix. This polynomial is the "characteristic polynomial" of .


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: Consider an formula_12 matrix formula_13 The characteristic polynomial of formula_1 denoted by formula_15 is the polynomial defined by


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: Some authors define the characteristic polynomial to be formula_19 That polynomial differs from the one defined here by a sign formula_20 so it makes no difference for properties like having as roots the eigenvalues of formula_21; however the definition above always gives a monic polynomial, whereas the alternative definition is monic only when formula_22 is even.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: The characteristic polynomial formula_29 of a formula_12 matrix is monic (its leading coefficient is formula_31) and its degree is formula_32 The most important fact about the characteristic polynomial was already mentioned in the motivational paragraph: the eigenvalues of formula_21 are precisely the roots of formula_29 (this also holds for the minimal polynomial of formula_1 but its degree may be less than formula_22). All coefficients of the characteristic polynomial are polynomial expressions in the entries of the matrix. In particular its constant coefficient formula_37 is formula_38 the coefficient of formula_39 is one, and the coefficient of formula_40 is , where is the trace of formula_13 (The signs given here correspond to the formal definition given in the previous section; for the alternative definition these would instead be formula_42 and respectively.)


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: Using the language of exterior algebra, the characteristic polynomial of an formula_12 matrix formula_21 may be expressed as


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: where formula_49 is the trace of the formula_50th exterior power of formula_1 which has dimension formula_52 This trace may be computed as the sum of all principal minors of formula_21 of size formula_54 The recursive Faddeev–LeVerrier algorithm computes these coefficients more efficiently.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: When the characteristic of the field of the coefficients is formula_55 each such trace may alternatively be computed as a single determinant, that of the formula_56 matrix,


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: The Cayley–Hamilton theorem states that replacing formula_58 by formula_21 in the characteristic polynomial (interpreting the resulting powers as matrix powers, and the constant term formula_60 as formula_60 times the identity matrix) yields the zero matrix. Informally speaking, every matrix satisfies its own characteristic equation. This statement is equivalent to saying that the minimal polynomial of formula_21 divides the characteristic polynomial of formula_13


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: Two similar matrices have the same characteristic polynomial. The converse however is not true in general: two matrices with the same characteristic polynomial need not be similar.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: The matrix formula_21 and its transpose have the same characteristic polynomial. formula_21 is similar to a triangular matrix if and only if its characteristic polynomial can be completely factored into linear factors over formula_66 (the same is true with the minimal polynomial instead of the characteristic polynomial). In this case formula_21 is similar to a matrix in Jordan normal form.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: If formula_21 and formula_69 are two square formula_12 matrices then characteristic polynomials of formula_71 and formula_72 coincide:


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: When formula_21 is non-singular this result follows from the fact that formula_71 and formula_72 are similar:


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: For the case where both formula_21 and formula_69 are singular, the desired identity is an equality between polynomials in formula_58 and the coefficients of the matrices. Thus, to prove this equality, it suffices to prove that it is verified on a non-empty open subset (for the usual topology, or, more generally, for the Zariski topology) of the space of all the coefficients. As the non-singular matrices form such an open subset of the space of all matrices, this proves the result.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: More generally, if formula_21 is a matrix of order formula_82 and formula_69 is a matrix of order formula_84 then formula_71 is formula_86 and formula_72 is formula_12 matrix, and one has


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: To prove this, one may suppose formula_90 by exchanging, if needed, formula_21 and formula_92 Then, by bordering formula_21 on the bottom by formula_94 rows of zeros, and formula_69 on the right, by, formula_94 columns of zeros, one gets two formula_12 matrices formula_98 and formula_99 such that formula_100 and formula_101 is equal to formula_71 bordered by formula_94 rows and columns of zeros. The result follows from the case of square matrices, by comparing the characteristic polynomials of formula_101 and formula_105


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: If formula_3 is an eigenvalue of a square matrix formula_21 with eigenvector formula_2 then formula_109 is an eigenvalue of formula_110 because


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: The multiplicities can be shown to agree as well, and this generalizes to any polynomial in place of formula_112:


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: That is, the algebraic multiplicity of formula_3 in formula_114 equals the sum of algebraic multiplicities of formula_115 in formula_21 over formula_115 such that formula_118


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: However, the assumption that formula_29 has a factorization into linear factors is not always true, unless the matrix is over an algebraically closed field such as the complex numbers.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: The term secular function has been used for what is now called "characteristic polynomial" (in some literature the term secular function is still used). The term comes from the fact that the characteristic polynomial was used to calculate secular perturbations (on a time scale of a century, that is, slow compared to annual motion) of planetary orbits, according to Lagrange's theory of oscillations.


