I had a bad feeling going into this game because i recognize even at full strength it is very hard to beat a good team twice a year let alone both times on their home field. Tulane is a really good squad. Above avg qb that can run and throw, best RB in the conference, solid receivers, above avg defense across all positions, experienced players, well coached, now 11 win team. When i factored in that JRP has been hurt now for several weeks with the hamstring really flaring up in Navy and usf leading him to have to miss the 2nd half of both games i knew that hammy was not going to be healed in a week. What makes JRP special is his legs. Worst case though we got MK and we know we can win with him but then i heard rumblings he wasnt going to play, which i really couldnt believe was true, but all that lead me to believe it was going to be a really tough game for us to win. I never thought the defense would be that bad, i just thought we wouldnt score enough but funny how the blame end up falling more on the defense then the offense...
UCF Fast:
UCF Fast:
- JRP: I know he didn't have a game stat wise worthy of a true fast but he was out their fighting the whole time. It was a gutsy performance. Even with out his legs he sat back their and figured out ways to make plays with his arm. TC came in and had absolutely nothing. TC sucked 16 plays and JRP had to come back in and got the game into 3 pts in the 4th quarter. Hopefully he earned some of the haters respect for how he handled this game. If he had is full health i think we are better then down 3 in the 4th, who knows what would have happened.
- Bowser: Bowser had a solid game. Typical solid bowser game, dependable runner, avg over 4 yards a rush, converted several big first downs and a TD, had a great 3rd down grab. He is really unstoppable in the Wild Bowser. Gonna miss him next year.
- Celiscar: He had no quit in him today. I really cannot blame the DL at all, i will get to the secondary later but the DL did well. Celiscar i thought had a solid game, good hustle following plays down field as well
- MK: I crushed DG when he quit on the team last year. I thought it was unthinkable that he was healthy enough to play and decided NOT to come back and watch another QB take his snaps. A QB that struggled that DG clearly could have done better then. With that said DG kind of always felt like a me guy and it didnt really surprise me deep down. MK's decision to not play today was an absolute surprise because of who i thought MK was. I get that for MK's college career it makes him more valuable to sit this game but in my opinion he just traded on everything good he has done at UCF. I gave him a fast last week for his press conference where he said "lets go win a championship" when questioned about playing. This was for a damn conference championship. This wasnt some mop up duty in some shit game that meant nothing at the end of the season. I am truly shocked MK chose not to even suit up here and in doing so he really hurt UCF. Not only did he potentially cost us an AAC championship win and a Cotton Bowl NY6 bowl but he also burned TC's redshirt in the process. I don't know how he traveled and stood on those sidelines knowing he made a decision that put him over the team. Again it is one thing when a pre madonna WR does this but when the QB does it i think it hurts worse. Personally i believe the NCAA should just give everyone 5 years and do away with redshirts completely but here MK made a big time life decision that he better hope works out where he goes because if it doesn't i think he just tainted some really great UCF goodwill he had built up. Anyone suggesting this is Gus's fault is also way off base. Gus played the QB he thought was better and the team got to a conference championship and Gus managed MK and TC so neither were going to burn a redshirt but you cannot predict injuries. When we needed MK most he wasn't there. That isn't Gus's fault. Anyone who tries to say he should have started MK the whole time and this wouldn't have happened and we would have been in a better spot is delusional.
- TC: LOL at all the people calling for TC to come in over JRP. JRP with no legs was superior in every way to TC. That says a lot. I always say you got to give true freshman a lot of leniency as i did with MK last year but this is the 13th game of the season. TC has been here a while and had played in 3 games and i presume has taken lots of practice reps including this week. I was really disappointed in how bad he looked. He was 2 for 8 for 7 yards and -8 yards rushing on 7 attempts. My gawd. He sucked up 16 plays and aside from a well executed hand off on the Townsend TD he showed very little. Of course a huge Hudson drop didn't help but i really thought we would see a little more from TC. I don't think anyone will be calling for him in the bowl game after that. Hopefully he can grow in the offseason and make a jump next year but as of right now unless someone elite transfers in this is JRP's team next year assuming he sticks around.
- Holler: Started off pretty slow, penalty, some missed blocks, looked slow and lost at times. Really like Holler but he struggled tonight.
- Secondary: Next to my disappointment in MK the next worst is the secondary. We looked gawd awful today. I think Ware played a decent game from what i could see, especially early, but the entire unit was really trash. Especially Hodges. Worst game i have every seen him play. Adams and Thornton also struggled, the safeties were beat often. I had such high hopes for the secondary this season because they are all good sized long guys and played a ton when they were young but i feel like they have never really grown. If anything they may have regressed. Brown i feel used to be a stud now he is flailing out there. We have a ton of guys and no major injuries and they just never really performed all season. Just disappointing. May need to look at a new DB coach because we should be better with what we have then we are.
