Hey so new to the boards here recently joined because my UCF buddies can only handle so much UCF talk and I need to get my fix. Over the past month I have went back and watched every game from last year mostly trying to watch some of the young guys who will be getting more PT this year. Ended up being a lot of fun to watch how damn good this team was last year and remember some little things about these games I had forgotten. This isn’t an article or anything like that so don’t expect correct grammar or anything like that. These are basically just notes I made after watching each game. You could also say they are the ramblings of a mad man. Then I did a little write-up of all the returners that I have watched and some of the things I am interested in for the upcoming season. If you guys are curious pretty much every game is on in full on Youtube besides FIU which I had DVR’d. Looking forward to talking UCF.
FIU 61-17
· Really showed how good Milton could be after last years struggles.
· Made some outstanding throws, especially the throws to Smith and Akins in the first half.
· Also would have been interesting to see what RB rotation would have been had J-Ham stayed Healthy, he was the Lead guy.
· Gabe Davis Started the game as a True Freshman and played very well, it was a sign of things to come and the beginning of what should be an excellent UCF career.
· It was incredible the difference between Chris Johnson (#46) and Mike Hughes, talking about an NFL 1st round pick, and a player who is probably more FCS level, was absolutely roasted by FIU on their 1st Touchdown.
· This was also a very impressive game from Kyle Gibson, he has really flying round and solid in coverage.
Maryland 38-10
· The defense got a lot of slack latter in year, after playing 11 straight weeks and struggling in the last two weeks of the year, but there were plenty of games where they were the best of the four units on the field. This was certainly one of those games. The offense really didn’t play all that well, but the defense was outstanding especially the front 3 of Hill Guerad and Pittman, they completely shut down the run and were able to get constant pressure throughout.
· It was another really nice game by Kyle Gibson, who on my 2nd viewing of these games was better than I remember.
· Gabriel Luyanda also flashed a bit in this game which was good to see since he should be a starter this year in the 4-3 besides Pat.
· The offense really wasn’t great, the numbers look nice at the end, but I would say this was the worst offensive performance of the year. Taj got 2 td’s in this game, but was very ineffective throughout, averaging only 2.8 ypc and just generally looked slow and went down at first contact. His longest run was only 7 yards.
· The real difference in the game for the offense was Jordan Akins had an excellent game blocking and in the passing game and KZ running was a big plus.
Memphis 40-13
Probably the teams best overall game of the season all things consider. This was another game where the UCF defense was the best unit on the field. They held Memphis offense to 7 points!! 7!. They averaged about 50 in all other games during the season. The other 6 points were on the last play of the game on a play where #46 just got beat really bad again, but was when all the UCF reserves where in the game.
· This was the first big Shaquem game of 2017, Dude was all over the field, had that big sack/strip when Memphis was driving to take the lead.
· Another game where Luyanda/Hughes/Gibson really flashed.
· Gibson made an outstanding play for the 2nd half interception and players simply don’t get open on Mike Hughes.
Offense- Bizarre first half, we had our longest drive I can remember under Frost to open the scoring on the first drive, 17 play 7 minute drive.
· Milton struggled a bit in the first half, but after the big AK 96 yard touchdown the offense was on fire, couple great TD’s by Trepan, but this was really the AK game.
· Also the first time we saw a lot of Otis running the ball, who was super effective as he always is.
· Some notes on some young guys, really liked what I saw from Collier when he was in the game, has a lot of really nice tools
· Eric Mitchell who might be playing some DE this year also had a couple of good rushes when he got some snaps as well.
Cincy 51-23
This was one of the best offensive games I have ever seen anyone play. Something Frost said himself.
· Scored on every drive and had 51 points in 3 quarters (lightning) and 40 plays!! That is more than a point a play, that is better than basketball teams have per possession.
· Insane game from Trequan, 4 touchdowns 170 yards on 6 touches(People are underestimating how much we are going to miss him) . I
· t was also the first time Marlon Williams flashed and showed his ability with the ball in his hands.
· Milton had a QBR of 99.2 in this game
The defense however was not great in this game, biggest struggle was getting off the field on 3rd downs and the passing game over the middle of the field.
· The linebackers (Burkett and Pat) really struggled in coverage and were often not deep enough or too deep in their zone.
· They also really struggle to track the QB Moore running who had 13 75 2tds and that is not his game.
· The safties Gibson and Neal did not have one of their better games either.
· Luckily they were able to make key plays when needed like Seyvon Lowry getting his 2nd pick in 2 games.
ECU 63-21
ECU is really bad.
On offense this was basically a scrimmage, it felt like UCF was going to score every drive and the only thing that could stop them was a mistake.
· An interesting note from this game was Otis Anderson basically playing Full-Time Slot WR filling in for Nelson who was sitting out this game and was excellent. 7 catches for 76 yards. This could be something we see more of this year with it looking like Anderson getting a lot of snaps at WR.
· Ho-Hum another 93 yard performance from TreQuan.
Defense mostly played well, ECU wracked up some meaningless yards and points playing catch-up but UCF had constant pressure throughout the game.
· One of those guys getting pressure was Titus Davis, which is very important going into this year as he has moved to DE and is the only returner we have that has shown an ability to get pressure on the QB.
Garbage Time notes
· Nate Evans and Luyanda both played well in the snaps they had along with Collier
· Richie Grant is such a versatile player, can play slot corner and safety, excited for him this year.
· Joey Connors I focused on a lot, doesn’t seem to have much of pass-rushing talent mostly tries to bat passes down. This was fine for this group, but this year we are gonna need him to be a threat to get pressure on the QB
· Greg McCrae looked good, more effective than Taj.
Navy 31-21
Another game that people forget how good the UCF defense was. They were the best unit on the field.
· Very strange, but UCF basically shut the triple option down for the most part. 14 of Navy’s 21 points came off of huge coverage busts in the passing game, one by Kyle Gibson and one really bad one by Tre Neal.
· Overall though an incredible performance by Tony Guerad Pat and Burkett. All 3 just had some great solo stops on huge down.
· Most Everyone remembers Bam Moore’s hit from this game, but he was basically responsible for all 3 Navy turnovers. Excellent game by him.
This was a strange on the re-watch. We were much better than Navy I thought, it could have been 21-0 early but some mistakes let them hang around and make is scarrier than it should have been.
· One of those drives that should have ended in points went down because Milton actually went out injured around the 30 yard line and on the next play Vedral mishandled the snap and basically ruined the drive.
· Really good game by Snelson and Akins.
· Otis Anderson was so good on that game clinching drive.
· AK is fast.
Austin Peay 73-33
· One of the strangest games I can remember watching. 2 Kick return scores, an awful targeting call. Frost losing his mind, UCF getting 30 penalty yards in 2 plays. 2 deflected passes ending in APU touchdowns.
· The score looks ugly for the defense, but re-watching it wasn’t that concerning of a performance, I thought they played much worse vs Cincy.
· Shaquem scored a td so it is funny to say, but probably his worst game where he actually played at UCF, that is how you know this game was a fluke.
· Milton missed one throw the entire game.
· We surprisingly could not run the ball (Otis didn’t play)
· It didn’t matter.
· Best game as a Knight for Snelson 2 tds and one of themSC top play. He is so good in the slot when he gets 1 on 1 with the Safety
· This was a rough one for Collier, showed why he is a true freshman.
SMU 31-24
Another game where the defense was the best unit on the field and a game that should not have been as close as it was. SMU was one of the better offenses in the country and UCF only gave up 17 points to them.
· Tre Neal who had some rough games had probably his best game of the year.
· Had a crucial strip near the goal-line to cause a turnover in a big point in the game.
· Defense also made huge stops at the end when SMU could have tied it.
· Mike Hughes was PHENOMENAL in this game. Held Cortland Sutton to 5 rec 46 yards and one of those catches on Hughes was Great coverage and an insane sideline catch. 2 of his other catches were not on Hughes.
· While we have some corners with experience coming back, we are going to miss Hughes blue chip talent and ability to take away half the field so much.
· We had over 600 yards and somehow only 31 points.
· Should have been so much more, missed 4th down conversion, bad akins fumble inside the 10, took a really bad sack out of FG range.
· However there were still plenty of positives, AK was great in this game his two big touchdowns runs were great runs, but also set up by two great blocks. One by Jordan Johnson and one by Aaron Evans.
· Gabe Davis TD was an insane throw against the cover two by KZ and showed how fast Davis really is for a big guy.
· Akins had a really good game, but that fumble he had was costly.
· The pick 6 by KZ was easily his worst play of the year and let them hang around.
· 141 for Trequan btw.
UCF UCONN 49-24
This was all-around a pretty sloppy game for UCF, but luckily UCONN is bad.
Some of UCF’s drives were aided by UCONN mistakes, and the defense had two really bad drives.
· UCF also almost went two full quarters without scoring which was extremely bizarre.
· KZ played really well and 2 big performances by 2 true Freshman
· Anderson 121 yds 2 tds
· Gabe Davis 8 95 yds, probably Davis’ best game of the year
· Another 120 1 td for Trepan
On D it was a really good game for Kyle Gibson, not so much for Brandon Moore and Pat Jasinski in coverage.
· UCF’s best defense was probably man, but far too often when Neal and Jasinski had to play man they would be exposed.
· Neal got torched twice in man coverage this game, one was a PI.
· Marlon Williams continued to showcase what he can do in the YAC department
UCF Temple 45-19
I was actually pretty worried about this game I remember during the year, and it was pretty tight early on. Temple was up 10-7 in the 2nd, but 3 turnovers basically ended the game. The defense was excellent almost everyone had a part to play, especially the front 7.
· Griffin was insane this game, he stripped the ball with his arm that doesn’t have a hand for a turnover in the first half. Then in the 2nd half he covered a WR in man coverage 30 yards down the field an intercepted the ball, just insane.
· This was another game where Collier showed great athleticism and potential, but also took a Tre Neal like route to a ball over the top and got beat for a long Touchdown in garbage time.
· Offense really did not have to do a ton with such a short-field, but the standouts were KZ 5 Tochdowns
· Otis 76 yds 1 td
· Smith 89 yds 2 tds and two insane catches. Especially that one on the sideline.
· This was also the game where they finally gave up on Taj he had 5 carries for 6 yards and continued the trend of getting stuffed on key short-yardage plays.
· Burgess-Becker got some more snaps this game and it will be interesting to see what kind of role he has for next season in the new defense, he is certainly athletic.
UCF USF 49-42
This game I went a little more in-depth, was trying to see what most of the issues were on D, cause this was the defenses worst game to this point. However it wasn’t as bad as I remember, the reason for the really high point totals and yardage totals was mostly due to the game being a super fast paced game with a ton of plays and possessions. The defense did have a bunch of crucial stops in the 2nd half when the offense was sputtering in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. This game had 32 possessions, by comparison the navy game had 22, that is a huge difference.