title: Characteristic polynomial

text: The above definition of the characteristic polynomial of a matrix formula_125 with entries in a field formula_126 generalizes without any changes to the case when formula_126 is just a commutative ring. defines the characteristic polynomial for elements of an arbitrary finite-dimensional (associative, but not necessarily commutative) algebra over a field formula_126 and proves the standard properties of the characteristic polynomial in this generality.


title: UCF Knights football

text: The UCF Knights football team represents the University of Central Florida (UCF) in the sport of American football. The Knights compete in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the American Athletic Conference (The American). Their head coach is Gus Malzahn. The Knights play their home games at the 44,206-seat FBC Mortgage Stadium, which is located on UCF's main campus in Orlando, Florida, United States.


title: UCF Knights football

text: UCF first fielded a varsity football team in the fall of 1979 as an NCAA Division III program and subsequently completed their ascension to Division I–A, now known as the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), in 1996, becoming the first program in NCAA history to have played in all four divisions of football (and the only one until James Madison joined FBS in 2022). As a Division I–AA program, the Knights made the 1990 and 1993 playoffs, and were picked as the preseason No. 1 team to start the 1994 season.


title: UCF Knights football

text: As of the end of the 2021 season, UCF has compiled 278 victories, six division titles, six conference championships, and an undefeated season in 2017. The Knights claim a national championship for the 2017 season despite being excluded from that season's College Football Playoff, as they were chosen as the #1 team by the Colley Matrix.


title: UCF Knights football

text: The Knights have made 13 postseason appearances since joining the FBS, including winning two New Year's Six bowls: the 2014 Fiesta Bowl and the 2018 Peach Bowl. The program has produced one Consensus All-American, Kevin Smith in 2007, and three Heisman Trophy candidates, Daunte Culpepper (QB) in 1998, Kevin Smith (RB) in 2007, and McKenzie Milton (QB) in 2017 and 2018. UCF has produced a long line of accomplished NFL players, including Blake Bortles, A. J. Bouye, Gabe Davis, Shaquill Griffin, Brandon Marshall, Latavius Murray, Matt Prater, Asante Samuel, and Josh Sitton. UCF has had four first-round picks in the NFL Draft, players in 15 Super Bowls, and seven pro-bowlers. The Knights' main rivals are the South Florida Bulls.


title: UCF Knights football

text: The UCF football program can be traced back to a speech given by the university's second president, Dr. Trevor Colbourn, in January 1979. Colbourn believed that a successful athletics program would bring the university greater renown, and tasked Dr. Jack O'Leary with the job of creating a new football program at the school. In addition, Colbourn changed the name of the school to the University of Central Florida (prior to this, the college was known as Florida Technological University), to express the university's expanded academic scope.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Beginning at the Division III level, O'Leary, then the university's athletic director, held a meeting of prospective players, who paid $14 per night to stay in the dorms and brought their own uniforms to the tryouts, in March 1979. This would be the first football tryouts for prospective players, and would serve as the first that many students would hear about the new athletic program. O'Leary had previously served as an assistant coach at Alabama under Paul "Bear" Bryant. He would spearhead the effort to raise more than $40,000 to start the program, and would complete a deal for the team to play in the Tangerine Bowl. Without a budget to hire a staff, O'Leary reached out to six UCF graduate students as volunteer assistants. From there, O'Leary was able to lure Don Jonas, a former NFL quarterback and Orlando dignitary, to become UCF's first head football coach on a voluntary basis.


