In Week 3, UCF notched a decisive win over a Power 5 program, defeating Stanford 45-27.

Stanford was ranked No. 25 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 and beat Northwestern to open the 2019 season, but USC’s Week 2 45-20 upset win over the Cardinal bounced Stanford from the rankings and drained some of the hype from the Week 3 game with the Knights.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, however, was still impressed by UCF’s win. On the latest College Football Podcast, he argued that the Knights should have made a bigger jump in the latest polls.

“I’m surprised — what are they, 17? They should be [ranked] in that 9-10 range, personally. I think that because we’ve now seen this brand and they’ve been able to beat some high-profile teams and they’ve been able to compete with some high-profile teams in bowl games. That’s how you build it. That’s how Boise State built it,” Herbstreit said.

He continued to focus on the significance of UCF beating a Pac-12 team with recent success.

“And now when you beat a Stanford, and the way they beat them, they need to be taken more seriously. They need to get more respect. And I think this team in 2019 is the beneficiary of what they’ve done in ’17 and ’18 and now people need to start to kind of say, ‘Uh oh.’”

Herbstreit went as far as calling it the most significant win of Week 3.

“They beat Stanford the way they did and to me that was probably the biggest win of the weekend and magnitude and what it could potentially mean to the College Football Playoff down the road because they blew Stanford out,” he said. “I don’t care what, the score ended up 45-27, it felt like 60-10. I mean it was a butt-kicking.”

The Knights fanbase will be pleased to see that UCF has won over one of its more vocal critics.

“So I went from being a guy that kind of had my arm out a few years ago to last year starting to kind of embrace them and this year, really,” Herbstreit said. “They’ve got a freshman quarterback and they just don’t miss a beat. Doesn’t matter. So I think that was the most impressive win and a team the nation really needs to start to pay attention to.”

The No. 15 Knights travel to Pittsburgh in Week 4, an opportunity to record another win over a Power 5 program.

[H/T Orlando Sentinel]