The offense actually struggled more than I thought, they scored on 6 possession but came away empty on 10 possessions that was one of their worst ratios of the year. However the first and fourth quarter were some of the best football they played considering the competition. Charlie Strong actually made an outstanding adjustment on defense that really swung the game after UCF scored on their first 3 possessions. They took off their all-time leading tackler and basically played a 3-1-7. 7 defensive backs on the field and it really helped them against UCF’s speed. You would think then UCF would be able to run the ball more effectively, but that was not the case. #10 Senat for USF had an unreal game and was latter drafted in the 3rd round.
Defensively UCF basically completely shut down USF’s traditional running game. Their 2 rb’s combined for 19 CAR for 48 yards. 2 yards a carry. Basically it was all Flowers on broken plays and scrambles, he was absurd. I also want to point out the USF played great on defense for the most part, they had their greatest player in school history have their greatest game in school history and they still lost. UCF was the much better team overall.
Now to get into the game flow and some of the breakdowns on D
· First USF TD I have no idea what the Hell Tre Neal was doing on the screen, awful missed tackle, terrible route to the ball. Then Burkett gets semi-embarrassed on national tv 7-0 Bulls.
· 2nd drive big play for USF Clarke gets beat bad by the tight end. Great 4th down stop by Pat 7-7
· UCF then was having a lot of success going east-west on the perimeter early on, and Snelson’s touchdown was actually the same play they ended up scoring on latter just in a smaller window. 14-7 UCF
· Another big play by McCants and another mistake by Tre Neal, should have broken the ball up at the 50, instead ball is caught and he gets another 30 yards after that.
· USF misses FG
· Great drive by Milton, another play where somehow Colubiale is somehow Wide open.
· Just a disgusting play by Milton on the option to AK. 21-7 UCF
· Then we got a stop had the ball at Midfield , I really think if we score here the game might have been over, but this is where USF started playing 7 sometimes 8 defensive backs, have to give credit to Strong was a great adjustment. Could be something teams try against us this year.
· ANOTHER massive play by McCants, and this one was zone but clearly #14 Clarke’s mistake. In his defense Flowers had was too much time, but UCF was playing Cover 3 and Clarke left his zone, which allowed a huge play by McCants.
· Then we got them backed up to 3rd and 18 and #14 gets beat one on one for a touchdown. No excuse for that in that situation. 21-13 UCF
· ANOTHER big play for McCants, but this was just all Flowers, broke tackle of Griffin, kept play alive found McCants.
· Wilcox beat Griffin 1v1 for Td, just a great throw and catch.
· USF stopped us again 4 possessions in a row.
· Hughes had a great breakup on a deep ball to MVS and then just stoned him for a great INT, ran the route for him. Crazy how USF had over 500 yards passing and almost none was at Hughes.
2nd Half
· After a good drive we got stop on 4th down, KZ had Davis open, but just missed him. Wasn’t the best route from Davis.
· Great effort by Griffin for Sack on Flowers to end drive
· 2 big first down catches by Trequan then great touchdown pass from KZ to Davis on the outside, hopefully more of that to come this year.
· This is when flowers really got lose running, none of these plays were designed runs all scrambles. UCF then went to a spy latter on, but he still was effective.
· First play next drive KZ throws behind Trequan, great driving pick by USF
· Missed tackle by Tre Neal leads to big first down.
· Then Flowers shakes Gibson out of his shoes for a TD. 34-28 USF
· Both teams exchange a few stops, this was huge as the game could have gotten away from us, great job by the defense.
· We also got stopped on 3rd and 4th and 1, Senat destroyed us again.
· Colubiale wide open again, sets up big TD to Snelson, which was actually 3rd and long. Same play we scored on earlier. Empty back field, fake jet sweep then Snelson who is in the slot basically runs a corner post route, which is a bit different that what you would normally see, fools USF both times. 35-34 UCF
· Knight lights, place is LIt.
· USF Wr actually makes an insane catch on 3rd 18 on this drive. UCF ends up stopping USF on this drive thanks to a well designed blitz and perfect coverage by Hughes on MVS.
· This next drive was such a great drive, did not go conservative, huge catch by Smith, then the screen to Otis, perfect call.
· So UCF is up 7 with 2:20 left some say it would be better to go for 2. If we get it you go up 9 and end the game, if you don’t even if USF scores the aren’t gonna go for 2. Even still we are up 8 USF has to score and get conversion, our win probability is around 95%.
· Then I have watched this last play a lot and am still not sure who blew the coverage. Pat Neal and Moore could all have been the culprits, I tend to think initially Moore should have switched with Pat, since they had a RB out wide but Neal also should have recognized that and helped Pat instead of playing short zone. No matter what it was an unacceptable mistake. Especially on 1st and 20.
· Great play by Flowers on conversion.
· Mike Hughes, C-ya 49-42
· USF actually almost breaks the return after this.
· Gret play by Richie Grant after he got beat, we win. Why didn’t they let us rush the field? lame.
· Best game in school history
UCF Memphis 62-55
While I thought the defense played better than the score in the USF game, this was just a complete shootout and there wasn’t a ton to like for the defense, they were mostly bad.
· KZ had one of the greatest games by a UCF player ever. While he had 3 ints, two were off deflections and not his fault and the other was super late with little time left trying to get into fg range.
· Overall he had over 550 yards and 6 touchdowns. 494 passing. He had 5 touchdown passes that totaled24 48 50 34 and 28. Some of these throws like the throw to Smith and Akins in the first half were absolute dimes.
· This was Snelson’s best game of his career, even tho he had a bad fumble that really changed the momentum of the game when we could have pulled away and one of the int’s was on him. Overall he still had 9 145 2 tds
· Huge games also for Trequan and Akins we are really going to miss their ability to win one-on-one matches.
· Another big Otis game 113 rushing 1 td.
· Defensively it is hard to say someone was amazing with that performance, but Griffin really was. Constant pressure, 2 sacks fumble recovery. Relentless.
· Anthony Miller ate Clarke #14 for Breakfast Lunch and Dinner.
· Richie Grant who came in for Neal at points in this game, did get really beat bad on one play action play at the end of the first quarter against the TE Dykes, hopefully some more experience and he will be ready to go this year.
· Memphis also just runs some beautiful stuff on offense Norvell will be gone after this year.
· Similar to the USF game we had a few chances to put this close to out of reach up 24-14 with the ball, Memphis really with no hope of stopping us, Snelson fumbled which allowed them to get back in the game.
· Tre neal missed tackle touchdown Memphis. 24-21 UCF
· Anthony Miller TOASTS #14 Clarke 68 yds 28-24 Memphis
· Forgot about this play, insane play by Milton to throw to Stewart who justtttttt got knocked out of bounds, instead we get our 3rd turnover in a row on a miscommunication. They didn’t force us to punt until very late in the 4th.
· Memphis was reallllllly close to getting that surprise onside kick to start the 2nd half, instead we scored with ease.
· Memphis just exposed the middle of the field all day. Burkett Pat Neal all really struggled in coverage, linebackers as was a theme all year bit down way too hard on the Play Action.
· Colubiale WIDE OPEN Drink.
· Beautiful TD from KZ to Snels for TD to put us up 45-34, avoids pressure back shoulder throw while being interfered with. TD
· We really had a chance to put this game away, up 45-34 with the ball 4th quarter after Memphis missed fg. We still went right down the field again, but ended but kicking a fg. Even still up 48-34 9 minutes left win probability well over 90% again.
· Tre Neal missed tackle 66 yard Memphis touchdown Pollard run 48-41
· Mac had two important punts in the 4th and they were both Awful.
· Anthony Miller is very good at football and I am very glad we never have to play him again.
· Can’t believe we almost lost this game because of TWO delay of games that benefited them. My head would have exploded if that 2nd FG went it.
· This was stressful even on the re-watch.
· Neal Clarke #14 mix-up on Miller td, also a very bad penalty by Bam Moore that drive.
· Both Overtime drives were Easy scores.
· Tre Neal really struggled at times this year, especially towards the end of the year. However he made THE PLAY to seal the championship, he will always have one of the most memorable plays in UCF history. It was a truly great play too, he read the play and made it, thank you Tre
· WHY ARE WE NOT STORMING THE FIELD
UCF Auburn 34-27
After the last two games where the UCF offense carried the team and was the best unit on the field, the UCF defense ended the season as the best unit on the field, in a game where Auburn had a Top 10 offense and defense. The UCF defense not only created 3 turnovers, but had 6!! Sacks and held one of the best RB’s in the country to 3.2 yards per carry and had 7 points of there own.
We really could not run the ball at all against them, basically all of our success on the ground came on scrambles by KZ similar to USF against us. Granted some of KZ’s runs were really well designed QB runs as well. I still remember being in the stadium and seeing that he was 2-13 in the first half and we were winning haha. He really was excellent in the 2nd half and made some beautiful throws one of the best halfs he played all year, we should have had more pts in the 2nd half. Man those two missed FG’s were awful and would have been talked about for years if we lost that game.
To the game:
· Yikes that first drive…
· Great first drive on D, perfectly designed blitz, then outstanding tackle by Kyle Gibson.
· We got lucky on that KZ fumble, could have been an Auburn Td.
· We were great defending screens.
· Pittman was incredible in this game.
· Back to Back plays where T-Hill destroys the Auburn center, one results in a sack that makes the FG tougher, miss.
· Great designed Milton run to set up fg 3-3.
· Wooten forces fumble, what a block by Griffin, the oooooooooooooooooooooooh from the crowd was so great.
· Scramble, KZ TD 10-3
· Griffin sack, destroys their Right Tackle.
· Not a great game for Marlon
· KZ missed Otis for a Wide Open TD would have been 17-3, great route by Otis.
· #14 Clarke is a really good tackler for a corner.
· Mike Hughes is lockdown.
· Great blitz forces FG for Auburn 10-6
· Big play to Trequan before the half to get FG 13-6 Half
· Auburn ran 48 plays in the first half and only had 6 points!!! Insane!
· Big Return by Auburn and they score right away, WR beat Kyle Gibson. Kind of think WR stepped out of bounds on the route. 13-13
· Best drive of the game by Auburn. Johnson down our throats. 20-13 Auburn
· Big throws to Akins on the drive to set up Otis TD. Beat man coverage, difference maker.
· Everyone knows this, but jeez Griffin and Pittman dominated this game.
· KZ found his groove, balling TD 27-20
· Jordan Akins blocking in this game is probably what made him a 3rd rounder.
· Beautiful throw and catch to Trequan, then FG Block…. still 27-20
· Damn they really had to body slam AK twice….
· Sevyon Lowry pressure was key on the Burkett pick 6, bumped him great read by Burkett.
· All-Time UCF moment.
· Half the Auburn fans left…
· Then Will Hastings (White WR #33 owned our soul for a bit.) 34-27.
· Great drive by UCF, after a good return by Mike. Huge catch by Akins to get us down to the 25. Then after a first down by Otis a total BS call on Akins takes away the 1st down they would have virtually sealed it inside the 10.
· End up missing 37 harder that would have sealed it, brutal. Game should have been over two different times, instead stressful finish.
· Hastings beats Clarke on 4th down then again after that to get across Mid-Field.
· Great blitz with Auburn in hurry-up, no one would expect that. Pressure by Griffin easy INT for Collier. Perfect Season.