title: UCF Knights football

text: One day during a practice, O'Leary pulled the team aside and unveiled the template for uniforms of "The Fighting Knights". He would reveal a template that would follow the team into the 21st century: black jerseys, gold pants and gold helmets. Less than one year after Colbourn had envisioned a football program for the university, UCF played its first game on September 22, 1979, against St. Leo University. The Knights would prove victorious with a 21–0 shutout, and less than a week later, the Knights would win their first home game by defeating Ft. Benning, 7–6. Jonas led the Knights to a 6–2 inaugural season, behind an average attendance of 11,240, including a Division III record crowd of 14,138. Following the season, in March 1980, Jonas was offered the Knights head coaching job as a full-time position. After leading the team to a 4–4–1 and 4–6 record in 1980 and 1981 respectively, Jonas would leave the Knights following the 1981 season. During the 1980 season, the Knights earned the only tie in program history, an 11–all game against Miles, and Tim Kiggins became the first Knight to sign a professional contract. After his departure, Jonas remained involved in the program, including doing radio broadcasts of UCF football games and a radio sports talk show. Jonas led the Knights to a 14–12–1 (.518) record in three seasons.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Following the departure of Don Jonas, Sam Weir, who was the head coach at Lake Howell High School, became UCF's new head coach and led the Knights in their move up to Division II in 1982. Another change to the university's athletic programs in 1982 was the departure of O'Leary as athletic director, and the hiring of Bill Peterson, who was the Florida State head coach from 1960 to 1970. In their first season playing Division II ball, the Knights went 0–10, and Weir decided not to return for the 1983 season. One bright spot of the season was that Mike Carter became the first Knight to sign with an NFL team, the Denver Broncos.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Lou Saban replaced Weir as the Knights head coach in 1983. Saban had previously coached at Miami, Army, Northwestern, and in the AFL and NFL with the Buffalo Bills and Boston Patriots, to name just a few. In UCF's first Black and Gold Spring game held in 1983, the defense won 14–6. The Knights finished the 1983 season 5–6, including the team's first win over a Division I–AA opponent. Starting the 1984 season filled with optimism, the Knights were shaken by a 1–6 start. Following the disappointing beginning to the season, Saban stepped away from the program, and was replaced on an interim basis by assistant coach Jerry Anderson. Saban had a 6–12 (.333) record during his tenure as the Knights head coach. Anderson finished out the year with the team in an interim position, with a 1–3 (.250) record. UCF finished the season with a 2–9 mark. In the course of the three seasons following Jonas' departure, the Knights went through three head coaches, and amassed a 7–25 record.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Reeling after a disappointing string of seasons, there were discussions within the community about the possibility of dismantling the program, and Peterson announced his retirement as the university's athletic director. In addition, due to financial troubles, the team had to postpone plans to move up to Division I-AA. Without a head coach or athletic director, President Colbourn hired Florida State assistant coach Gene McDowell to fill both positions. McDowell took the helm in 1985, and hired his eventual successor and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mike Kruczek as his offensive coordinator. The Knights would finish with a 4–7 mark in McDowell's first year, including a 21–42 loss to UCF's first-ever Division I–A opponent, Louisville. Due to financial hardships, McDowell waived half of his annual salary, and FSU head coach Bobby Bowden donated uniforms and cleats to the program.


title: UCF Knights football

text: McDowell would the lead the Knights to their first winning season since 1979, with a 6–5 record in 1986. Also that year, Ted Wilson became the first UCF player to be selected in the 1987 NFL Draft, being picked by the Washington Redskins in the 10th round. Following an 8–3 regular season record in 1987, the Knights earned their first trip to the Division II playoffs, where they earned a 1–1 record. After starting the 1988 season with five straight wins, UCF would be ranked No. 2 in Division II. During a game against the defending D-II national champions Troy at the Citrus Bowl, UCF fans were so loud at one point that the Trojans quarterback Bob Godsey couldn't call plays. Godsey complained to the referee about the crowd noise, but instead of helping Troy, the referee called a delay of game penalty on the Trojans. The "Noise Penalty" game is legendary at UCF, and the win over Troy thrust the Knights into the position as the No. 1 ranked team in D-II. Between 1986 and 1990 under the leadership of McDowell, the Knights held a 24–6 record at the Citrus Bowl.


title: UCF Knights football

text: During McDowell's tenure, the program moved up to Division I-AA in 1990. In their first year in the division, the Knights earned a 10–4 record, a program best, and a trip to the I–AA playoffs. UCF would make it to the semifinals, and became the first school in history to qualify for the I–AA playoffs in its first season of eligibility. The Knights would finish the 1991 and 1992 with winning seasons as well. In 1992, Dr. John Hitt, UCF's fourth president, announced that the program would make the move to Division I-A in 1996, and he hired Steve Sloan as the university's new athletic director. Earning their eighth winning season in 1993, the Knights would again make the playoffs. During the season, the team won their first game over a Division I–A team, a 38–16 victory at Louisiana Tech. After another impressive season, UCF was selected as the preseason No. 1 to start the 1994 season. The 1994 season would prove disappointing however, as the Knights would finish the season ranked No. 20 with a 7–4 record. During the team's final season in Division I-AA, the Knights were reinvigorated by freshman sensation Daunte Culpepper. The quarterback would lead the Knights to a 6–5 record, and their tenth straight winning season in 1995.


title: UCF Knights football

text: On September 1, 1996, UCF officially made its foray into Division I-A. At that time, the Knights became the first football program to play in four different NCAA divisions (III, II, I-AA and I-A). In their first two seasons in Division I-A, the Knights posted identical 5–6 records behind Culpepper. In 1997, assistant coach Alan Gooch was named the national assistant coach of the year, due to his work with deaf running back Dwight Collins. In the wake of a federal fraud scandal revolving around improper cellular phone benefits and use, McDowell resigned as head coach on January 20, 1998. Over his 13-year tenure at UCF, McDowell earned an 86–61 (.585) record.


