I am writing this from the plane as I am flying back to Orlando. I have not been able to watch the game yet on TV. I also sat in the first row, 40 yard line, which was fun for the kids but it didn’t provide the best angles so I may have missed a few things, with that in mind here we go… Everyone on the message board appears to be freaking out and there is some cause for it which I will get into momentarily, but I feel like most folks are expecting us to be great regardless of the injuries. We were missing a ton of starters for this game at important positions including our QB who was replaced by a Freshman on the road against a disciplined & awkward team to prep for. No doubt I still expected UCF to win this game but I always thought it would be close. Watching it this game reminded me a bit of the USF game last year minus Gabriel at QB. Defense couldn’t stop an inferior team because we were thin as **** up front. What exacerbated our injuries is the type of offense Navy runs, they are ball control, ton of plays, beat up the front seven all game. You need bodies to rotate. Missing Barber (who is very underrated) and Bethune (two starters in the front 7) in a game where we needed depth and our depth to start is light is huge. I don’t know what happened to TMB. I saw him in pads on the sideline, but he didn’t register a tackle which I am not sure is possible in a game like this unless he wasn’t playing. I assume he got hurt at some point or is back in the doghouse or maybe he played and somehow didn’t register a stat? Either way that is a possible 3rd front 7 starter. Then throw in Corey Thornton at CB and we are out 4 defensive starters. Add onto that Gabriel, Bowser and Flash (QB1, RB1 and WR1) and that is going to make a material difference. You have to factor that in when analyzing the loss. Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. Especially on the road against a team that deploys this type of offense. It is like the BYU bowl game. We had the entire defense out and walk ons starting against Zach Wilson, you cannot say our defense is garbage with out factoring in the guys injured, sitting out or COVID crap which made a material difference. With all that said we should have absolutely still won this Navy game. Extremely frustrating way to lose where it feels like we gave away the win for the 2nd week in a row…
UCF Fast:
UCF Fast:
- Armstrong: Lots of folks have been giving this man shit and I admit from a coverage perspective he has struggled this year and is likely playing out of position, but he was built for this game and he was a beast. I promise you if he wasn’t on the team this game could have gotten real ugly. It seemed like he was making every tackle, I think he had 22 or something for the game which is nuts. This was a big get for UCF and I promise all of you dogging this man that if he wasn’t the best player on our team to be out there the coaches wouldn’t put him out there. We are thin and Armstrong is more then serviceable. He was flying around like a mad man, it was fun to watch.
- Cam Goode: He came off the field at least three times from various injuries but he kept playing through them. Clearly gassed a few times as well but he had two huge forced fumbles that again with out those turnovers what does this game look like?
- 54 on Navy (Fagot): Dude was an animal. He was everywhere on the field, I hate to give Fast’s to the opposing team but he was an absolute game changer for Navy. He did have the late hit on Keene which was a better acting job by Keene then it was a late hit but that 54 was pumped up, calling out the plays, flying sideline to sideline. The biggest most impactful play came on the Brandon Johnson 3rd down catch. Huge catch, going to basically win us the game and Fagot comes from behind 30 yards down field and causes the fumble. I was telling my wife all game that he was KILLING us and he was.
- Navy Fans & Atmosphere: It was a really cool experience attending the game and hanging out in Annapolis. It really couldn’t be more different then the type of game day experience we have at UCF. I am not ragging on UCF as they are both good in their own ways and I personally prefer UCF, it is just very different at Navy. The fans were great, polite, helpful, open, etc… no problems what so ever. We tailgated with an old Navy player they were retiring a jersey for and the stories were awesome to hear. The fact they have stories from the field and then from being the captains of these crazy warships. Cool stuff. The fly over was awesome, I am sucker for that stuff. The pageantry and tradition was cool to witness. All the cadets turned to the UCF sideline from the field and changed G O K N I G H T S Go Knights! It was classy. Feels weird not hating the opponent but these kids are signing up to fight for us, you really cannot hate on them at all. IF we have to lose to any team, the service academy’s certainly take some sting out of it.
- Special Teams: Goodness we struggled as a unit big time. We had the near disaster J Rich fair catch drop on the goal line that we got lucky on. We had an Obarski shank 0potomous providing Navy an extra short field. We had an extra point blocked which resulted in us being down 4 at the end (also gave Navy a FG play down 13 vs. 14 which shouldnt have worked out but did) and most impactful the blocked punt TD which just cannot happen. I know we also converted that crazy fake fg and downed a punt on the 1 yard line but the other mistakes were just too brutal not to be a SLOW.
- Gus Last Drive Play Calling: I thought Gus called a solid game, especially in the first half. He had a rookie QB and called a good game for him but my beef again comes on the final drive. Same story as the Louisville game. I know folks defended him throwing on that first down pick 6 off the WR hands but I hated the call, we were averaging 10 yards a rush and we should have ran it there but I was on that last game. This week we get the ball back and march down the field with little issue until we hit the 12 yard line. We got first down from the 12 to WIN THE GAME. As we were approaching I kept yelling “nothing stupid, be conservative” because we had the time on our side and we were gashing them with rather simple plays, J Rich runs, TE throws, flats, etc…but then Gatewood comes in. I don’t mind this call because I figure he is going to do an ultra conservative QB direct snap wild knight type thing which I am all for in this position. Gatewood had been getting yards on this play and there is little chance of a turnover and I didn’t want to pass at this point but instead of continuing with what is working like a knife through butter all drive Gus instead thinks it is now a good time for the Gatewood first pass attempt of the season. Had we been struggling to move the ball against a superior defense I could see making that call maybe, but on 1st down and Gatewood spins and chucks it I thought for sure it was going to be picked off. Then we throw another almost pick then the sweep that we should have run on first down and then we basically did what we could do on 4th. It is like we stopped ourselves. Shit I think if Gatewood just ran 4 times from the 12 we might have gotten in or at least a first down. I figure he didn’t want to get Keene hurt but what I felt this game missed was some Keene scrambles. Some designed drop back QB sneaks, 3rd down extenders, I expected to see more of that then we did from a Freshman mobile QB.
- Let Down Plays: Just like in the Louisville game we continue to have these crazy emotional swing “let down” plays. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot in the craziest ways to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. Few examples from this game…
- Holler Drop: That was a beautiful throw, would have been 20+ yard game, flipped field, momentum building first down and he dropped it right in his hands. That was a tough drop on a crucial drive that I believe led to the shank punt. We would have been able to take more time off the clock with that first down which is what we needed to do, not go 3 and out in record time. He was wide open and in my mind he catches it, I scream yes which turns into a YESS…faaaaaaccckk.
- Brandon Johnson Fumble: He doesn’t fumble the ball this maybe game over win for the Knights. Great third down catch, everyone is celebrating only for 54 to chase him down from behind and cause that fumble. Just brutal turn of events. That cannot happen. Just go down
- Big Kat Jump: I know folks giving Big Kat shit but he did his part, really not his type of offense to play against but he was hustling out there sideline to sideline. With that said I have given Big Kat props for his smarts on the field and on that 4th down play where he jumped off sides that was hard to imagine him doing. Navy was down by 3 and when we stopped them on 3rd down I felt so good because I knew in my heart they were going to kick the FG and we would get the ball back with a chance to win or at worst possible OT. I was screaming from the first row, DON’T JUMP because I figured they would try to get us offsides and then call TO and kick the easy field goal. No way they were going to snap it. The defense had to think the same thing and our most experienced guy jumps off sides, just awful mistake right there.
- Last Drive: I already highlighted that above but I went from thinking we were going to score no doubt to the Joey Gatewood throw what the faaack and into an L.