2018 Positional Preview
Defense
Projected 4-3
DE’s
Probably the unit with the most questions on the roster and the biggest concern I have with the team. How do we get edge pressure?
#10 Titus Davis- We are very lucky to have Titus Davis who is a holdover O’Leary recruit, was brought in as a DE and played the pass rushing OLB across from Griffin last year. While his sack numbers were not really there I think he should be our best pass rusher and have some moments, he is a VERY important player for us this season
#7 Kenny Turnier- Was at Juco last year and had some decent production, he is going to have to be someone who can play and get into the pass-rushing rotation.
#35 Dedrion Bacote-Sweat- Have seen positive reviews, but never actually seen him play
#95 Jeremiah Zio
#97 Mason Cholewa
#96 Stephon Zayas
#93 Landon Woodson
#46 Davonchae Bryant
#41 TJ Pitts
Some Freshman who were solid recruits that I am not going to pretend to know a ton about. No real film on them.
Guys listed at Linebacker, but could be DE’s pass rushers as well
#12 Eric Mitchell- Looked decent at times last year
#58 Randy Charlton
DT’s
Some of these guys could probably line up at end at well, will be interesting to see what camp looks like.
#9 Trysten Hill-Awesome player, the perfect modern day 3-4 nose tackle. How will he play in a 4-3? Saw a picture of him and he looks to have lost a bit of weight, which is good. No matter what he is going to be a beast against the run, and I am optimistic about him, he is too talented to not make himself fit in. If it doesn’t work, going to have to question Burnham.
#91 Joey Connors- A player who played 3-4 end and looked out of place, should fit in really well inside in this 4-3. Not a very explosive player but does a good job getting his hands up and can get pressure every once in awhile. Will not be as good as any of the guys last year, but should be a solid rotation piece.
#98 Hayes could play DE, but I think he is too big for end and should be more effective rotating inside. He may have lost some weight tho, I am not sure.
#43 Aaron Cochran- I have the same thoughts on Cochran to be honest, both played some last year, but neither left a very strong impression, but can be bodies to keep everyone fresh.
#54 Aj Wooten- Wooten was a player who flashed a bit more when he played. Actually played pretty well vs Auburn and had a forced fumble.
Freshman with potential
#99 Tyrese Black
#55 Ike Walker
LBS ILB/OLB
#56 Pat Jaskinski- Pat was one of the players who improved the most from 2016-
He simply looked slow and not FBS level in 2016 and was a whole new player in 2017. Was one of the best linebackers I watched against the run last year and made some timely stops. Struggled a lot in coverage however, but that is to be expected with some of his limitations. In one of the UCFilm Rooms you even hear Chins say that the linebackers have struggled all year covering the slant, but they were working on it. It wasn’t just that, they didn’t have linebackers who could play man coverage and that is something that was exploited big time with the pass defense last year. Having said that I feel very excited to have a senior leader like Pat heading into next year and I am sure he will continue to improve.
#24 Gabriel Luyanda
I really liked most of what I saw from Luyanda he was actually getting a lot of first team reps early in the year, splitting with Burkett. He has really good speed and looked to be a sure tackler, I don’t recall much of him in coverage.
# 44 Nate Evans
Evans also looked good I thought when he got time. Had a really good game in the regular season game vs memphis and I think should be able to fit the 4-3 pretty well, it will be interesting to see who gets the majority of the reps besides Pat.
#28 Sean Burgess-Becker
The Bama transfer is an interesting one, I really though he flashed as a pass rusher in the 3-4 as an OLB, so it is unfortunate for him that the defense switches. Even still he should have the attributes. He played safety earlier in his career so is coverage skills at linebacker should be good and he has good speed. Which is something UCF needs next to Pat, I hope he breaks out.
Young guys who I haven’t seen much
#40 Eriq Gilyard Big Recruit
#33 Monterious Loggins- Great Name
#22 Kalia Davis
#17 Sterling Jones
#16 Demetreius Mayes
Corners
#20 Bam Moore- I thought Bam had a really good season. Freshman thrown to the fire, played most of the time opposite of Mike Hughes so got lots of targets and while he dropped at least 2 picks, he still made plays. He may have won us the Navy game and wasn’t out there getting beat like a drum like some other players. He did struggle towards the end of the year I must admit. I am very excited for his future and expect him to have a really good UCF career.
#14 Nevelle Clarke- This is someone I am not a big fan of. Seems to have talent, but just gets toasted time and time again. Think of the Temple game in 2016, USF 2017, Memphis 2017. As strange as it is to say even when teams had 3 or 4 Wr’s I would have almost rather played our base 3-4 defense with just two corners (Bam and Mike) than have #14 out there as the nickel. Now he has talent and missed a lot of last year due to suspension. He is a good tackler and seems to have good hands. He has 9 months to improve and coaches certainly think he has talent, I hope he has a great year.
#31 Aaron Robinson- Bama transfer with a pick in the spring game. I have high hopes for him, we are going to need him to play and play well
#21 Rashad Causey- Solid depth piece if needed, veteran senior
Lots of questions regarding the rest of the corners, all guys that I have not really seen. One note is I do think both Grant and Collier have corner potential.
Safeties
#25 Kyle Gibson- This was the one player who’s opinion I had of changed the most after all the re-watches. I kind of lumped him in with Tre Neal before, as an ok guy misses tackles but nothing special. I was wrong, Gibson showed why he is a First team all conference S and is on the Jim Thorpe award watch list and Nagurski Trophy watch list. Whereas Neal is not on either watch list nor was even honorable mention all conference. Gibson is really good in coverage rarely makes big mistakes and is very smart and reads the play well. A bellow-average tackler I would say, but I would rather have a bellow-average tackler and really good coverage player than the other way around. Tied for the team lead in interceptions and his picks vs Memphis and Maryland were two of the most athletic plays a UCF defender made. I am excited for his Senior year and think he could be the teams best defensive player.
#27 Richie Grant- Sounds like he is the guy to start at S, which makes sense since he played Neal’s position, and Collier backed up Gibson. For being a freshman Grant played really well, I think he has potential as a slot corner and wouldn’t mind seeing him there if the corner situation doesn’t work out as we hope. Made one big mistake against Memphis in AAC title game, but was mostly pretty solid.
#3 Antwan Collier- A player I really like talent wise. I was under the impression he was the guy who had overtaken Neal in spring, but it turns out it was really both he and Grant. He really flashed with some huge hits both on defense and special teams and he has great range as a Safety. He did however made two pretty big mistakes against Austin Peay and Temple. I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave him a chance to compete with Grant for that 2nd starting spot next to Gibson. No matter what he will get a ton of playing time and I am excited for his future.
There are plenty of other young defensive backs, but I am honestly not sure who will be playing safety or corner, the new staff may move them around. I know Macmillan was supposed to be a safety coming in.
Defensive Overall Thoughts
Overall the defensive final numbers last year were not great, but as I went over there were still around 5 games where they were the best unit on the field and made the difference in the win including against Auburn. Overall I have pretty big concern about the defense this year. The switch to the 4-3 doesn’t help, the staff has spent the last 3 recruiting cycles recruiting players who fit the 3-4 and coaching players on the 3-4. Trysten Hill is a perfect example of this, I am not sure how he is going to fir in the 4-3. We also just don’t have the edge pass rushers to thrive in a 4-3. We really need someone to breakout; otherwise teams are going to have all day against us to throw. We sometimes struggle to get pressure and that was with more talent. Losing Pittman and Guerad up front cannot be understated those guys were studs against the run, and could provide pass rush as well. Burkett and Neal were players who had their faults especially in coverage, but ended up making two of the bigger plays of the season in coverage. Both players will be missed, but especially Burkett his speed and play against the run and occasionally pass rushing was crucial to the team and there are questions if Luyanda and Evans can step in for him. Neal is a guy who seems replaceable and may have been replaced anyway, but Collier and Grant still made their own mistakes when they were in last year and Neal’s leadership is something that someone like me can’t properly value. Hopefully experience last year can help the two of them. Mike Hughes may have been the best corner in the country, if you read some of what I wrote above you know how highly I think of him. He was simply a game changer. Even though we have guys like Robinson (Bama) Moore and Clarke who have experience. You don’t replace a guy who never made mistakes and make huge game changing plays and expect everything to go great. Mike Hughes also won a national championship in JUCO in 2016 then UCF 2017, put your money on the Vikes to win the SUPERBOWL. Then you simply cannot replace a Shaquem Griffin, the leadership, the talent, the pass rushing and the ability to makes plays when needed. I also think just having him on the field balling out with ONE HAND sets such a great example for everyone else on the field. It is like “Oh shit this guy is out here doing this with one hand I have to get it together.” While there is no clear replacement for him, no one would be able to do it anyway.
2018 Positional Preview
Offense I put stats here
QB
#10 McKenzie Milton 4,037 yds 67% 10.2 YPA (lol) 37 Touchdowns 9 Ints 613 yds Rushing 8 TDs 45 Total touchdowns
I am not sure there is a player who improved more in college football than McKenzie Milton. Was probably the 3rd best qb in all of college football and played big in all the biggest games. His deep ball accuracy was second to none especially for a QB without a huge arm. He always has the ability to make plays with his legs as well and I really hope we still keep a lot of the designed runs in for him this year. A running QB is not something JH has had a lot of in his career. His accuracy on these intermediate to deep throws was also incredible and he perfected the swing passes to Otis and AK, which are tougher than he looks. After the best season by a UCF qb ever last year even with a new coach he is the biggest reason to be excited about UCF football again this year. Unless something unexpected happens he is on pace to be the best football player in UCF history when he is done here.
#8 Darriel Mack I am not even going to put Hayden Kingston here. No offense to Hayden, but Mack NEEDS to win this backup QB job. It is not out of the realm of possibilities that KZ could leave early after another huge year. He could think to himself even if he is not going to be a high draft pick. What else can I prove here? I am not going to automatically grow 3 inches. Even if he stays by the time 2020 rolls around we need a QB and Mack needs to show signs he could be that next guy in line. No matter what we need some new QB recruits. I pray Mckenzie stays for his Sr. year. On Mack though he has the attributes; huge dude, big arm good runner, really good high school tape just hope he begins to put it together. I am sure we will see him in SC State game.
RB
#9 Adrian Killins Jr 123 cars 790 yds 6.4 YPC 10 TDs 25 catches 169 yds 1 td
Everyone knows the deal with AK, probably the fastest player in the country and an A+ fit for the frost system. I am slightly concerned with how he fits into the more north-south running style of coach JH. Now AK can still run between the tackles but he really succeeds when he gets out on the perimeter. No matter what he is going to make big plays he always does.
#2 Otis Anderson 69 Car 494 yds 7.2 YPC 3 TDs 30 Catches 351 yds 3 TDs
Otis might be listed as a WR, but I still think his best position is RB and I think he is the best RB on the team. The former #26 was most the most productive RB the 2nd half of the year and had an even better YPC than AK. People like to say someone can do it all, but Otis truly can. I am not concerned about him running it up the middle because he was excellent between the tackles. What differentiates him from AK is his one and 2 cut moves in tight spaces. Look at his run vs UCONN as an example. He also causes such problems as a route runner at RB, and you have the ability to flex him out and go 5 wide and have him run routes like a WR and cause mismatches everywhere. Otis is like a Queen on the chessboard and I really hope JH uses him like Frost did.