title: UCF Knights football

text: After the abrupt departure of Gene McDowell, offensive coordinator Mike Kruczek was named UCF's new head coach on an interim basis. He would receive the position permanently later in 1998. Daunte Culpepper led UCF to its best season ever with a 9–2 record in 1998 (with losses only coming to Purdue and Auburn). Culpepper finished 6th in the Heisman Trophy voting and set the NCAA record for completion percentage that year (73.4%). Following the season, Culpepper was drafted with the 11th pick in the first round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings, marking the highest ever draft pick of a UCF player.


title: UCF Knights football

text: The Knights proved to be a scary team on the road against heavily favored opponents, with close losses including a 10–6 loss at Auburn in 1998, a at Georgia in 1999, and a 21–17 loss at Georgia Tech in 2000. Kruczek's biggest victory would come in 2000 against Alabama at Bryant–Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, when the Knights won 40–38 on a last-second field goal by Javier Beorlegui. After finishing 9–2 in 1998, UCF received a tentative verbal agreement to play in the inaugural Oahu Bowl. That arrangement, however, was contingent on UCLA finishing the season undefeated; the Oahu Bowl was otherwise committed to taking a team from the Pac-10. On the final day of the regular season, Miami upset UCLA, setting off a chain reaction that sent Washington to the Oahu Bowl and left the Knights out in the cold.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Kruczek guided the team as a Division I-A independent until 2002. After six difficult years as an independent, UCF played its much-anticipated first season as a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference in 2002. They finished runner-up in the East division with a 6–2 conference record. They finished the season 7–5 overall, completing their 14th winning season in the past 17 years. The excitement, however, would be short-lived. After signing a three-year contract extension at the beginning of the 2003 season, Kruczek was fired following a 3–7 start. Kruczek was replaced on an interim basis by assistant coach and former player Alan Gooch who finished out the dismal 3–9 season with losses to Mid-American Conference rivals Marshall and Miami (OH). The Marshall game marked UCF's first nationally televised home football game as it was aired on ESPN2. Kruczek ended his six-year stewardship of UCF with a 36–30 (.545) record.


title: UCF Knights football

text: An increased travel burden, lack of competitiveness, and lack of natural rivals within the midwest-based MAC saw UCF begin to explore the possibility of a different conference affiliation after just a couple years in the conference. Furthermore, the UCF athletic department was interested in an all-sports conference membership rather than a football-only affiliation. In 2003, UCF was invited as an all-sports member of Conference USA beginning with the 2005 season.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Following the disappointing 2003 season, Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator and former Georgia Tech head coach George O'Leary was named UCF's head coach in 2004. This was a controversial and bold hire because O'Leary had previously left Georgia Tech after the 2001 season and been named head coach at Notre Dame, but resigned in disgrace five days into his tenure after inconsistencies were found on his resume. The difficult coaching transition for 2004, the Knights' final year in the Mid-American Conference, saw the team hit rock bottom, going 0–11.


title: UCF Knights football

text: In 2005, UCF started their first season as a member of Conference USA. Not expected to improve much over 2004, they surprisingly won their first conference game against Marshall, 23–13, ending the school's 17-game losing streak, then the nation's longest such streak. UCF fans celebrated by storming the field and tearing down the goal posts. Students came back to the campus and celebrated further by jumping into UCF's Reflection Pond (a practice normally reserved for Spirit Splash). UCF then went on to win eight out of the remaining nine games on their schedule, finishing 7–1 in C-USA games and 8–5 overall, winning the East Division and hosting the first ever C-USA Championship game, which they lost, 44–27, to Tulsa. Shortly thereafter, UCF was invited to play in their first ever bowl game, the Hawaii Bowl, losing to Nevada 49–48 in overtime due to a missed PAT that would have tied the game. In 2005 O'Leary was chosen by "SportsIllustrated.com" for the coach of the year award and received votes for the larger Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. In May 2006, UCF extended O'Leary's contract for 10 years and increased his pay to $1 million plus incentives per year after he engineered the fourth-best single-season turnaround in college football history.


