Well I started this post halfway into the third quarter. I just couldn't watch anymore...
Studs: not much of anything here, just two honorable mentions...
Conclusion: What is disappointing is that some of our better players regressed so much in this game. You would think this being the first conference game against a lower tier team with no home field advantage should lead to our guys playing some of their best games of the year. They just didn't do that and in fact many of them may have played their worst game of the year. Hard to imagine that considering what was at stake and how this was setting up. We are playing a ton of young kids which I guess at this point makes sense. Hope now is that we can mature the team by the end of the year to at least beat USF.
Studs: not much of anything here, just two honorable mentions...
- Jordan Franks: Made some great plays, hard to dog him for getting hurt since he just got the case off the hand a few weeks ago. He was a bright spot.
- Joey Connors: NOT a stud but was probably the only other player that stuck out to me and in a game like this deserves a mention. First time I have seen him get playing time. Seems undersized but he has a motor and appears to play smart.
- Shaquim Griffin: Watching a player with one hand jump on that fumble was so inspiring. Announcers didn't say anything about it but anyone watching that play must have thought that was awesome. Kid could be a solid special teams player for us.
- Wilson: 3 TD catches would normally get you a stud so here it is. Maybe another bright spot for the future.
- Entire Offensive Line: You were all embarrassed today. Center couldn't snap, OL looked lost in between two players running in un touched, getting blowed up inside pushing pocket into QBs face, NO push in the run game, just awful. Various line men just looked like they gave up with such half ass efforts. I will say it was one of the worst if not these worst games I have ever seen a UCF OL play.
- Gibson: You played a great game last week against SC and you played a dud of one this week. Was excited about him, didn't expect him to regress like that this week.
- Shaquill Griffin: Looked lost (probably because first start at safety). Missed some tackles real bad.
- Luke Adams: He looks like he is playing in slow motion out there. He also falls for every jab step fake and he corrects so slowly. He missed some tackles and was way late to others. Still not sure what GOL sees here that warrants so much playing time. Wasn't even good today against the run.
- Johnson: Like Oleary said there are guys playing that just aren't fast enough to compete and that was pretty evident on the (Johnson catch, run, jump out of your seat for sure TD, strip fumble, Tulane scores on next play, dick punch) play. That was the turning point for sure. Got to at least not fumble that ball. Then follows it up by attempting to field punt on his own 3 yard line and pinning offense back. Was quickly yanked after that.
- Burkett: Looked like crap today, slow to the hole, missed tackles, didn't appear to play aggressively. He is another one that I think is great and thought would be getting better and would show in a game like this against a lower end team but it just isn't happening.
- Caleb: Was our MVP last week, playing great this year. This week he couldn't kick the ball 30 yards, not sure what that was about.
- QB Play & Play Calling Thoughts: Really hard for me to dud Schneider in this game because he is a true freshman and I thought he played rather well in the first half with ZERO run support, shit for blocking, and play calls that I thought could have helped him a bit more. The continued approach to run on 1st and 2nd for no yards and then but Bo in a 3rd in long with a bad o line, bad snap and young inexperienced WRs is a recipe for disaster. Would have actually liked to see some wild knight as a change of pace for the running game and would have liked to see more sweep runs since inside was nothing and more screen passes (WR, TE, RB, anyone). Just high percentage throws to build confidence and get the rush of us. ALSO how about you try to pick up the blitz on the right side. There were like 4 or 5 plays in a row where they were getting the same pressure and we didn't adjust to it with the play call and basically to sacks or incompletions.
Conclusion: What is disappointing is that some of our better players regressed so much in this game. You would think this being the first conference game against a lower tier team with no home field advantage should lead to our guys playing some of their best games of the year. They just didn't do that and in fact many of them may have played their worst game of the year. Hard to imagine that considering what was at stake and how this was setting up. We are playing a ton of young kids which I guess at this point makes sense. Hope now is that we can mature the team by the end of the year to at least beat USF.