#4 Taj McGowan 69 Car 235 yds 3.4 YPC 8 tds 7 catches 36 yds
Taj had the same number of carries as Otis and HALF as many yards rushing. Taj got off to a good start, but really slowed down as the season went along. He really struggled in short yardage getting stuffed on crucial 4th downs vs Navy and SMU. Here are his stats 2nd half of the year
APU 3 car 10 yds
SMU 6 car 13 yds
UCONN 4 car 10 yds
Temple 5 car 6 yds
Then the staff bailed and rode with AK and Otis when it was winning time. I would expect for him to be around 4th or 5th on depth chart
#30 Greg McCRae 25 Car 148 yds 5.9 ypc 2 tds
McCrae really doesn’t look the part, he is not super big nor does he looks super fast. However he looks really damn effective, I thought he was much more effective than McGowan and he seemed to be the Spring’s breakout player. I am sure he will get looks early in the year and am interested to see how he does.
#24 Bentavious Thompson Rfr
Incredible name and someone who for sure looks the part and seems to be a good fit for JH’s offense. Looked good in the spring game and am excited to see how he looks in game action. One note is that with the loss of Hamilton and Richardson and no RB in the 2018 class I do think it is important that UCF adds 1 or 2 good Rb’s in the 2019 class.
WR
#5 Dredrick Snelson 46 rec 695 yds 9 total TD’s
Maybe the best name on the team, also maybe the best weapon on the team. Snelson almost exclusively played in the slot last year and it sounds like he will do that again this year. Now I expect his targets to go up, but he should remain in the slot and really thrives in that role. Although he is the new #1 I don’t necessarily expect him to ‘take over” for Treqan they are different players. He is a really good route runner and seems to have good chemistry with KZ, a big year should be coming.
#13 Gabe Davis 27 rec 391 yds 4 TD’s
Davis was hot and cold throughout the year, but made some huge plays and flashed why I think he is the breakout player for UCF this year. I expect him to start on the outside this year and be probably a number 2 option besides Snelson with the upside of being the number one. He is a guy who is faster than he looks like Smith and does a great job using is body to shield off defenders. Also important to remember he is a true sophomore. Davis is going to be really good for a long time.
#17 Marlon Williams 17 rec 270 2 TD’s
Marlon is a guy who I don’t expect to start, but can plug into any role and be productive. He can play outside or inside and be productive, also very good on sweeps and screens. Marlon is one of the most impressive players I have seen at WR with the ball in his hands. He never goes down at first contact and is really good on outside screens, he is for sure a player to be excited about.
#16 Tre Nixon 1 rec 19 yds at Ole Miss
Nixon is another guy who has gotten great reviews at spring, however it is concerning he couldn’t get on the field at Ole Miss. Considering most UCF fans would think our skill guys were better than Ole Miss’ last year it is not a great sign. However he seems to be a really good fit as a deep shot guy for JH’s offense.
#6 Tristan Payton 12 rec 132 yds 1 td (2016)
After playing special teams last year TP is back at WR. UCF fans know all about his talent as well as his troubles. I personally feel like he is going to be almost exclusively as a deep threat as he seemed to really excel in that role in the spring. He never seemed to be much more than that in his career, but that could still be a big part of the team.
#3 Jaquarius Bargnare 6 Rec 15 yds (2016)
Redshirted last year, seems to me like he would be the backup to Snelson in the slot, but could be tough to get on the field since when Snelson was out last year UCF put Otis in the slot and he was very productive.
#11 Cam Stewart 6 rec 197 yds 1 td
Cam was the beneficiary of a couple of blown coverages vs bad teams, but you still have to make the play and he did. He is a solid Senior, who seems like a good guy to have around and can play if needed.
#84 Kevon Ahmad
Very excited about this kid, but just hope he redshirts and has 4 more years of eligibility,
Tight End
#86 Michael Colubiale 10 REC 221 yds 1 TD
It was great getting #colubialeforheisman back for a 6th year as he is really the only TE with exp. here. For some reason Michael was always WIDE open on his catches. I honestly believe no one felt the need to cover the little undersized white skinny Tight End. I don’t recall him making a catch in man coverage where he had to beat someone, but he made some big catches against zone.
#88 Jake Hescock
That name… This would be my favorite if I had to pick who would have the most catches next year. Could end up being incredibly wrong, there could be 5 different guys who could take the reigns, but I like his background and his measurements make sense for the role.
#89 Anthony Robertson
He actually played some snaps in garbage time that I watched, but did not record any catches. He is a great guy in celebrations on the sideline, and has a solid recruiting background.
#80 Chris Deloach
Modest numbers in JUCO, we shall see.
#86 Brett Bell
Modest numbers in JUCO, we shall see. However really strong prospect coming out of high school.
Because of how damn good Marlon Williams is after the catch I had thoughts of him maybe playing some TE like Colubiale, but he actually lost weight this summer.
Offensive Line
#72 Jordan Johnson
1st team all conference and was the best UCF OL in my opinion, so good at getting to the 2nd level and rarely made mistakes. Super athletic center and was the perfect guy for the Frost offense being able to get out and move. Very excited to have him moving forward.
#78 Wyatt Miller
Really solid player who had some troubles vs Auburn, but rarely made any mistakes throughout the season, someone mentioned him maybe moving to left tackle. I would just keep him where he is, teams move around their best pass rusher anyway.
#77 Jake Brown
Relatively unknown going into the season, Started 11 games and was very solid. I seem to recall some rumblings he quit the team, but excited to have him going into 2018, can play guard or tackle.
#53 Tyler Hudanick
Played 9 games started 2. Seems to have injury issues, also seems to be a senior leader so hopefully he can stay healthy and compete for a starting spot and guard.
#73 Sam Jackson
Reports say he tore his ACL very unfortunate
#61 Parker Boudreaux.
Transfer from Notre Dame, looks like Brock Lesner. Sounded like he was playing with first team in spring ball, hopefully he is a stud and can be a 3 year starter
#60 Josh McMullen
Juco Guy
#79 Trevor Elbert
JUCO guy who was a Texas A&m commit back in the day. Some reports said he was with first team in spring.
The other guys I really don’t know all that much about and haven’t watched any of them. I feel pretty confident 5 guys of the guys I mentioned will be the 5 starters.
Offensive Ramblings, thoughts.
On the surface the offense should be top 5 again lots of talent returns including maybe the best returning QB in college football. However, there are some concerns. #1 being obviously the coaching change, there are some similarities to the USF situation last year.
1. loaded team coming back, but lost two NFL guys from offense. When it came to USF everyone seemed to forget they lost their best skill guy ever in Marlon Mack and an NFL draft pick in Rodney Adams as well, those guys were difference makers and USF clearly missed them. We lost Trequan Smith who was by far our best WR and the one guy who truly could always win one on one and opened up the field for so many other players. While we have some good Wr’s coming back I don’t think we have anyone who is going to be a day 2 NFL draft pick in 2019. Jordan Akins was also a day 2 pick and while his numbers weren’t eye popping like Trequan’s. He was used a little more sparingly as it seems he was dinged up. However they unleashed him when needed and he was a huge mismatch problem in the middle of the field. He was massive in the Auburn and Memphis games. We are going to go from an NFL guy to a complete unknown at tight end and this is no joke.
2. USF went from a spread up-tempo to a spread with a focus on downfield running with a coordinator who has never had a running QB that was even more up-tempo than before. Talk to any USF fan and they will tell you how much worse the 2017 offense was than the 2016 offense. The 2017 offense last year was actually more up-tempo and fast but certainly not more effective. They went form 4th in the country in yards per play to 21st. 21st is still good, but UCF going from#2 to #19 would be a big deal of a drop off.
Watching Missouri’s offense from last year a concern I have is a lot of success is absolute Bombs thrown by Drew Lock. I am talking like 65-70 yards down the field on a rope to the sideline. While KZ is one of the best deep ball throwers in the country his range is more 40-50 yards where Lock is throwing these farther than anyone in the country. I am sure JH will adjust the offense to KZ’s strength just something I noticed.
A concern I have is that the offense is also a different style, my biggest concern is that JH’s offense is in 11 personal 3 WR 1 TE 1 RB on a whopping 94% of plays whereas UCF only was in 11 personal 59% of the time. UCF had lots of success with formations with multiple RB’s and Multiple TE’s which allowed for Anderson and Killins to be out there together, I hope JH is not stubborn and is plays to his roster’s talent. Those numbers came from this great article. http://power6analytics.com/breaking...s-and-what-to-expect-in-2018-using-analytics/
Using the same formation over and over again has it advantages, but mostly is about my players are better than your players which I think was a big reason that Heupel’s Missouri offense put up a lot of points in 2017, that typically came against lesser opponents. The Tigers went 7-6, beating seven teams that did not play in a bowl game (or were FCS) and losing to six teams that did reach a bowl. Against the seven teams that did not make a bowl, Missouri averaged 54.3 points per game, never scoring fewer than 45. Against the six opponents that did play in a bowl, the Tigers averaged 18 points per game, only twice scoring more than 20. Which could mean UCF is going to light the some teams the hell up like ECU and UCONN they could struggle against some of the better teams.
This is a small nit-pick, but I am also not a fan of how virtually every pass play is a Play-action fake. It feels like this defeats the purpose of Play-Action when you run it every time. However JH has shown the ability to adjust in his time as a play-caller as his Missouri offenses looked different than his OU offenses and I trust he will make the best of it.
The final thing I wanted to address that slightly annoys me is was when everyone was talking about how the offense is faster in the spring. Being faster does not mean the offense will be better. USF was faster in 2017 than 2016 they certainly were not better. UCF actually slowed things down in 2017 as compared to 2016 when the offense struggled so much. I hope we find the right mix as we have lots of players who should get on the field. Overall though this should be a top 10 offense and has one of the highest ceilings in the country with McKenzie Milton. Plus a lot of really really really good football players and an offensive line that should be very good as well. I really like Elarbee and think he will be a difference maker on the offensive line his CV is impressive and I thought it was a good sign Mizzou was so pissed he left.
Overall thoughts on 2018
Why there are some questions on both sides of the ball at the end of the day this is a very talented team, with some coaches with great pedigree on both sides of the ball. UCF should be favorite in 11 of the 12 games on the schedule and should be in line for double digit wins. I don’t expect to go undefeated as I believe the schedule is tougher this year with 3 loseable non-con games and a similar conference schedule. I think with a tiny step back on offense like #2 to #10 and a possible step back on defense we could be more similar to 2017 Memphis than 2017 UCF and going to have to simply outscore teams which could cause for some slip-ups. I think 9-10 wins is most likely this year, however another step forward should come in 2019 as long as Milton returns. Most all of the Skill guys and other contributing players will be back and year 2 with the new coaching staff we should expect to have possibly another undefeated season in 2019. I will say though that anything short of at least a division title would be extremely disappointing and probably a failure of a season. USF should be rebuilding this year, Temple is at home and has a tough schedule, Cincy is a year away and UCONN and ECU are bad at football. Excited to talk football and Go Knights, Charge on.
