The year is 2001. The location is the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The event is the 0-2 UCF Golden Knights versus the 0-3 Tulane Green Wave. Less than 18 thousand ventured into the cavernous Superdome to see the battle of the winless. I was one of them and got to see 2025 UCF Hall of Fame running back Alex Haynes run amok.
2001 initially looked like any other season. I-A independent UCF opened on the road with a pair of losses to Clemson and Syracuse. On September 15th, they were supposed to host Louisiana-Lafayette. Then 9/11 happened, and that game was pushed to the end of the season. As a result, the game at Tulane became the third game of the season.
The New Orleans Experience
I first attended UCF in 2001, and I was a member of the UCF Marching Knights. During this time, the band had a tradition of taking returning members to the first road game of the season. However, since it was my first season, I did not go to the game at Clemson.
This was my second trip to New Orleans for a football game. The first was the 1999 Nokia Sugar Bowl between Texas A&M and Ohio State. Our high school marching band performed at halftime, and while the weather was pretty lousy, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my childhood college team and band in action. My experience there as an MK was vastly different. Nothing bad happened to me, but we had a lot more freedom in the city. As an 18-year-old college freshman on Bourbon Street, I’ll leave things to your imagination. We SousaPros know how to have a good time.
The First Half
As it was my first UCF game, I didn’t know much about the team. My only exposure before attending was seeing a school named “Central Florida” being mentioned on SportsCenter for defeating Alabama. This is memorable for me because my sister went to Alabama in 1998 and 1999. I got to see the gunslinger, sophomore quarterback Ryan Schneider, fan favorite Jimmy Fryzel, and this freshman running back named Alex Haynes. Tulane had this quarterback, Patrick Ramsey, and running back Mewelde Moore. They both had a good reputation.
UCF got to work early, as Schneider was flawless early on before Haynes punched it in from three yards out. Tulane stalls outside of field goal range and punts. UCF’s second possession was similar to the first. Haynes and Corey Baker moved the ball well on the ground, and Schneider hit Fryzel for a game-high 50 yards. Haynes finished the drive with a five-yard touchdown run. Tulane punts again. Schneider finally has an incompletion, and UCF makes their first real mistake with a Terrence Williams fumble at midfield.
As UCF takes a 14-0 lead into the second, the Green Wave took advantage of the shorter field and kicked a 48-yard field goal. 14-3. On the next drive, nothing went right, and the Golden Knights went backwards. This allowed Tulane to start their next drive inside UCF territory, and Ramsey carved up the defense to make it 14-10 UCF. Haynes was able to break open a 24-yard run on third and short, allowing Schneider to hit Doug Gabriel for a 24-yard touchdown and a 21-10 lead. The two teams traded punts before Ramsey took Tulane into field goal territory, and UCF’s halftime lead was 21-13.
The Second Half
UCF’s offense was a turnover mess in the third quarter. Early in the quarter, Schneider threw an interception at the UCF 14, and it led to a Moore touchdown run and a failed two-point conversion. 21-19 UCF. Later in the quarter, with UCF deep in the redzone, Baker fumbled and Tulane took over. The quarter ended, but a 46-yard field goal on the ensuing drive gave Tulane a 22-21 lead.
Schneider continued slinging the ball in the fourth quarter, and Haynes took advantage, retaking the lead on a 13-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion. 29-22 UCF. A kickoff return deep into UCF territory allowed Moore to make short work and tie the game at 29. On the ensuing drive, it was Haynes’ turn to get chunk yardage along with some well-placed Schneider passes. UCF would retake the lead 36-29 on a 23-yard Haynes touchdown run. Tulane would get the ball back with a little over two minutes left. Tulane would move down the field, but would be stopped just outside of the red zone, and UCF would run out the clock for their first win of the 2001 season.
Alex Haynes’ stat line: 25 carries, 148 yards, four touchdowns. Ryan Schneider had himself a day too, going 20/29 for 338 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Both Haynes and Schneider outplayed their Green Wave counterparts in Ramsey and Moore.
Program Growth
It’s tough to believe this small independent team had so many future NFL players on the roster. Travis Fisher, Asante Samuel, Atari Bigby, Elton Patterson, and more. Later in the season, UCF would receive and accept a football-only invite to the Mid-American Conference. While the results of the three-year marriage weren’t good, during that time, I got to travel to State College (Penn State), Huntington (Marshall x2), Blacksburg (Virginia Tech), and Athens (Ohio) to perform in the MKs and see the football team play. Outside of that game against Ohio in 2003, who was there every step of the way? Alex Haynes. It’s no secret I am a jersey aficionado with what might be the most extensive private collection of team-issued/game-worn UCF jerseys. If you can’t tell, I’m very proud of that. The first two UCF jerseys I ever bought were 2004 Adidas replica jerseys of Haynes and Bigby from CB&S. I still have them.
Was Alex Haynes the best running back in UCF history? No, but he was really good at a time when UCF football was still finding itself in the world of the FBS. He helped usher UCF from its I-A infancy through the MAC and left as the athletics department consolidated under one banner in Conference USA. At the time, this was a big deal. Since then, UCF has built an on-campus football stadium, won conference championships and a national championship, run through the American Athletic Conference, and now resides in the Big 12. Alex Haynes played a vital role in UCF’s growth, and his contributions have earned him a spot in the 2025 UCF Hall of Fame class.