title: UCF Knights football

text: After an anemic 2006 which saw the Golden Knights go a mere 4–8, the team rebranded in 2007 in preparation for its move to its new on-campus venue, Bright House Networks Stadium (later known as Spectrum Stadium and now as FBC Mortgage Stadium). They dropped the "Golden" from their name, becoming the "UCF Knights". Fortunes seemed to have changed as the Knights moved into new facilities. After defeating a BCS AQ conference school for just the second time ever, NC State by a score of 25–23, they inaugurated their new stadium by hosting and losing to national power No. 6 Texas by a score of 35–32. The Knights lost to archrival South Florida by a score of 64–12 in Tampa, but went on to have a 10–4 overall record and won the C-USA East again, hosting the Championship game against Tulsa once more. UCF defeated Tulsa in a near-reversal of the 2005 Conference USA Championship Game 44–25, thereby gaining UCF's first ever Conference Championship title and a berth in the 2007 Liberty Bowl. Following UCF's victory, the Knights received 35 votes in the AP Poll, but did not reach the top 25, ranking 27th. The Knights lost the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee by a score of 10–3 to Mississippi State. The Knights went on to finish the year with its first 10 win season in the FBS. In 2007, Kevin Smith set an NCAA record with 450 rushing attempts and rushed for 2,567 yards, placing him 2nd on the NCAA's all-time single season rushing list behind only Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders. Despite this, he was not selected even as a finalist for the Doak Walker Award. He also was the only running back in the 2007 season to rush for more than 100 yards against the Texas Longhorns. He was a fan favorite, especially with student section at Bright House Networks Stadium. Smith originally stated that he would return for his senior season at UCF, however, he later changed his mind, announcing on January 6, 2008, that he would declare for the 2008 NFL Draft. He was selected with the first pick in the third round by the Detroit Lions.


title: UCF Knights football

text: On March 18, 2008, running back Ereck Plancher collapsed shortly after a conditioning drill, and was then transported to a nearby hospital where he died approximately one hour later. ESPN's "Outside The Lines" program on November 2, 2008, interviewed players who were at the training session at which Plancher became ill, and which after he died, and stated that the session was longer and far more rigorous than O'Leary and other UCF Athletics officials have admitted to publicly. They also alleged that O'Leary and other coaches had initially warned players off from providing assistance to Plancher when he became visibly distressed. After a 14-day trial in 2011, a jury found the UCF Athletics Association guilty of negligence in the death of Plancher. The jury awarded each of his parents $5 million. Upon appeal, however, the Florida Supreme Court sided with the University of Central Florida, ruling that sickle-cell disease caused the death and the university didn't owe any money to Plancher's family.


title: UCF Knights football

text: After a lackluster 4–8 season in 2008, UCF bounced back with an 8–5 record in 2009, including winning their last six straight C-USA games. Among those wins was their first victory over a nationally ranked team, beating then No. 12 Houston on November 14 by a score of 37–32 at Spectrum Stadium. UCF finished with a 45–24 loss to Rutgers in the St. Petersburg Bowl, their third bowl appearance in five years. Entering the 2010 season, with the recruitment of Jeffrey Godfrey and return of key seniors, including Bruce Miller, there were high hopes for the Knights. After winning 5 straight games, and posting an 11-game conference winning streak, the Knights were ranked for the first time in school history following their nationally televised 40–33 victory over Houston on the road. For the polls released on November 7, 2010, UCF was ranked in all three major college polls. The Knights were ranked 25 in the AP Poll, 23 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and 25 in the Harris Poll. In their first game as a nationally ranked squad, the Knights fell 31–21 to Southern Miss in Orlando. UCF would bounce back and defeat Tulane by a score of 61–14 and Memphis by a score of 37–17. With the wins, the Knights secured the C-USA Eastern Division championship and reentered the polls.


title: UCF Knights football

text: The Knights would go on to win the 2010 Conference USA championship game, defeating SMU 17–7. Following the win, UCF entered the BCS standings for the first time in program history, ranking No. 25. The Knights ended the 2010 season with a 10–6 victory over Georgia in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, marking the team's first-ever bowl victory. UCF would end the season ranked 20th in the final coaches poll and 21st in the final AP rankings.


title: UCF Knights football

text: 2011 proved to be a disappointing season as UCF finished with a 5–7 record and were not bowl eligible for the first time since 2008. The season included out-of-conference losses to FIU and BYU, as well as conference losses to then-winless UAB, a 1-point loss to No. 23 Southern Miss and the continuation of the Knights woes at quarterback, as Jeff Godfrey and Blake Bortles battled for playing time. Following the 2011 season, Jeff Godfrey planned on transferring, though he later decided to return to the Knights as a wide receiver.


title: UCF Knights football

text: It was announced on December 7, 2011, that UCF would join the Big East Conference, but was rebranded the American Athletic Conference soon thereafter, in all sports beginning in 2013.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Following an investigation into recruiting violations in the men's basketball and football programs in 2011, on July 31, 2012, the NCAA announced sanctions – in addition to penalties UCF had previously self-imposed. The NCAA imposed a one-year postseason football ban. The penalty was in addition to a $50,000 fine, adding two years to UCF's previously proposed three years' probation, reduction of football scholarships, and tighter limits of football recruiting visiting days.