FIU 61-17
· Really showed how good Milton could be after last years struggles.
· Made some outstanding throws, especially the throws to Smith and Akins in the first half.
· Also would have been interesting to see what RB rotation would have been had J-Ham stayed Healthy, he was the Lead guy.
· Gabe Davis Started the game as a True Freshman and played very well, it was a sign of things to come and the beginning of what should be an excellent UCF career.
· It was incredible the difference between Chris Johnson (#46) and Mike Hughes, talking about an NFL 1st round pick, and a player who is probably more FCS level, was absolutely roasted by FIU on their 1st Touchdown.
· This was also a very impressive game from Kyle Gibson, he has really flying round and solid in coverage.
Maryland 38-10
· The defense got a lot of slack latter in year, after playing 11 straight weeks and struggling in the last two weeks of the year, but there were plenty of games where they were the best of the four units on the field. This was certainly one of those games. The offense really didn’t play all that well, but the defense was outstanding especially the front 3 of Hill Guerad and Pittman, they completely shut down the run and were able to get constant pressure throughout.
· It was another really nice game by Kyle Gibson, who on my 2nd viewing of these games was better than I remember.
· Gabriel Luyanda also flashed a bit in this game which was good to see since he should be a starter this year in the 4-3 besides Pat.
· The offense really wasn’t great, the numbers look nice at the end, but I would say this was the worst offensive performance of the year. Taj got 2 td’s in this game, but was very ineffective throughout, averaging only 2.8 ypc and just generally looked slow and went down at first contact. His longest run was only 7 yards.
· The real difference in the game for the offense was Jordan Akins had an excellent game blocking and in the passing game and KZ running was a big plus.
Memphis 40-13
Probably the teams best overall game of the season all things consider. This was another game where the UCF defense was the best unit on the field. They held Memphis offense to 7 points!! 7!. They averaged about 50 in all other games during the season. The other 6 points were on the last play of the game on a play where #46 just got beat really bad again, but was when all the UCF reserves where in the game.
· This was the first big Shaquem game of 2017, Dude was all over the field, had that big sack/strip when Memphis was driving to take the lead.
· Another game where Luyanda/Hughes/Gibson really flashed.
· Gibson made an outstanding play for the 2nd half interception and players simply don’t get open on Mike Hughes.
Offense- Bizarre first half, we had our longest drive I can remember under Frost to open the scoring on the first drive, 17 play 7 minute drive.
· Milton struggled a bit in the first half, but after the big AK 96 yard touchdown the offense was on fire, couple great TD’s by Trepan, but this was really the AK game.
· Also the first time we saw a lot of Otis running the ball, who was super effective as he always is.
· Some notes on some young guys, really liked what I saw from Collier when he was in the game, has a lot of really nice tools
· Eric Mitchell who might be playing some DE this year also had a couple of good rushes when he got some snaps as well.
Cincy 51-23
This was one of the best offensive games I have ever seen anyone play. Something Frost said himself.
· Scored on every drive and had 51 points in 3 quarters (lightning) and 40 plays!! That is more than a point a play, that is better than basketball teams have per possession.
· Insane game from Trequan, 4 touchdowns 170 yards on 6 touches(People are underestimating how much we are going to miss him) . I
· t was also the first time Marlon Williams flashed and showed his ability with the ball in his hands.
· Milton had a QBR of 99.2 in this game
The defense however was not great in this game, biggest struggle was getting off the field on 3rd downs and the passing game over the middle of the field.
· The linebackers (Burkett and Pat) really struggled in coverage and were often not deep enough or too deep in their zone.
· They also really struggle to track the QB Moore running who had 13 75 2tds and that is not his game.
· The safties Gibson and Neal did not have one of their better games either.
· Luckily they were able to make key plays when needed like Seyvon Lowry getting his 2nd pick in 2 games.
ECU 63-21
ECU is really bad.
On offense this was basically a scrimmage, it felt like UCF was going to score every drive and the only thing that could stop them was a mistake.
· An interesting note from this game was Otis Anderson basically playing Full-Time Slot WR filling in for Nelson who was sitting out this game and was excellent. 7 catches for 76 yards. This could be something we see more of this year with it looking like Anderson getting a lot of snaps at WR.
· Ho-Hum another 93 yard performance from TreQuan.
Defense mostly played well, ECU wracked up some meaningless yards and points playing catch-up but UCF had constant pressure throughout the game.
· One of those guys getting pressure was Titus Davis, which is very important going into this year as he has moved to DE and is the only returner we have that has shown an ability to get pressure on the QB.
Garbage Time notes
· Nate Evans and Luyanda both played well in the snaps they had along with Collier
· Richie Grant is such a versatile player, can play slot corner and safety, excited for him this year.
· Joey Connors I focused on a lot, doesn’t seem to have much of pass-rushing talent mostly tries to bat passes down. This was fine for this group, but this year we are gonna need him to be a threat to get pressure on the QB
· Greg McCrae looked good, more effective than Taj.
Navy 31-21
Another game that people forget how good the UCF defense was. They were the best unit on the field.
· Very strange, but UCF basically shut the triple option down for the most part. 14 of Navy’s 21 points came off of huge coverage busts in the passing game, one by Kyle Gibson and one really bad one by Tre Neal.
· Overall though an incredible performance by Tony Guerad Pat and Burkett. All 3 just had some great solo stops on huge down.
· Most Everyone remembers Bam Moore’s hit from this game, but he was basically responsible for all 3 Navy turnovers. Excellent game by him.
This was a strange on the re-watch. We were much better than Navy I thought, it could have been 21-0 early but some mistakes let them hang around and make is scarrier than it should have been.
· One of those drives that should have ended in points went down because Milton actually went out injured around the 30 yard line and on the next play Vedral mishandled the snap and basically ruined the drive.
· Really good game by Snelson and Akins.
· Otis Anderson was so good on that game clinching drive.
· AK is fast.
Austin Peay 73-33
· One of the strangest games I can remember watching. 2 Kick return scores, an awful targeting call. Frost losing his mind, UCF getting 30 penalty yards in 2 plays. 2 deflected passes ending in APU touchdowns.
· The score looks ugly for the defense, but re-watching it wasn’t that concerning of a performance, I thought they played much worse vs Cincy.
· Shaquem scored a td so it is funny to say, but probably his worst game where he actually played at UCF, that is how you know this game was a fluke.
· Milton missed one throw the entire game.
· We surprisingly could not run the ball (Otis didn’t play)
· It didn’t matter.
· Best game as a Knight for Snelson 2 tds and one of themSC top play. He is so good in the slot when he gets 1 on 1 with the Safety
· This was a rough one for Collier, showed why he is a true freshman.
SMU 31-24
Another game where the defense was the best unit on the field and a game that should not have been as close as it was. SMU was one of the better offenses in the country and UCF only gave up 17 points to them.
· Tre Neal who had some rough games had probably his best game of the year.
· Had a crucial strip near the goal-line to cause a turnover in a big point in the game.
· Defense also made huge stops at the end when SMU could have tied it.
· Mike Hughes was PHENOMENAL in this game. Held Cortland Sutton to 5 rec 46 yards and one of those catches on Hughes was Great coverage and an insane sideline catch. 2 of his other catches were not on Hughes.
· While we have some corners with experience coming back, we are going to miss Hughes blue chip talent and ability to take away half the field so much.
· We had over 600 yards and somehow only 31 points.
· Should have been so much more, missed 4th down conversion, bad akins fumble inside the 10, took a really bad sack out of FG range.
· However there were still plenty of positives, AK was great in this game his two big touchdowns runs were great runs, but also set up by two great blocks. One by Jordan Johnson and one by Aaron Evans.
· Gabe Davis TD was an insane throw against the cover two by KZ and showed how fast Davis really is for a big guy.
· Akins had a really good game, but that fumble he had was costly.
· The pick 6 by KZ was easily his worst play of the year and let them hang around.
· 141 for Trequan btw.
UCF UCONN 49-24
This was all-around a pretty sloppy game for UCF, but luckily UCONN is bad.
Some of UCF’s drives were aided by UCONN mistakes, and the defense had two really bad drives.
· UCF also almost went two full quarters without scoring which was extremely bizarre.
· KZ played really well and 2 big performances by 2 true Freshman
· Anderson 121 yds 2 tds
· Gabe Davis 8 95 yds, probably Davis’ best game of the year
· Another 120 1 td for Trepan
On D it was a really good game for Kyle Gibson, not so much for Brandon Moore and Pat Jasinski in coverage.
· UCF’s best defense was probably man, but far too often when Neal and Jasinski had to play man they would be exposed.
· Neal got torched twice in man coverage this game, one was a PI.
· Marlon Williams continued to showcase what he can do in the YAC department
UCF Temple 45-19
I was actually pretty worried about this game I remember during the year, and it was pretty tight early on. Temple was up 10-7 in the 2nd, but 3 turnovers basically ended the game. The defense was excellent almost everyone had a part to play, especially the front 7.
· Griffin was insane this game, he stripped the ball with his arm that doesn’t have a hand for a turnover in the first half. Then in the 2nd half he covered a WR in man coverage 30 yards down the field an intercepted the ball, just insane.
· This was another game where Collier showed great athleticism and potential, but also took a Tre Neal like route to a ball over the top and got beat for a long Touchdown in garbage time.
· Offense really did not have to do a ton with such a short-field, but the standouts were KZ 5 Tochdowns
· Otis 76 yds 1 td
· Smith 89 yds 2 tds and two insane catches. Especially that one on the sideline.
· This was also the game where they finally gave up on Taj he had 5 carries for 6 yards and continued the trend of getting stuffed on key short-yardage plays.
· Burgess-Becker got some more snaps this game and it will be interesting to see what kind of role he has for next season in the new defense, he is certainly athletic.
UCF USF 49-42
This game I went a little more in-depth, was trying to see what most of the issues were on D, cause this was the defenses worst game to this point. However it wasn’t as bad as I remember, the reason for the really high point totals and yardage totals was mostly due to the game being a super fast paced game with a ton of plays and possessions. The defense did have a bunch of crucial stops in the 2nd half when the offense was sputtering in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. This game had 32 possessions, by comparison the navy game had 22, that is a huge difference.
The offense actually struggled more than I thought, they scored on 6 possession but came away empty on 10 possessions that was one of their worst ratios of the year. However the first and fourth quarter were some of the best football they played considering the competition. Charlie Strong actually made an outstanding adjustment on defense that really swung the game after UCF scored on their first 3 possessions. They took off their all-time leading tackler and basically played a 3-1-7. 7 defensive backs on the field and it really helped them against UCF’s speed. You would think then UCF would be able to run the ball more effectively, but that was not the case. #10 Senat for USF had an unreal game and was latter drafted in the 3rd round.
