Sorry for delay in posting this week. It is tougher for road games that I attend to get a chance to sit down and type this out. This trip and the game was a blast. I had said in my last write up I thought the team, specifically the defense, looked like they quit at Kansas. Didn’t feel like the guys were playing with pride and I was hopeful the bye week would allow us to only get healthy but reset and look at the OU game as a chance to turn the season around. As a player or coach, if you cannot get up for the OU game you can’t get up, so that is what I was looking for in this game, was our team going to fight and play with pride or had they quit, and I was very pleased with what I saw. Despite what has been reported as the flu hitting multiple players and coaches and them being on the road against the #6 team in the nation the team overcame all that and fought hard and was in the game until the last play. The flu was terrible timing, I heard Johnny Richardson was hit hard which you can tell from the fact he only had 6 touches, i have to think he would have helped more had he been healthy. Not sure about Celiscar but he didn’t seem to play much. I hate losing but the alternative to this was the 3TD+ curb stomping everyone thought would happen post Kansas so I am encouraged all though there is still some shit to sling…
Note: Keep in mind I watched this game live from row 69 of 74 in the endzone and I have not had a chance to watch any of it back so I know I may have missed some things. I actually missed the DG interception play completely as I was trying to get back from concessions and they didn’t want to replay that one.
UCF Fast:
Note: Keep in mind I watched this game live from row 69 of 74 in the endzone and I have not had a chance to watch any of it back so I know I may have missed some things. I actually missed the DG interception play completely as I was trying to get back from concessions and they didn’t want to replay that one.
UCF Fast:
- Boomer: This kid is a treasure. It is a great feeling having a kicker you think his automatic from 50 yards out. Not only did he nail two big time long field goals but his kick offs were key. Our kickoff return defense has been suspect and he didn’t let them return much. The huge one was the kickoff after the celebration penalty, ended up giving OU the ball on the 24, they did end up marching down field but he basically negated the penalty with how far he kicked that one. After the game we were at casino with lots of OU fans and multiple ones asked if they could trade us some skill guys for our kicker, LOL. Boomer was MVP for this one.
- Baker: Had a monster game. I am not a fan of the blowing the kiss and celebration stuff, too much "look at me" crap but you cannot deny this man’s talents. I personally think we underutilize him in most games. He can beat almost anyone that covers him. We need to put up more 50/50 balls his way, good things happen when we do. He either catches it or draws a pi and we keep the defense honest. Need to take more shots with him. Would have especially been nice to see when we went uber conservative up 6 late in that game.
- JRP: This is far from JRP’s best game and I am not giving him a fast for his stat line necessarily but he made some really good throws and reads in this one and when you consider he didn’t have his legs and he was still able to produce and keep us in this game it was encouraging to see. He missed a screen to JR that sucked in 1st qtr but what else can you say negative about him? No turnovers, no really bad sacks, made some big time throws down the stretch to keep us in it. Wish he had the ball in his hands for the 2pt try but you cannot put this loss on JRP.
- Yates: I know a lot of people here have given Yates a lot of crap over the season and he has struggled at times but I think we all saw what our defense looks like without him last week at Kansas. There is nothing behind him and Yates has range and gets in the right spots. He seemed to be all over the place Saturday.
- Overall Defense: The biggest surprise to me was how solid the defense looked after how bad they looked at Kansas. I know injuries were part of it, Yates and Barber in particular but everyone looked better. We got solid pressure on DG while the back end was all over the receivers. DG looked rattled. Playing an offense of this caliber on the road and to show out the way the defense did is huge and big props to the entire unit and the coaches for getting them on track.
- OU Fans and Game Day Experience: The OU fans were great, very hospitable. Multiple people checked on me to thank me for coming, asked how I was enjoying myself, etc… I know our fan base is notorious for doing the opposite, but this really encouraged me next time I see opposing fans to try and make them feel welcome, especially now hosting Big12 fan bases. Also, I am a sucker for fly overs. I love how they had that for this game, not sure if they do every game. Also, bad ass that one of the pilots had UCF gear on, just awesome. The Sooner Schooner was also pretty cool, I thought on TV it was kind of stupid but in person that thing is moving and a pretty cool tradition. As for the stadium energy, thought it was lacking, quieter then I thought it would be but overall really impressive.
- UCF Fans: Let me give our crew some props. We were all over Oklahoma. Plane was packed, airport packed, casino packed, hotel packed, bars packed, UCF fans everywhere. Really impressive and I we were loud up there in section 19 and 20. We showed out well as we should have. When else you going to see UCF play at OU?
- McCarthy: Man he picked a bad time to lose all his leg strength. No idea what was going on there. You certainly cannot blame the elements because the OU punter was crushing it. With as many punts as both teams had in this game this was a huge game impact. He shanked one and then at least two others were like 25-30 yard punts. Not sure what the hell the situation was, I get missing one punt but he was consistently bad and it really hurt, could have hurt much worse if the OU place kicker wasn’t awful. Did not do any favors for our defense.
- Conservative Offensive Play Calling: I will get to the two pt play in a minute. The coaches got these players up for this game and overall did a great job, the one area though I was unhappy about was when we were up by 6 we seemed to go SUPER conservative with the play calls. The reason we lost this game was the 3 fruitless drives end of 3rd early 4th when we were up by 6 and stopped taking chances. Our 4th quarter offense seemed to just pause and let OU back in it. I get trying not to make big mistakes but I would have loved to see some down field shots when we were up 6 trying to go for kill shot or at least get up beyond 6 pts. OU could score at anytime so 6pt lead was shit, we needed to build on it and it seemed like we went conservative for whatever reason. Offense looked so good in 2nd and 3rd quarter.
- 2pt Play: FFS, ultimate Gus play call. Here is my take on it, when you are going for 2pts you get to pick the hash you snap from. We chose the right hash. We then proceeded to attempt a double pass to a wide receiver who has never thrown a pass in a game that I can remember that is also right handed rolling to his left with ONE option to throw to. I get loving a 2pt play and sticking to what you have practiced but the play set up is shit, why not line up on the left hash so you at least have your wr rolling to his strong side, I cannot figure that out. Also why not have a 2nd option to throw to out there because if the guy is covered you are screwed, he cant run that in. I personally would have rolled out JRP where you have multiple options to throw (flood the zone) or of course run but at least your QB has the ball in his hands to make the throw not the WR. I just didn’t like the play. Went over like a wet fart while boarding a plane for a cross country flight.
- PI Call on Thornton: That call was garbage, there was some contact but Thornton made a play on the call and I thought made an incredible play before half. That call was garbage and gave OU three points. Huge in the end. I know we got breaks in the first half but this one sucked to see. There were some other late PI calls but this one was brutal, just hated that call.
- Subbing on Defense: Our defensive guys need to be smarter, I noticed a few times where our defensive players wanted to take themselves out, maybe got hurt or whatever and tried to run to sideline when OU was moving fast and it cost us 12 man on field penalties. Our guys need to just stay down and be injured or stick in the game, you cannot try to sub against OU, got to know that situation. Couldn’t tell who those players were but at least twice penalties were called on it.
- Kobe: didn’t do much and the one big play we could have had he dropped, I know ball was contested but it looks like it was in his belly and he probably could have housed that but even if he goes down there it is a solid game.
- Alumni Tailgate: Great time, donuts were FIRE but what is up with running out of water? Not running out late, I mean running out with in the first 30 or so minutes. I mean it isnt cheap to buy tickets and at 9am with that dry heat all I wanted was some water, that kind of sucked but I still had a great time.
