2025 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE ANALYSIS: Ocoee looks to continue improvements from 2024 into new season

OVERVIEW

It has been two seasons since Ocoee made their historic run in the playoffs and the Knights want to get back to that once again. While improving their win total by a game in 2024 was a step in the right direction, can they add more wins in 2025? Let’s look at the Knight’s schedule for the 2025 season.

2025 SCHEDULE

Kickoff 7:00 pm unless noted

* – District

Week 1 – Fri. 8/22: vs. Apopka*

Week 2 – Fri. 8/29: at Olympia (Orlando)

Week 3 – Fri. 9/5: at Lake Nona (Orlando)

Week 4 – Fri. 9/12: vs. Dr. Phillips (Orlando)

Week 5 – Fri. 9/19: vs. Boone (Orlando)

Week 6 – Fri. 9/26: at West Port (Ocala)*

Week 7 – Fri. 10/3: at Hudson, 7:30

Week 8 – Fri. 10/10: BYE WEEK

Week 9 – Fri. 10/17: vs. Winter Park

Week 10 – Fri. 10/24: vs. West Orange (Winter Garden)*

Week 11 – Fri. 10/31: at Jones (Orlando)

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

With our in-house strength of schedule formula that uses three years of data regarding each team, Ocoee will enter the 2025 season with an SOS of .583 which is pretty good considering that there is a good mix of teams that does not make the schedule overly hard for the Knights but not overly easy. The toughest opponents by far will be that of Jones, the Class 4A state runner-up and Dr. Phillips who reached the state semifinals in Class 7A last year while West Port, a district foe, will be the easiest opponent that Ocoee will see in 2025.

KEY GAMES & MUST-WATCH MATCHUPS

With Apopka, a district opponent, on the schedule in Week 1 will set the tone right out of the gate to start the 2025 season. The Knights lost this game 10-0 last season so there is going to be a lot of motivation for the Knights to pick up a win to start the season and get an early lead on the district race which makes it the most important district game. However, do not discount their district game with West Orange in Week 10 as things could look very different then. The top non-district matchup for Ocoee is going to be the one with Jones at the end of the season as that is going to set the stage if Ocoee can reach the playoffs depending on how the rest of the season goes.

HOME VS. AWAY BALANCE

With an equal number of games at home and on the road, Ocoee will be able to balance the schedule without much issue. At no point during the season will Ocoee be away from home for more than two weeks at a time while the Knights will play three of their first five games at home. The road trip for the Knights to Hudson in Week 7 will be the longest road trip coming in at just over 83 miles one way, while the game at West Port in Week 6 comes in at just under 80 miles meaning the Knights will be seeing plenty of pavement at the midway point of the season.

OPPONENT BREAKDOWN

Six of Ocoee’s 10 opponents reached the playoffs in 2024 with Jones being the team to go the furthest, finishing as the Class 4A runner-up. With that said, having a schedule like this is important for teams that are truly striving to reach the playoffs and that is also without having the schedule in the second year of the classification cycle change at all which is another huge plus for the Knights.

BYE WEEK PLACEMENT

The bye week coming at Week 8 is a little later than the midway point of the season most teams would like to get their bye week at and comes on a week that is traditionally one of the slots for a district game for a four-team district that the Knights are in. However, with the game against Apopka coming in Week 1, it is fitting the bye week is here. That will come before games against some quality foes in Winter Park and district-foe and rival West Orange.

PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS

As we said earlier, starting off with Apopka in Week 1 is a huge district game right out of the gate. There is no other way to look at the potential ways the season could go with how things go in this game. West Orange in Week 10 will be critical as that could make or break the Knights’ chance of reaching the playoffs along with non-district games against Dr. Phillips in Week 4 and Jones in Week 10 being critical as well. If anything, if Ocoee can win at least one more game to improve to 6-4, there is a highly good chance they can reach the playoffs anywhere between a No. 5 seed and No. 7 seed based on their schedule.

PREDICTED RECORD & FINAL THOUGHTS

The Knights have a chance to potentially go as high as 8-2 this season and that comes with losses just to most likely Dr. Phillips and Jones, that representing the best-case scenario, but also has a chance to go totally opposite with a worse-case scenario being potentially 4-6. However, given Ocoee showed improvement in 2024, we expect to see the Knights improve in 2025 and thinking that a 7-3 record is most likely where the Knights will fall with likely their losses coming to Dr. Phillips, West Orange and Jones, while the Knights get a huge win over Apopka to start the season in Week 1.