Defensively UCF basically completely shut down USF’s traditional running game. Their 2 rb’s combined for 19 CAR for 48 yards. 2 yards a carry. Basically it was all Flowers on broken plays and scrambles, he was absurd. I also want to point out the USF played great on defense for the most part, they had their greatest player in school history have their greatest game in school history and they still lost. UCF was the much better team overall.
Now to get into the game flow and some of the breakdowns on D
· First USF TD I have no idea what the Hell Tre Neal was doing on the screen, awful missed tackle, terrible route to the ball. Then Burkett gets semi-embarrassed on national tv 7-0 Bulls.
· 2nd drive big play for USF Clarke gets beat bad by the tight end. Great 4th down stop by Pat 7-7
· UCF then was having a lot of success going east-west on the perimeter early on, and Snelson’s touchdown was actually the same play they ended up scoring on latter just in a smaller window. 14-7 UCF
· Another big play by McCants and another mistake by Tre Neal, should have broken the ball up at the 50, instead ball is caught and he gets another 30 yards after that.
· USF misses FG
· Great drive by Milton, another play where somehow Colubiale is somehow Wide open.
· Just a disgusting play by Milton on the option to AK. 21-7 UCF
· Then we got a stop had the ball at Midfield , I really think if we score here the game might have been over, but this is where USF started playing 7 sometimes 8 defensive backs, have to give credit to Strong was a great adjustment. Could be something teams try against us this year.
· ANOTHER massive play by McCants, and this one was zone but clearly #14 Clarke’s mistake. In his defense Flowers had was too much time, but UCF was playing Cover 3 and Clarke left his zone, which allowed a huge play by McCants.
· Then we got them backed up to 3rd and 18 and #14 gets beat one on one for a touchdown. No excuse for that in that situation. 21-13 UCF
· ANOTHER big play for McCants, but this was just all Flowers, broke tackle of Griffin, kept play alive found McCants.
· Wilcox beat Griffin 1v1 for Td, just a great throw and catch.
· USF stopped us again 4 possessions in a row.
· Hughes had a great breakup on a deep ball to MVS and then just stoned him for a great INT, ran the route for him. Crazy how USF had over 500 yards passing and almost none was at Hughes.
2nd Half
· After a good drive we got stop on 4th down, KZ had Davis open, but just missed him. Wasn’t the best route from Davis.
· Great effort by Griffin for Sack on Flowers to end drive
· 2 big first down catches by Trequan then great touchdown pass from KZ to Davis on the outside, hopefully more of that to come this year.
· This is when flowers really got lose running, none of these plays were designed runs all scrambles. UCF then went to a spy latter on, but he still was effective.
· First play next drive KZ throws behind Trequan, great driving pick by USF
· Missed tackle by Tre Neal leads to big first down.
· Then Flowers shakes Gibson out of his shoes for a TD. 34-28 USF
· Both teams exchange a few stops, this was huge as the game could have gotten away from us, great job by the defense.
· We also got stopped on 3rd and 4th and 1, Senat destroyed us again.
· Colubiale wide open again, sets up big TD to Snelson, which was actually 3rd and long. Same play we scored on earlier. Empty back field, fake jet sweep then Snelson who is in the slot basically runs a corner post route, which is a bit different that what you would normally see, fools USF both times. 35-34 UCF
· Knight lights, place is LIt.
· USF Wr actually makes an insane catch on 3rd 18 on this drive. UCF ends up stopping USF on this drive thanks to a well designed blitz and perfect coverage by Hughes on MVS.
· This next drive was such a great drive, did not go conservative, huge catch by Smith, then the screen to Otis, perfect call.
· So UCF is up 7 with 2:20 left some say it would be better to go for 2. If we get it you go up 9 and end the game, if you don’t even if USF scores the aren’t gonna go for 2. Even still we are up 8 USF has to score and get conversion, our win probability is around 95%.
· Then I have watched this last play a lot and am still not sure who blew the coverage. Pat Neal and Moore could all have been the culprits, I tend to think initially Moore should have switched with Pat, since they had a RB out wide but Neal also should have recognized that and helped Pat instead of playing short zone. No matter what it was an unacceptable mistake. Especially on 1st and 20.
· Great play by Flowers on conversion.
· Mike Hughes, C-ya 49-42
· USF actually almost breaks the return after this.
· Gret play by Richie Grant after he got beat, we win. Why didn’t they let us rush the field? lame.
· Best game in school history
UCF Memphis 62-55
While I thought the defense played better than the score in the USF game, this was just a complete shootout and there wasn’t a ton to like for the defense, they were mostly bad.
· KZ had one of the greatest games by a UCF player ever. While he had 3 ints, two were off deflections and not his fault and the other was super late with little time left trying to get into fg range.
· Overall he had over 550 yards and 6 touchdowns. 494 passing. He had 5 touchdown passes that totaled24 48 50 34 and 28. Some of these throws like the throw to Smith and Akins in the first half were absolute dimes.
· This was Snelson’s best game of his career, even tho he had a bad fumble that really changed the momentum of the game when we could have pulled away and one of the int’s was on him. Overall he still had 9 145 2 tds
· Huge games also for Trequan and Akins we are really going to miss their ability to win one-on-one matches.
· Another big Otis game 113 rushing 1 td.
· Defensively it is hard to say someone was amazing with that performance, but Griffin really was. Constant pressure, 2 sacks fumble recovery. Relentless.
· Anthony Miller ate Clarke #14 for Breakfast Lunch and Dinner.
· Richie Grant who came in for Neal at points in this game, did get really beat bad on one play action play at the end of the first quarter against the TE Dykes, hopefully some more experience and he will be ready to go this year.
· Memphis also just runs some beautiful stuff on offense Norvell will be gone after this year.
· Similar to the USF game we had a few chances to put this close to out of reach up 24-14 with the ball, Memphis really with no hope of stopping us, Snelson fumbled which allowed them to get back in the game.
· Tre neal missed tackle touchdown Memphis. 24-21 UCF
· Anthony Miller TOASTS #14 Clarke 68 yds 28-24 Memphis
· Forgot about this play, insane play by Milton to throw to Stewart who justtttttt got knocked out of bounds, instead we get our 3rd turnover in a row on a miscommunication. They didn’t force us to punt until very late in the 4th.
· Memphis was reallllllly close to getting that surprise onside kick to start the 2nd half, instead we scored with ease.
· Memphis just exposed the middle of the field all day. Burkett Pat Neal all really struggled in coverage, linebackers as was a theme all year bit down way too hard on the Play Action.
· Colubiale WIDE OPEN Drink.
· Beautiful TD from KZ to Snels for TD to put us up 45-34, avoids pressure back shoulder throw while being interfered with. TD
· We really had a chance to put this game away, up 45-34 with the ball 4th quarter after Memphis missed fg. We still went right down the field again, but ended but kicking a fg. Even still up 48-34 9 minutes left win probability well over 90% again.
· Tre Neal missed tackle 66 yard Memphis touchdown Pollard run 48-41
· Mac had two important punts in the 4th and they were both Awful.
· Anthony Miller is very good at football and I am very glad we never have to play him again.
· Can’t believe we almost lost this game because of TWO delay of games that benefited them. My head would have exploded if that 2nd FG went it.
· This was stressful even on the re-watch.
· Neal Clarke #14 mix-up on Miller td, also a very bad penalty by Bam Moore that drive.
· Both Overtime drives were Easy scores.
· Tre Neal really struggled at times this year, especially towards the end of the year. However he made THE PLAY to seal the championship, he will always have one of the most memorable plays in UCF history. It was a truly great play too, he read the play and made it, thank you Tre
· WHY ARE WE NOT STORMING THE FIELD
UCF Auburn 34-27
After the last two games where the UCF offense carried the team and was the best unit on the field, the UCF defense ended the season as the best unit on the field, in a game where Auburn had a Top 10 offense and defense. The UCF defense not only created 3 turnovers, but had 6!! Sacks and held one of the best RB’s in the country to 3.2 yards per carry and had 7 points of there own.
We really could not run the ball at all against them, basically all of our success on the ground came on scrambles by KZ similar to USF against us. Granted some of KZ’s runs were really well designed QB runs as well. I still remember being in the stadium and seeing that he was 2-13 in the first half and we were winning haha. He really was excellent in the 2nd half and made some beautiful throws one of the best halfs he played all year, we should have had more pts in the 2nd half. Man those two missed FG’s were awful and would have been talked about for years if we lost that game.
To the game:
· Yikes that first drive…
· Great first drive on D, perfectly designed blitz, then outstanding tackle by Kyle Gibson.
· We got lucky on that KZ fumble, could have been an Auburn Td.
· We were great defending screens.
· Pittman was incredible in this game.
· Back to Back plays where T-Hill destroys the Auburn center, one results in a sack that makes the FG tougher, miss.
· Great designed Milton run to set up fg 3-3.
· Wooten forces fumble, what a block by Griffin, the oooooooooooooooooooooooh from the crowd was so great.
· Scramble, KZ TD 10-3
· Griffin sack, destroys their Right Tackle.
· Not a great game for Marlon
· KZ missed Otis for a Wide Open TD would have been 17-3, great route by Otis.
· #14 Clarke is a really good tackler for a corner.
· Mike Hughes is lockdown.
· Great blitz forces FG for Auburn 10-6
· Big play to Trequan before the half to get FG 13-6 Half
· Auburn ran 48 plays in the first half and only had 6 points!!! Insane!
· Big Return by Auburn and they score right away, WR beat Kyle Gibson. Kind of think WR stepped out of bounds on the route. 13-13
· Best drive of the game by Auburn. Johnson down our throats. 20-13 Auburn
· Big throws to Akins on the drive to set up Otis TD. Beat man coverage, difference maker.
· Everyone knows this, but jeez Griffin and Pittman dominated this game.
· KZ found his groove, balling TD 27-20
· Jordan Akins blocking in this game is probably what made him a 3rd rounder.
· Beautiful throw and catch to Trequan, then FG Block…. still 27-20
· Damn they really had to body slam AK twice….
· Sevyon Lowry pressure was key on the Burkett pick 6, bumped him great read by Burkett.
· All-Time UCF moment.
· Half the Auburn fans left…
· Then Will Hastings (White WR #33 owned our soul for a bit.) 34-27.
· Great drive by UCF, after a good return by Mike. Huge catch by Akins to get us down to the 25. Then after a first down by Otis a total BS call on Akins takes away the 1st down they would have virtually sealed it inside the 10.
· End up missing 37 harder that would have sealed it, brutal. Game should have been over two different times, instead stressful finish.
· Hastings beats Clarke on 4th down then again after that to get across Mid-Field.
· Great blitz with Auburn in hurry-up, no one would expect that. Pressure by Griffin easy INT for Collier. Perfect Season.
2018 Positional Preview
Defense
Projected 4-3
DE’s
Probably the unit with the most questions on the roster and the biggest concern I have with the team. How do we get edge pressure?