title: UCF Knights football

text: In 2012, the Knights finished 10–4 and won their fourth C-USA East Division championship, though they would fall 33–27 in overtime to Tulsa in the league title game. UCF would play in the 2012 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl and win 38–17 over Ball State as quarterback Blake Bortles would be named the game's MVP after throwing four touchdown passes.


title: UCF Knights football

text: On April 19, 2013, UCF won its appeal with the NCAA and was eligible for postseason play in 2013. The appeal would prove crucial, as in 2013, O'Leary led the Knights to their first twelve-win season (12–1), first perfect conference record (8–0), first win against a Big Ten opponent (Penn State), first win against a Top–10 team (No. 8 Louisville), third conference title, and the program's first appearance and victory in a BCS bowl game, defeating No. 6 Baylor 52–42 in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl. The game was one of the biggest upsets of the BCS era. On January 7, 2014, UCF was ranked No. 10 in the season's final AP Poll, the highest ranking in school history. Blake Bortles would be drafted in the first round at third overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2014 NFL Draft.


title: UCF Knights football

text: The Knights finished 9–4 in 2014. The Knights kicked off the season in Dublin, Ireland against Penn State, losing to the Nittany Lions by a score of 26–24. O'Leary's squad dropped to 0–2 after losing to No. 20 Missouri by a score of 38–10. Central Florida then won its next five; defeating FCS foe Bethune–Cookman, Houston, BYU in overtime, Tulane and Temple. The Knights' five-game winning streak was snapped with a 37–29 loss to UConn on November 1. UCF won its next four to close the regular season; topping Tulsa, SMU, archrival South Florida and East Carolina, where a last-second Hail Mary pass earned UCF a shared conference title. O'Leary's Knights accepted a bid to the 2014 St. Petersburg Bowl, a game they lost to NC State by a score of 34–27.


title: UCF Knights football

text: The 2015 season, which began with high hopes, would be a disaster. After dropping their first three, UCF lost to South Carolina by a score of 31–14 on September 26 to fall to 0–4. Following UCF's 59–10 loss to Houston on homecoming, dropping the Knights to an 0–8 record to start the 2015 season, O'Leary resigned as head football coach. Quarterbacks coach Danny Barrett was named interim head coach and led the team for the remaining four games of the season. UCF finished the 2015 season at a winless 0–12, its third such campaign in program history.


title: UCF Knights football

text: After an extensive coaching search, Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost was named as UCF's tenth head coach on December 1, 2015. Serving under head coach Mark Helfrich, Frost had overseen one of college football's quickest and most explosive offenses at Oregon, won multiple Pac-12 conference championships, coached quarterback Marcus Mariota into a Heisman Trophy winner in 2014 and sent many players into the National Football League. All this after a successful collegiate playing career at quarterback for Stanford and Nebraska in the 1990s and in the National Football League as a safety for five years.


title: UCF Knights football

text: In 2016, Frost and his explosive, up-tempo offense led the Knights to a 6–7 record. UCF began the Frost era with a 38–0 shutout win over FCS opponent South Carolina State. After losing its next two to Big Ten opponents No. 5 Michigan in a rout and Maryland in double overtime, the Knights defeated FIU and East Carolina. Central Florida then suffered a close 26–25 loss due to a late touchdown pass to Temple on October 15. The Knights rebounded the following week to defeat UConn by a score of 24–16. UCF suffered a defeat on October 29 to Houston, then responded with wins over Tulane and Cincinnati, gaining bowl eligibility. Frost's squad concluded the regular season with losses to Tulsa and archrival South Florida. The Knights lost to Arkansas State in the 2016 Cure Bowl by a score of 31–13. After the 2016 season, Oregon fired Mark Helfrich. Amidst rumors that he might be interested in the Ducks opening, Frost announced he was not interested in Oregon and that he would return as UCF's head coach in 2017. Ironically, the position eventually went to UCF's rival coach, South Florida head coach Willie Taggart.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Surprising even himself, Frost and his team went on to an undefeated regular season in 2017, defeating FIU, Maryland, Memphis, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Navy, Austin Peay, SMU, UConn, Temple, and rival USF in a War on I-4 shootout. The Knights were supposed to play Memphis on September 9, but due to Hurricane Irma battering the state of Florida that weekend, the game, which originally had been moved up one day to September 8, was rescheduled for September 30. In order to reschedule the American Athletic Conference game, UCF canceled their scheduled game with Georgia Tech, leaving the team with only 11 regular season games as opposed to the usual 12. The breakout season for Frost and his team made him one of the most sought-after coaches on the market, drawing interest from Florida and his alma mater, Nebraska. Frost passed on the Florida job but avoided questions about returning to Nebraska. In the 2017 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game, Frost's team went on to play Memphis for the second time and won the title in a 62–55 double overtime thriller, securing UCF's third conference championship win.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Just hours after winning the AAC, sources confirmed that Frost would be taking a seven-year, $35 million deal to become Nebraska's new head coach. Frost and his staff returned for one last game in the 2018 Peach Bowl. The No. 12 ranked Knights faced No. 7 ranked Auburn, and defeated them 34–27 to close out their undefeated season with a 13–0 record. After the win, UCF athletic director Danny White claimed a national championship for the team, while the Colley Matrix also ranked UCF as the number-one team of the season on its final ranking. The team celebrated with a parade at Walt Disney World. Additionally, the team's coaches were paid bonuses for their performance, the school hung a national championship banner in Spectrum Stadium and gave out national champion rings. The claim sparked considerable controversy and debate over whether the College Football Playoff should be expanded.


