FLORIDA — The Florida Gators' season did not get off to a great start, but they are coming off a big victory against Southeastern Conference foe Mississippi State two weeks ago, and they have had an extra week to get ready to host UCF.

Meanwhile, the UCF Knights have started slowly in the first halves of their past two games, getting outscored 47-21. UCF rallied to defeat TCU 35-34 on Sept. 14 but never recovered in a mistake-filled, 48-21 loss to Colorado at home last Saturday — even though they had more total yards on offense than the Buffaloes.

And Knights coach Gus Malzahn said after the loss to Colorado, "We're not the best catch-up team."

It's only one loss so far this season, but Malzahn challenged his team to find a way to get better and said they are going to find out this week who the Knights are as a team.

"The way we played (against Colorado), we need to redeem ourselves," Malzahn said.

To be successful, the Knights will have to get their running game revved up. Top rusher RJ Harvey, who rushed for 448 yards in the first three games, was held to 77 yards against Colorado. Myles Montgomery did not play after getting banged up against TCU, and although Malzahn said he wants to get back on the field, the coach would not say whether Montgomery would play against the Gators.

UCF also will have to find a way defensively to put some pressure on Florida's offense. Gators quarterbacks Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway combined for 277 passing yards and three touchdowns, and Mertz scrambled for 24 yards against Mississippi State.

Their passing and return games also will be playing for the rest of its season without wide receiver Xavier Townsend, who announced on Twitter that he would redshirt the rest of this season and enter the transfer portal when it reopens. Townsend was UCF's fourth-leading receiver this season and has been a starter since joining the team in 2022 recruiting class.

Gators coach Billy Napier said he believes his team got better during its off week.

Florida worked on its technique, fundamentals and tightening up its defense, he said. That will be required to stop the combination of UCF quarterback KJ Jefferson and the Knights' running backs, he said.

"This is a big one. There's no doubt about that," Napier said.

The state's top-ranked team, No. 8 Miami, will hit the road for the first time this season and head way out west to California.

In their last Atlantic Coast Conference game, the Hurricanes escaped with a 38-34 victory against Virginia Tech after a confusing series of rulings by officials eventually concluded that the Hokies did not complete a pass to score a touchdown on the final play of the game.

The key matchup will be Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward, who has passed for 1,782 yards and 18 touchdowns and rushed for 146 yards and two more touchdowns so far this season, against California's defense, which has held its opponents to 287.5 yards per game in total offense.

In Tallahassee, Seminoles coach Mike Norvell's seat is getting a little warm, at least as far as the fans are concerned, in the first year of a new eight-year contract he signed in January.

Saturday's matchup against 15th-ranked Clemson is unlikely to help. The Tigers seek to stay perfect in the ACC this season, and the Seminoles have only won one game. That 14-9 victory did come against ACC foe California at home Sept. 21. Technically, the game is Clemson's first road game, though its opener against Georgia was at a neutral site.

The Tigers have given up more than 400 offensive yards a game, and the Seminoles will be breaking in a new starting quarterback, redshirt freshman Brock Glenn. 

USF has a bye week.

Here's a look at this week's games:

Saturday

Clemson (3-1) at Florida State (1-4), 7 p.m., ESPN

The Tigers, who are undefeated in the ACC so far this year, are not exactly the team the Seminoles want to see this week after getting thumped by new conference member SMU 42-16 last week. FSU will start Brock Glenn at quarterback for the first time because coach Mike Norvell says DJ Uiagalelei, who had struggled all season, will be out for an undesignated period of time with a finger injury. Meanwhile, the Seminoles' run game is the fourth-least productive in the country. Clemson, which started the season with a 34-3 loss to No. 5 Georgia, has won all its games handily since then and is 2-0 in ACC action.

UCF (3-1) at Florida (2-2), 7:45 p.m., SEC Network

One of the teams not feeling great about itself this week is going to feel better at the end of the night. The Knights are coming off a 48-21 defeat by the Colorado Buffaloes. After going into the game as a 14-point favorite, UCF struggled to score, and quarterback KJ Jefferson threw touchdown passes to running back RJ Harvey and wide receiver Xavier Townsend but also had two interceptions and a fumble. The Knights moved the ball but couldn't score, and their secondary gave up 418 yards of offense, including three passing touchdowns. The Gators, meanwhile, had a bye week and the time to watch the Knights' struggles. They are coming off their second win of the season, a 45-28 rout of Mississippi State, and are feeling more confident. Against the Bulldogs, the Gators' two quarterbacks — Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway — completed 92.8% of their passes and threw for 277 yards to 10 different receivers. Plus, the game is in The Swamp at night, so UCF will have to deal with a lot of noise from the Rowdy Reptiles, who are still upset that the Knights beat their team in the 2021 Gasparilla Bowl. The game will be a homecoming for Knights wide receiver Trent Whittemore, who transferred to UCF from Florida.

Miami (5-0) at California (3-1), 10:30 p.m., ESPN

The eighth-ranked Hurricanes are cruising through the season so far, but three of their victories came against Florida A&M, Ball State and USF, and they opened with a 41-17 victory against struggling Florida. When Miami faced ACC foe Virginia Tech last week, it only won by four points. Quarterback Cam Ward threw for 343 yards and four touchdowns but also had two interceptions. The bad news for Cal is its only loss this season came against FSU. The good news is the Bears had a week off to prepare for the Hurricanes, and they will play at home.

USF is off

Starting quarterback Byrum Brown will have an extra week off after requiring medical attention and leaving the 45-10 loss to Tulane in the third quarter. The Bulls are going to need it because next up is Memphis (4-1), which topped FSU 20-12 on Sept. 14.