#10 Titus Davis- We are very lucky to have Titus Davis who is a holdover O’Leary recruit, was brought in as a DE and played the pass rushing OLB across from Griffin last year. While his sack numbers were not really there I think he should be our best pass rusher and have some moments, he is a VERY important player for us this season
#7 Kenny Turnier- Was at Juco last year and had some decent production, he is going to have to be someone who can play and get into the pass-rushing rotation.
#35 Dedrion Bacote-Sweat- Have seen positive reviews, but never actually seen him play
#95 Jeremiah Zio
#97 Mason Cholewa
#96 Stephon Zayas
#93 Landon Woodson
#46 Davonchae Bryant
#41 TJ Pitts
Some Freshman who were solid recruits that I am not going to pretend to know a ton about. No real film on them.
Guys listed at Linebacker, but could be DE’s pass rushers as well
#12 Eric Mitchell- Looked decent at times last year
#58 Randy Charlton
DT’s
Some of these guys could probably line up at end at well, will be interesting to see what camp looks like.
#9 Trysten Hill-Awesome player, the perfect modern day 3-4 nose tackle. How will he play in a 4-3? Saw a picture of him and he looks to have lost a bit of weight, which is good. No matter what he is going to be a beast against the run, and I am optimistic about him, he is too talented to not make himself fit in. If it doesn’t work, going to have to question Burnham.
#91 Joey Connors- A player who played 3-4 end and looked out of place, should fit in really well inside in this 4-3. Not a very explosive player but does a good job getting his hands up and can get pressure every once in awhile. Will not be as good as any of the guys last year, but should be a solid rotation piece.
#98 Hayes could play DE, but I think he is too big for end and should be more effective rotating inside. He may have lost some weight tho, I am not sure.
#43 Aaron Cochran- I have the same thoughts on Cochran to be honest, both played some last year, but neither left a very strong impression, but can be bodies to keep everyone fresh.
#54 Aj Wooten- Wooten was a player who flashed a bit more when he played. Actually played pretty well vs Auburn and had a forced fumble.
Freshman with potential
#99 Tyrese Black
#55 Ike Walker
LBS ILB/OLB
#56 Pat Jaskinski- Pat was one of the players who improved the most from 2016-
He simply looked slow and not FBS level in 2016 and was a whole new player in 2017. Was one of the best linebackers I watched against the run last year and made some timely stops. Struggled a lot in coverage however, but that is to be expected with some of his limitations. In one of the UCFilm Rooms you even hear Chins say that the linebackers have struggled all year covering the slant, but they were working on it. It wasn’t just that, they didn’t have linebackers who could play man coverage and that is something that was exploited big time with the pass defense last year. Having said that I feel very excited to have a senior leader like Pat heading into next year and I am sure he will continue to improve.
#24 Gabriel Luyanda
I really liked most of what I saw from Luyanda he was actually getting a lot of first team reps early in the year, splitting with Burkett. He has really good speed and looked to be a sure tackler, I don’t recall much of him in coverage.
# 44 Nate Evans
Evans also looked good I thought when he got time. Had a really good game in the regular season game vs memphis and I think should be able to fit the 4-3 pretty well, it will be interesting to see who gets the majority of the reps besides Pat.
#28 Sean Burgess-Becker
The Bama transfer is an interesting one, I really though he flashed as a pass rusher in the 3-4 as an OLB, so it is unfortunate for him that the defense switches. Even still he should have the attributes. He played safety earlier in his career so is coverage skills at linebacker should be good and he has good speed. Which is something UCF needs next to Pat, I hope he breaks out.
Young guys who I haven’t seen much
#40 Eriq Gilyard Big Recruit
#33 Monterious Loggins- Great Name
#22 Kalia Davis
#17 Sterling Jones
#16 Demetreius Mayes
Corners
#20 Bam Moore- I thought Bam had a really good season. Freshman thrown to the fire, played most of the time opposite of Mike Hughes so got lots of targets and while he dropped at least 2 picks, he still made plays. He may have won us the Navy game and wasn’t out there getting beat like a drum like some other players. He did struggle towards the end of the year I must admit. I am very excited for his future and expect him to have a really good UCF career.
#14 Nevelle Clarke- This is someone I am not a big fan of. Seems to have talent, but just gets toasted time and time again. Think of the Temple game in 2016, USF 2017, Memphis 2017. As strange as it is to say even when teams had 3 or 4 Wr’s I would have almost rather played our base 3-4 defense with just two corners (Bam and Mike) than have #14 out there as the nickel. Now he has talent and missed a lot of last year due to suspension. He is a good tackler and seems to have good hands. He has 9 months to improve and coaches certainly think he has talent, I hope he has a great year.
#31 Aaron Robinson- Bama transfer with a pick in the spring game. I have high hopes for him, we are going to need him to play and play well
#21 Rashad Causey- Solid depth piece if needed, veteran senior
Lots of questions regarding the rest of the corners, all guys that I have not really seen. One note is I do think both Grant and Collier have corner potential.
Safeties
#25 Kyle Gibson- This was the one player who’s opinion I had of changed the most after all the re-watches. I kind of lumped him in with Tre Neal before, as an ok guy misses tackles but nothing special. I was wrong, Gibson showed why he is a First team all conference S and is on the Jim Thorpe award watch list and Nagurski Trophy watch list. Whereas Neal is not on either watch list nor was even honorable mention all conference. Gibson is really good in coverage rarely makes big mistakes and is very smart and reads the play well. A bellow-average tackler I would say, but I would rather have a bellow-average tackler and really good coverage player than the other way around. Tied for the team lead in interceptions and his picks vs Memphis and Maryland were two of the most athletic plays a UCF defender made. I am excited for his Senior year and think he could be the teams best defensive player.
#27 Richie Grant- Sounds like he is the guy to start at S, which makes sense since he played Neal’s position, and Collier backed up Gibson. For being a freshman Grant played really well, I think he has potential as a slot corner and wouldn’t mind seeing him there if the corner situation doesn’t work out as we hope. Made one big mistake against Memphis in AAC title game, but was mostly pretty solid.
#3 Antwan Collier- A player I really like talent wise. I was under the impression he was the guy who had overtaken Neal in spring, but it turns out it was really both he and Grant. He really flashed with some huge hits both on defense and special teams and he has great range as a Safety. He did however made two pretty big mistakes against Austin Peay and Temple. I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave him a chance to compete with Grant for that 2nd starting spot next to Gibson. No matter what he will get a ton of playing time and I am excited for his future.
There are plenty of other young defensive backs, but I am honestly not sure who will be playing safety or corner, the new staff may move them around. I know Macmillan was supposed to be a safety coming in.
Defensive Overall Thoughts
Overall the defensive final numbers last year were not great, but as I went over there were still around 5 games where they were the best unit on the field and made the difference in the win including against Auburn. Overall I have pretty big concern about the defense this year. The switch to the 4-3 doesn’t help, the staff has spent the last 3 recruiting cycles recruiting players who fit the 3-4 and coaching players on the 3-4. Trysten Hill is a perfect example of this, I am not sure how he is going to fir in the 4-3. We also just don’t have the edge pass rushers to thrive in a 4-3. We really need someone to breakout; otherwise teams are going to have all day against us to throw. We sometimes struggle to get pressure and that was with more talent. Losing Pittman and Guerad up front cannot be understated those guys were studs against the run, and could provide pass rush as well. Burkett and Neal were players who had their faults especially in coverage, but ended up making two of the bigger plays of the season in coverage. Both players will be missed, but especially Burkett his speed and play against the run and occasionally pass rushing was crucial to the team and there are questions if Luyanda and Evans can step in for him. Neal is a guy who seems replaceable and may have been replaced anyway, but Collier and Grant still made their own mistakes when they were in last year and Neal’s leadership is something that someone like me can’t properly value. Hopefully experience last year can help the two of them. Mike Hughes may have been the best corner in the country, if you read some of what I wrote above you know how highly I think of him. He was simply a game changer. Even though we have guys like Robinson (Bama) Moore and Clarke who have experience. You don’t replace a guy who never made mistakes and make huge game changing plays and expect everything to go great. Mike Hughes also won a national championship in JUCO in 2016 then UCF 2017, put your money on the Vikes to win the SUPERBOWL. Then you simply cannot replace a Shaquem Griffin, the leadership, the talent, the pass rushing and the ability to makes plays when needed. I also think just having him on the field balling out with ONE HAND sets such a great example for everyone else on the field. It is like “Oh shit this guy is out here doing this with one hand I have to get it together.” While there is no clear replacement for him, no one would be able to do it anyway.
2018 Positional Preview
Offense I put stats here
QB
#10 McKenzie Milton 4,037 yds 67% 10.2 YPA (lol) 37 Touchdowns 9 Ints 613 yds Rushing 8 TDs 45 Total touchdowns
I am not sure there is a player who improved more in college football than McKenzie Milton. Was probably the 3rd best qb in all of college football and played big in all the biggest games. His deep ball accuracy was second to none especially for a QB without a huge arm. He always has the ability to make plays with his legs as well and I really hope we still keep a lot of the designed runs in for him this year. A running QB is not something JH has had a lot of in his career. His accuracy on these intermediate to deep throws was also incredible and he perfected the swing passes to Otis and AK, which are tougher than he looks. After the best season by a UCF qb ever last year even with a new coach he is the biggest reason to be excited about UCF football again this year. Unless something unexpected happens he is on pace to be the best football player in UCF history when he is done here.
#8 Darriel Mack I am not even going to put Hayden Kingston here. No offense to Hayden, but Mack NEEDS to win this backup QB job. It is not out of the realm of possibilities that KZ could leave early after another huge year. He could think to himself even if he is not going to be a high draft pick. What else can I prove here? I am not going to automatically grow 3 inches. Even if he stays by the time 2020 rolls around we need a QB and Mack needs to show signs he could be that next guy in line. No matter what we need some new QB recruits. I pray Mckenzie stays for his Sr. year. On Mack though he has the attributes; huge dude, big arm good runner, really good high school tape just hope he begins to put it together. I am sure we will see him in SC State game.
RB
#9 Adrian Killins Jr 123 cars 790 yds 6.4 YPC 10 TDs 25 catches 169 yds 1 td
Everyone knows the deal with AK, probably the fastest player in the country and an A+ fit for the frost system. I am slightly concerned with how he fits into the more north-south running style of coach JH. Now AK can still run between the tackles but he really succeeds when he gets out on the perimeter. No matter what he is going to make big plays he always does.
#2 Otis Anderson 69 Car 494 yds 7.2 YPC 3 TDs 30 Catches 351 yds 3 TDs
Otis might be listed as a WR, but I still think his best position is RB and I think he is the best RB on the team. The former #26 was most the most productive RB the 2nd half of the year and had an even better YPC than AK. People like to say someone can do it all, but Otis truly can. I am not concerned about him running it up the middle because he was excellent between the tackles. What differentiates him from AK is his one and 2 cut moves in tight spaces. Look at his run vs UCONN as an example. He also causes such problems as a route runner at RB, and you have the ability to flex him out and go 5 wide and have him run routes like a WR and cause mismatches everywhere. Otis is like a Queen on the chessboard and I really hope JH uses him like Frost did.
