Login to view embedded media
A day after UCF's 20-14 loss to Louisville in which the offense was shut out during the second half, offensive coordinator
Chip Lindsey reviewed the performance and what needs to improve going into next week's game at FAU.
"Obviously disappointed" about the game. "I felt like we missed an opportunity." Said the two penalties were huge with two touchdowns called back. Other penalties stalled drives. "That's something we've got to improve on." Alluding the penalty problem against South Carolina State, Lindsey said penalties have a bigger impact when you play a good team like Louisville.
He "loved our effort" and "thought the guys played extremely hard." Got off to a great start. It felt great then. As the game went on, "we went into a lull and some of it was self inflicted." They have to "play better" and "coach better." It's a "team game."
He said the guys will respond. "We've got everything still to play for."
I asked how
John Rhys Plumlee is seeing the field in terms of reads and where he should go with the ball, and if it's still a learning experience for him.
"I think he's got comfort. Losing
Ryan O'Keefe in the second half, he's one of our better ones for sure. And
Kobe (Hudson) not being available. I thought John Rhys played a lot better than probably it looked. When you look at it and grade the film. Okay, what decision did he make. We have to play better around him in a lot of areas. There are things he has to do better as well. It takes 11 guys to really do the right thing consistently for you to be a good offense. Right now, we're not doing that every single play in critical situations. Sometimes we are. We have to be more consistent doing that."
Lindsey then added JRP did put the ball in jeopardy a few times which were not intercepted. "Overall it wasn't his best game, but he's not the reason we lost the game."
Johnny Richardson averaged 9.4 yards per carry yet only carried the ball five times vs. Louisville. Same situation vs. South Carolina State when JR carried the ball five times for 11.8 yards per carry.
Lindsey said they had "some really good game plan things for him. Certain looks in certain formations that were very specific. It worked out perfect for him. Again, the long one he had that was called back."
He said perhaps some of Richardson's opportunities were limited because offensive drills stalled and they had to punt. "We've got to do a better job staying on the field."
He was asked about his level of concern at wide receiver with
Ryan O'Keefe out during the second half due to injury and Kobe Hudson unavailable.
"I though
Javon Baker was playing well. You've got some guys that have to step up.
Xavier Townsend, a freshman, was thrown into the fire pretty quick. He's been pretty good, but obviously he's not as experienced as some of these other guys.
Stephen Martin filling in.
Jaylon Griffin, we've got to do a better job of getting him up to speed. He's kind of our swing guy, learning a couple different positions. If we can go all that stuff settled, I think he'll be more effective when we can put him in a spot and let him get comfortable."
On Plumlee, what has he done well and what needs to improve?
"When the play breaks down, he does a great job keeping the play alive. I think the one scramble to his right and he threw it to Javon, might have been third down, was really good. Not a lot of guys can make that play. I think for him it's getting more reps in game situations. See the different things you're going to see each and every play. I think he's doing a good job protecting the ball. Last night in the pocket there were a couple throws where they fooled him and he threw it into coverage. They didn't catch it. Those are things we always want to improve.
"For him, the level that you play against compared to the week before, he's got to continue to take that next step. Best thing about him is he's hard on himself. He's worked really hard. I think you'll see him improve as the season goes. At the end of the day, we've got to play better around him. It's a team game. Quarterbacks, the old saying is really true. They get more credit than they deserve. A week before he got a lot of credit and probably he deserved it. This week he'll get more blame than he deserves. That doesn't really matter, just outside noise to us.
"When you do this a long time. My 26th (year), Coach (Malzahn) is 30-something years. You watch the film and you understand what's supposed to happen and why it didn't happen, it's just like if we give up a sack everybody assumes it's the o-line. Sometimes it might be the running back. Sometimes it's the guy the quarterback is responsible for. The average person probably doesn't know that. I think John Rhys is doing great. We've just to continue to push the envelope and get him to take that step forward each and every week against better competition."
Lindsey was asked whether running back rotation goes strictly according to game plan or can be adjusted to who has "hot hand" during the course of a game.
"I think hot hand has something to do with it.
Tim (Harris) does a good job trying to keep those guys rested. Obviously Johnny and Bowser are different skill set kind of guys. Some of it is dictated on the game situation. Obviously both of those guys we need to continue to find ways to get them the touches they need. But to do that we need to stay on the field. We had seven straight possessions where we punted or turned it over. Didn't stay on the field. When you do that it limits the number of snaps you get which in turn limits the number each guy gets."
What deficiencies does he see in the offensive line and what can they do about it?
"I would say the best thing we have to do is communicate better. Every play you run, whether it's a run play or pass play, there's communication involved from the quarterback's perspective or even up front to each other. I think those are some things that we need to improve on. A couple times, to be honest with you, we got beat on the edge. It wasn't like they didn't know what to do. We've got to do it better. We've got to execute that better. Whether we're sliding this way and we don't want to over-slide. Or hat placement in the run game. The right foot. Each play has got its own life so to speak. At the same time continuing to rep those things.