title: UCF Knights football

text: On December 5, 2017, Missouri offensive coordinator Josh Heupel was named UCF's head football coach. Heupel arrived in Orlando with some impressive credentials, overseeing explosive offenses during his time as offensive coordinator at Missouri and his alma mater Oklahoma. UCF signed Heupel to a five-year contract worth a fully guaranteed $1.7 million in annual base salary.


title: UCF Knights football

text: In Heupel's first season, UCF rode its high-powered offense to start the season 12–0 and extend their winning streak to a school-record 25 games. In their rivalry game at South Florida, star quarterback McKenzie Milton suffered a gruesome knee injury and was taken straight to the hospital, eventually requiring multiple surgeries to save the leg. Milton was out for the season, and never played another down for UCF, transferring to Florida State after the 2020 season and playing his final season of eligibility there in 2021. Back-up quarterback Darriel Mack Jr. took over and guided the Knights to win that game as well as the Conference championship game a week later against Memphis. The undefeated and 8th-ranked Knights were once again not selected for the College Football Playoff. Without Milton, the Knights lost a close game against LSU in the Fiesta Bowl.


title: UCF Knights football

text: In Heupel's second season, UCF lost a regular season game for the first time since 2016, at Pitt. UCF also fell on the road to Cincinnati, whose fans promptly rushed the field to celebrate. UCF dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time in two years. UCF finished the season defeating Marshall in the Gasparilla Bowl.


title: UCF Knights football

text: In Heupel's third and final season, UCF started the season ranked, but lost three games in the regular season, including their first home loss since 2016 (snapping a 21-game home winning streak). They posted a winning record for the fourth straight year, but were blown out by BYU in the Boca Raton Bowl.


title: UCF Knights football

text: On January 27, 2021, Heupel was hired to coach the Tennessee Volunteers by Tennessee's new athletic director, the same Danny White who had hired Heupel at UCF.


title: UCF Knights football

text: On February 15, 2021, new athletic director Terry Mohajir named Gus Malzahn as UCF's new head coach. The two had previously worked together at Arkansas State, and Malzahn made a name for himself with a 68–35 record at Auburn from 2013 to 2020, including three wins over Alabama in the Iron Bowl rivalry, an appearance in the 2014 BCS National Championship Game, and two New Year's Six bowl appearances. His Auburn team lost to UCF in one of those New Year's Six appearances, the 2018 Peach Bowl.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Malzahn won in his debut with the Knights, defeating Boise State, 36–31. Following several critical injuries, including to starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Malzahn's first season ended with a 9–4 record (3rd in AAC) including a win against Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl.


title: UCF Knights football

text: In 2022, UCF's final year in The American, Malzahn guided the Knights to a 9–3 regular season record (2nd in AAC). They clinched a spot in the AAC Championship Game, facing Tulane.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Under head coach Scott Frost, the 2017 Knights completed a 13–0 perfect season. The Knights were not selected for the College Football Playoff, instead completing their season with a New Years Day win in the 2018 Peach Bowl over the No. 7 Auburn Tigers. On January 7, 2018, the day before the CFP championship game, UCF athletic director Danny White stated that UCF would claim the 2017 national championship, hang a national title banner, and hold a national championship parade and celebration.