#4 Taj McGowan 69 Car 235 yds 3.4 YPC 8 tds 7 catches 36 yds
Taj had the same number of carries as Otis and HALF as many yards rushing. Taj got off to a good start, but really slowed down as the season went along. He really struggled in short yardage getting stuffed on crucial 4th downs vs Navy and SMU. Here are his stats 2nd half of the year
APU 3 car 10 yds
SMU 6 car 13 yds
UCONN 4 car 10 yds
Temple 5 car 6 yds
Then the staff bailed and rode with AK and Otis when it was winning time. I would expect for him to be around 4th or 5th on depth chart
#30 Greg McCRae 25 Car 148 yds 5.9 ypc 2 tds
McCrae really doesn’t look the part, he is not super big nor does he looks super fast. However he looks really damn effective, I thought he was much more effective than McGowan and he seemed to be the Spring’s breakout player. I am sure he will get looks early in the year and am interested to see how he does.
#24 Bentavious Thompson Rfr
Incredible name and someone who for sure looks the part and seems to be a good fit for JH’s offense. Looked good in the spring game and am excited to see how he looks in game action. One note is that with the loss of Hamilton and Richardson and no RB in the 2018 class I do think it is important that UCF adds 1 or 2 good Rb’s in the 2019 class.
WR
#5 Dredrick Snelson 46 rec 695 yds 9 total TD’s
Maybe the best name on the team, also maybe the best weapon on the team. Snelson almost exclusively played in the slot last year and it sounds like he will do that again this year. Now I expect his targets to go up, but he should remain in the slot and really thrives in that role. Although he is the new #1 I don’t necessarily expect him to ‘take over” for Treqan they are different players. He is a really good route runner and seems to have good chemistry with KZ, a big year should be coming.
#13 Gabe Davis 27 rec 391 yds 4 TD’s
Davis was hot and cold throughout the year, but made some huge plays and flashed why I think he is the breakout player for UCF this year. I expect him to start on the outside this year and be probably a number 2 option besides Snelson with the upside of being the number one. He is a guy who is faster than he looks like Smith and does a great job using is body to shield off defenders. Also important to remember he is a true sophomore. Davis is going to be really good for a long time.
#17 Marlon Williams 17 rec 270 2 TD’s
Marlon is a guy who I don’t expect to start, but can plug into any role and be productive. He can play outside or inside and be productive, also very good on sweeps and screens. Marlon is one of the most impressive players I have seen at WR with the ball in his hands. He never goes down at first contact and is really good on outside screens, he is for sure a player to be excited about.
#16 Tre Nixon 1 rec 19 yds at Ole Miss
Nixon is another guy who has gotten great reviews at spring, however it is concerning he couldn’t get on the field at Ole Miss. Considering most UCF fans would think our skill guys were better than Ole Miss’ last year it is not a great sign. However he seems to be a really good fit as a deep shot guy for JH’s offense.
#6 Tristan Payton 12 rec 132 yds 1 td (2016)
After playing special teams last year TP is back at WR. UCF fans know all about his talent as well as his troubles. I personally feel like he is going to be almost exclusively as a deep threat as he seemed to really excel in that role in the spring. He never seemed to be much more than that in his career, but that could still be a big part of the team.
#3 Jaquarius Bargnare 6 Rec 15 yds (2016)
Redshirted last year, seems to me like he would be the backup to Snelson in the slot, but could be tough to get on the field since when Snelson was out last year UCF put Otis in the slot and he was very productive.
#11 Cam Stewart 6 rec 197 yds 1 td
Cam was the beneficiary of a couple of blown coverages vs bad teams, but you still have to make the play and he did. He is a solid Senior, who seems like a good guy to have around and can play if needed.
#84 Kevon Ahmad
Very excited about this kid, but just hope he redshirts and has 4 more years of eligibility,
Tight End
#86 Michael Colubiale 10 REC 221 yds 1 TD
It was great getting #colubialeforheisman back for a 6th year as he is really the only TE with exp. here. For some reason Michael was always WIDE open on his catches. I honestly believe no one felt the need to cover the little undersized white skinny Tight End. I don’t recall him making a catch in man coverage where he had to beat someone, but he made some big catches against zone.
#88 Jake Hescock
That name… This would be my favorite if I had to pick who would have the most catches next year. Could end up being incredibly wrong, there could be 5 different guys who could take the reigns, but I like his background and his measurements make sense for the role.
#89 Anthony Robertson
He actually played some snaps in garbage time that I watched, but did not record any catches. He is a great guy in celebrations on the sideline, and has a solid recruiting background.
#80 Chris Deloach
Modest numbers in JUCO, we shall see.
#86 Brett Bell
Modest numbers in JUCO, we shall see. However really strong prospect coming out of high school.
Because of how damn good Marlon Williams is after the catch I had thoughts of him maybe playing some TE like Colubiale, but he actually lost weight this summer.
Offensive Line
#72 Jordan Johnson
1st team all conference and was the best UCF OL in my opinion, so good at getting to the 2nd level and rarely made mistakes. Super athletic center and was the perfect guy for the Frost offense being able to get out and move. Very excited to have him moving forward.
#78 Wyatt Miller
Really solid player who had some troubles vs Auburn, but rarely made any mistakes throughout the season, someone mentioned him maybe moving to left tackle. I would just keep him where he is, teams move around their best pass rusher anyway.
#77 Jake Brown
Relatively unknown going into the season, Started 11 games and was very solid. I seem to recall some rumblings he quit the team, but excited to have him going into 2018, can play guard or tackle.
#53 Tyler Hudanick
Played 9 games started 2. Seems to have injury issues, also seems to be a senior leader so hopefully he can stay healthy and compete for a starting spot and guard.
#73 Sam Jackson
Reports say he tore his ACL very unfortunate
#61 Parker Boudreaux.
Transfer from Notre Dame, looks like Brock Lesner. Sounded like he was playing with first team in spring ball, hopefully he is a stud and can be a 3 year starter
#60 Josh McMullen
Juco Guy
#79 Trevor Elbert
JUCO guy who was a Texas A&m commit back in the day. Some reports said he was with first team in spring.
The other guys I really don’t know all that much about and haven’t watched any of them. I feel pretty confident 5 guys of the guys I mentioned will be the 5 starters.
Offensive Ramblings, thoughts.
On the surface the offense should be top 5 again lots of talent returns including maybe the best returning QB in college football. However, there are some concerns. #1 being obviously the coaching change, there are some similarities to the USF situation last year.
1. loaded team coming back, but lost two NFL guys from offense. When it came to USF everyone seemed to forget they lost their best skill guy ever in Marlon Mack and an NFL draft pick in Rodney Adams as well, those guys were difference makers and USF clearly missed them. We lost Trequan Smith who was by far our best WR and the one guy who truly could always win one on one and opened up the field for so many other players. While we have some good Wr’s coming back I don’t think we have anyone who is going to be a day 2 NFL draft pick in 2019. Jordan Akins was also a day 2 pick and while his numbers weren’t eye popping like Trequan’s. He was used a little more sparingly as it seems he was dinged up. However they unleashed him when needed and he was a huge mismatch problem in the middle of the field. He was massive in the Auburn and Memphis games. We are going to go from an NFL guy to a complete unknown at tight end and this is no joke.
2. USF went from a spread up-tempo to a spread with a focus on downfield running with a coordinator who has never had a running QB that was even more up-tempo than before. Talk to any USF fan and they will tell you how much worse the 2017 offense was than the 2016 offense. The 2017 offense last year was actually more up-tempo and fast but certainly not more effective. They went form 4th in the country in yards per play to 21st. 21st is still good, but UCF going from#2 to #19 would be a big deal of a drop off.
Watching Missouri’s offense from last year a concern I have is a lot of success is absolute Bombs thrown by Drew Lock. I am talking like 65-70 yards down the field on a rope to the sideline. While KZ is one of the best deep ball throwers in the country his range is more 40-50 yards where Lock is throwing these farther than anyone in the country. I am sure JH will adjust the offense to KZ’s strength just something I noticed.
A concern I have is that the offense is also a different style, my biggest concern is that JH’s offense is in 11 personal 3 WR 1 TE 1 RB on a whopping 94% of plays whereas UCF only was in 11 personal 59% of the time. UCF had lots of success with formations with multiple RB’s and Multiple TE’s which allowed for Anderson and Killins to be out there together, I hope JH is not stubborn and is plays to his roster’s talent. Those numbers came from this great article. http://power6analytics.com/breaking...s-and-what-to-expect-in-2018-using-analytics/
Using the same formation over and over again has it advantages, but mostly is about my players are better than your players which I think was a big reason that Heupel’s Missouri offense put up a lot of points in 2017, that typically came against lesser opponents. The Tigers went 7-6, beating seven teams that did not play in a bowl game (or were FCS) and losing to six teams that did reach a bowl. Against the seven teams that did not make a bowl, Missouri averaged 54.3 points per game, never scoring fewer than 45. Against the six opponents that did play in a bowl, the Tigers averaged 18 points per game, only twice scoring more than 20. Which could mean UCF is going to light the some teams the hell up like ECU and UCONN they could struggle against some of the better teams.
This is a small nit-pick, but I am also not a fan of how virtually every pass play is a Play-action fake. It feels like this defeats the purpose of Play-Action when you run it every time. However JH has shown the ability to adjust in his time as a play-caller as his Missouri offenses looked different than his OU offenses and I trust he will make the best of it.
The final thing I wanted to address that slightly annoys me is was when everyone was talking about how the offense is faster in the spring. Being faster does not mean the offense will be better. USF was faster in 2017 than 2016 they certainly were not better. UCF actually slowed things down in 2017 as compared to 2016 when the offense struggled so much. I hope we find the right mix as we have lots of players who should get on the field. Overall though this should be a top 10 offense and has one of the highest ceilings in the country with McKenzie Milton. Plus a lot of really really really good football players and an offensive line that should be very good as well. I really like Elarbee and think he will be a difference maker on the offensive line his CV is impressive and I thought it was a good sign Mizzou was so pissed he left.
Overall thoughts on 2018
Why there are some questions on both sides of the ball at the end of the day this is a very talented team, with some coaches with great pedigree on both sides of the ball. UCF should be favorite in 11 of the 12 games on the schedule and should be in line for double digit wins. I don’t expect to go undefeated as I believe the schedule is tougher this year with 3 loseable non-con games and a similar conference schedule. I think with a tiny step back on offense like #2 to #10 and a possible step back on defense we could be more similar to 2017 Memphis than 2017 UCF and going to have to simply outscore teams which could cause for some slip-ups. I think 9-10 wins is most likely this year, however another step forward should come in 2019 as long as Milton returns. Most all of the Skill guys and other contributing players will be back and year 2 with the new coaching staff we should expect to have possibly another undefeated season in 2019. I will say though that anything short of at least a division title would be extremely disappointing and probably a failure of a season. USF should be rebuilding this year, Temple is at home and has a tough schedule, Cincy is a year away and UCONN and ECU are bad at football. Excited to talk football and Go Knights, Charge on.