"One thing I know is we had an opportunity to win the game last night. If we had won the game, those problems would still be there. To get where we want, we have to continue to improve and clean up those things."
I asked about
Kemore Gamble seeing somewhat limited action in the Louisville game - he had 14 snaps whereas
Alec Holler was on the field for 63 plays and
Zach Marsh-Wojan 21 plays. Given the preseason buzz and Gamble's experience as a starter at UF, I asked whether maybe it was pass protection as to why he doesn't play more.
"I thought it was some of the sets we were in. Alec is so solid and has played so much in this offense and doing the specific things, I think there is a comfort level for that. Kemore has certain packages that he plays in. That position for us does a lot of things. Plays in the box, plays hand on the ground, plays flexed out. You throw in each and every play and the different elements with it, there is a learning process going on there. I do think he's making progress and doing great, but we've got to figure out better ways to get him involved for sure."
He was asked about the frustration of having two touchdowns wiped off the board due to penalties.
"Ever since I've been with Coach, we've tried to do a great job in practice teaching them what a penalty is. We have referees in practice. We punish those guys for penalties in practice. A couple of them last night, sometimes they're called and sometimes they're not. You could play holding on every play if you wanted to, to be honest about it. Those guys made the decision to make those calls and they affected the play. I think just continuing to educating them on it. Both of those penalties, technically by the rule probably penalties. There were others not called as well. Bad timing on our part. But we've got to do better and play clean football."
Lindsey was asked about Louisville playing "0 coverage" bringing the house, whether he thinks that's the blueprint for future defenses against UCF and if the remedy is being able to throw the ball down the field with accuracy.
"I don't think that's the only remedy, but I think we're going to have to do a better job. Obviously being down a couple guys affected that some. We have to do a better job of hurting people to keep them from doing that. With John Rhys and his skill set, you're going to see that. Football is a copycat deal. You watch each week what's doing well and what people are doing to stop people or score points. You want to find new ways you can do that inside of your offense or defense. I'm pretty sure we'll see more of that as the season goes. We need to be prepared for it."
Lindsey was asked about the last couple drives when UCF had a chance to reclaim the lead.
On the fourth down play thrown into the back of the end zone to Jaylon Griffin, but was intercepted: "We had a good call. John Rhys made a play and Jaylon Griffin almost came down with it. They played zone there out of the huddle. JR made a play. Our backside receiver probably wasn't exactly where he should have been or we'd have had a good shot to hit that play and maybe win the game there. Jaylon made a great effort. I thought that was a good drive. We got in scoring position. Didn't execute to get in.
"The last drive we were in two-minute. We get to a fourth down. JR made a pretty good throw. Would have been a tough catch. There's also an opportunity he could have took off running there and converted on fourth and five. Again, I think we had opportunities to win the game. We just didn't get it done. That's on us. We've got to coach better. We've got to play better. And we will."
Lindsey was asked about Alec Holler dropping a pass when he was wide open.
"Did we miss the field goal there? That was huge. Another call we felt good about all week. John Rhys couldn't quite get his feet set to make that throw. There was a guy in his face. Again, that was a huge point. You'd love to see him get his feet set a little quicker and get that out. At the same time, he had pressure. I think that's the thing. I said it already. We have to execute at all 11 positions and we didn't do that there. That's something we need to improve on."
Trace asked how they can achieve their goal of a "championship season" if Plumlee is learning on the fly.
"You get him to improve each week. There's quarterbacks around the country in the same position. Our job is to make him improve each week. Execute what he's good at and how we can make that happen. Each week is a different story so to speak. You need to have a good plan. I liked what we did early on. It was a really good plan. I think as the game went on, there were some opportunities that we just didn't execute. If we do that and don't get the penalties, I think we're feeling a little different right now."
What did JRP do better from the first game?
"I think his pocket presence was good. I thought he escaped and made plays, especially on third down. He had the throw to Javon and he took off running another time on a third down. When you look at it, there were a handful of mistakes. Not anything that really stood out. I think again you give too much blame or too much credit (to quarterbacks)."
Was there a thought of putting
Mikey Keene into the game to let JRP watch from the sidelines?
"I think those are things you make decisions based on your gut feeling. When you're leading the game like we were or in the game, or three points down in the second half, I don't think that ever crosses your mind really. John Rhys is our quarterback. We keep getting better."
He doesn't know much about FAU's defense. He knows Willie Taggart well. "I'm sure they'll be well prepared. I hadn't looked at them yet."
He was going to be their OC this past December - I believe he accepted the job (based on his Twitter profile) but then the UCF opportunity became available.
"We had some talks about that for sure, yeah. But the opportunity to come here, kind of trumped that so to speak. I felt good about getting back with Coach (Malzahn). I've worked with him before and a couple of these guys on staff. I made that decision."
Lindsey was asked whether Mikey Keene is the backup quarterback with how
Thomas Castellanos had the mop-up duty vs. SCSU.
"We had a big lead last week so he came in. Mikey is our No. 2 for sure."