title: UCF Knights football

text: On January 9, 2018, the Colley Matrix, an algorithm formerly used as part of the BCS computer rankings, ranked UCF No. 1. All other NCAA-designated major selectors named Alabama as their 2017 national champion. The NCAA's official record book lists UCF under the "Final National Poll Leaders" section, but the NCAA reserves the term "National Champions" for teams selected as champions by one of the four Consensus Polls (AP, USA Today/Coaches, National Football Foundation, and Football Writers Association of America) or winners of the BCS or College Football Playoff; and places a disclaimer next to UCF's name which says that since 2014, "the College Football Playoff [has been] used to determine national champions in FBS". While it is not historically uncommon for certain polls to pick a champion other than the BCS or CFP winner, UCF is the only team which actively claims a national championship that was not awarded by the BCS/CFP or the AP Poll since the beginning of the BCS era.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Under George O'Leary's leadership, the Knights won four C-USA Eastern Division Championships (2005, 2007, 2010, 2012), and two Conference USA Championships (2007, 2010). O'Leary also led the Knights to The American conference championship in their first year in the league (2013), earning the conference's automatic berth to a BCS bowl game. In 2014, the Knights clinched back-to-back conference championships. The Knights won The American conference championship in 2017 under head coach Scott Frost, and again in 2018 under head coach Josh Heupel for the program's second set of back-to-back conference titles.


title: UCF Knights football

text: UCF won four division crowns and subsequently made four appearances in the Conference USA Championship Game, more than any other C-USA school, with the last being in 2012. Three of the four appearances were against Tulsa of the Western Division. The Knights went on to win two of the four C-USA Championship Games in which they appeared.


title: UCF Knights football

text: After moving to the AAC, UCF won two more division titles. In 2022, after the AAC had eliminated divisions, UCF qualified for a third AAC Conference Championship Game appearance by finishing as the #2 seed.


title: UCF Knights football

text: UCF has played in 13 bowl games and has compiled a 6–7 record in those games. Since elevating to Division I FBS, UCF has been bowl-eligible for 16 of 25 seasons, and received their first bowl invitation in 2005. The Knights nearly earned a bowl berth in 1998, when Daunte Culpepper led the team to a 9–2 record. UCF has been ranked going into their bowl game four times, being ranked No. 24 in 2010 (Liberty), No. 15 in 2013 (Fiesta), No. 10 in 2017 (Peach), and No. 7 in 2018 (Fiesta). In 2019, though they had slipped out of the top 25 prior to the game, the Knights won their bowl game (Gasparilla) and placed No. 24 in the final rankings. In 2020, they were ranked No. 21 in the preseason poll and in week 4 they were ranked the highest at No. 11 but lost to unranked Tulsa and they fell out of the rankings; in week 16 they were unranked but they received votes, but after a loss in their bowl game (Boca Raton), they didn't receive any votes and were unranked in the final rankings.


title: UCF Knights football

text: UCF has had 12 head coaches since organized football began in 1979. Gene McDowell, George O'Leary, Scott Frost, and Josh Heupel have led the Knights to the postseason. O'Leary, Frost, and Heupel have coached the team to an FBS conference championship, and a BCS/NY6 bowl game. Before leading UCF in 1983 and 1984, Lou Saban was a head coach in both the American Football League (AFL) and the NFL. O'Leary also coached in the NFL between 2002 and 2004.


title: UCF Knights football

text: Until 2007, the Knights played their home games at the Citrus Bowl (formerly Orlando Stadium, and now Camping World Stadium) in downtown Orlando. Located about from UCF's main campus, the stadium originally opened in 1936. The stadium's first college football game was played in January 1947 between Catawba and Maryville. UCF played its first football game at the Citrus Bowl in September 1979, a 7–6 victory over Fort Benning. The facility was the home of the Citrus Bowl, and numerous neutral site games.


title: UCF Knights football

text: By 2004, Orlando city officials and UCF's administration expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the aging facility. While UCF was the primary leasing tenant of the Citrus Bowl for 25 years, they received little revenue from football games, and the stadium's capacity (65,000) was considered too large for the Knights. With an average attendance of 20,000–30,000 spectators per game, the stadium was left with a mostly empty appearance. The Knights' record home attendance of 51,987 (set at the 2005 C-USA Championship) was still far short of capacity. The location off campus was considered a significant factor in the inability to sustain a sizeable student section, while the stadium's upper decks were rarely occupied for UCF games.


title: UCF Knights football

text: When the university approached the city about possible renovations and new revenue-sharing measures for the stadium, they were met with resistance. The city generally wanted UCF to stay, but expected them to help pay for the upgrades to the facility. At one point during the negotiations, stadium officials told then UCF Athletic Director Steve Orsini that "the value of UCF's fans was nothing". Though the city had expressed interest in renovating the Citrus Bowl with or without UCF's support, funding was seriously in doubt. The city was in the planning stages for a new arena, new performing arts center, and "creative village", with stadium renovations seemingly taking less and less priority.