OK Knight fans, we are less than 48 hours away from one of the biggest games in program history. I'd be willing to bet that the excitement that we will witness on this coming Saturday will rival the energy that was on display about 6 years ago when the Longhorns came to town. A win against South Carolina will definitely put us up on a level that has not been seen by this program since its inception way back in 1979. From what I have been reading it looks like our opponent on Saturday might not have the defense that they wish they had, not unlike us. I'm guessing that there might be a few points being scored in the Brighthouse in a couple of days, hopefully our defense will play like they are fully capable of and giving us a chance at the W.Once again just like a few weeks ago we are at the time where we want to take the next step as a program and being victorious over an SEC team that is ranked in the top 15 can be that step.
Let's do this Knights!
It's Time!
Charge On!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Not so Happy Valley
We did it! The Knights of UCF went up to State College Pennsylvania to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions and came back with one of the top victories in UCF football history. This is the type of victory that will get people's attention in the rest of the college football world. I'm sure going into the game on Saturday most casual fans expected Penn State to beat us and not even give it any more thought. Even before this game was played I have started noticing that there have been little bits and pieces about UCF football leading up to the past weekends game. We even got some attention from ESPN on two separate occasions. On College Football Gameday Lee Corso picked us to upset Penn State. I am so glad he got it right. Also on the back end of the college football weekend when they were handing out helmet stickers we (actually Blake Bortles) got a helmet sticker presented to him and the team by none other than Lou Holtz himself.
The offense looked great Saturday Knight and the defense played well enough for us to win the ball game. Of course that is all you can ask of any unit on a football team. I was very impressed with the way the offensive line played all Knight, blocking well for the running game and giving Blake plenty of time to find the receivers down field. That was I believe the key to our victory and to think that we did it without starting left tackle Torrian Wilson. On the defensive side of the ball I thought the team did very well for the most part. Yes there were a few too many big plays given up by us but their punter had to come out to punt more than a couple of times during the game. I still would like to see us get a better push up front with the four down lineman but maybe that is something they will continue to work on in practice.
The last time I was this excited about a win had to be when we won the Liberty Bowl against the Georgia Bulldogs back in 2010. Once again these are the games we have to find a way to win more often than not for us to continue to grow as a program.
Go Knights! Charge On!
The offense looked great Saturday Knight and the defense played well enough for us to win the ball game. Of course that is all you can ask of any unit on a football team. I was very impressed with the way the offensive line played all Knight, blocking well for the running game and giving Blake plenty of time to find the receivers down field. That was I believe the key to our victory and to think that we did it without starting left tackle Torrian Wilson. On the defensive side of the ball I thought the team did very well for the most part. Yes there were a few too many big plays given up by us but their punter had to come out to punt more than a couple of times during the game. I still would like to see us get a better push up front with the four down lineman but maybe that is something they will continue to work on in practice.
The last time I was this excited about a win had to be when we won the Liberty Bowl against the Georgia Bulldogs back in 2010. Once again these are the games we have to find a way to win more often than not for us to continue to grow as a program.
Go Knights! Charge On!
Saturday, September 14, 2013
The Latest Opportunity
Once again we have standing before us an opportunity to get noticed as a major player in the college football world. Respect is definitely something that is earned and although I believe we have earned a very modest amount of respect in the last few years, I still believe that we have a long distance to travel. Beating a traditional football power from one of the "power" conferences on their home turf is one of the jobs that must be accomplished.
Enough with the preaching, let's look at the game.
Not unlike us, Penn State did not seem to be tested in their first couple of games of the season. They probably played down to the competition a little bit as well kind of like what we experienced early on in the game against FIU. After reading more than a few short reviews of our previous contest, I am not alone in thinking that the line play on both sides of the ball has to keep improving for us to have a chance to leave Happy Valley with a win in our back pocket. This will be our first true test as a football team this young season and honestly it could not come at a better time with South Carolina coming to our house in two weeks. Not that I am looking past our current opponent its just that playing a couple of teams that are down right now does not get us ready to play one of the better teams in the SEC. Penn State will definitely give us a great game and I know the players are eagerly looking forward to today's game.
Go Knights! Charge On!
Enough with the preaching, let's look at the game.
Not unlike us, Penn State did not seem to be tested in their first couple of games of the season. They probably played down to the competition a little bit as well kind of like what we experienced early on in the game against FIU. After reading more than a few short reviews of our previous contest, I am not alone in thinking that the line play on both sides of the ball has to keep improving for us to have a chance to leave Happy Valley with a win in our back pocket. This will be our first true test as a football team this young season and honestly it could not come at a better time with South Carolina coming to our house in two weeks. Not that I am looking past our current opponent its just that playing a couple of teams that are down right now does not get us ready to play one of the better teams in the SEC. Penn State will definitely give us a great game and I know the players are eagerly looking forward to today's game.
Go Knights! Charge On!
Thursday, September 12, 2013
FIU game review
After a little bit of a shaky start the offense got the ball moving well and was in control for the rest of the game and finished off FIU 38-0. At least as long as the first team was in anyway. Justin Holman got to take a few snaps in the fourth quarter and showed what a strong arm he has. He also showed that he was a true freshman by having the ball snapped to him when he wasn't ready and hitting him in the shoulder. He was able to hold onto the ball though and no damage was done. I think that Storm had a much better performance this game than the opening by taking advantage of the blocking that was in front of him. As for Blake what can I say, except for a couple of passes that were not well timed early in the game (one of them almost for an interception possibly even a pick six) he performed as good as we've come to expect from him. Speedy Hall had a very big game as well by hauling in 4 passes for over 100 yards for the game.
A review of the game would not be complete without mentioning the combined effort by Caleb Houston and Sean Galvin of the kicking team. Sean had 6 kickoffs for touchback in the game which helped the special teams tremendously and considering the job of punter was such a big question mark coming into the season Caleb did an outstanding job punting the ball with an average of 43 yards per punt.
When you keep the other team from putting up points on the scoreboard you must be doing something right. I am still hoping to see more of a pass rush from the four down lineman but overall I think the defense played very well. The pass coverage must have been good because it seemed as though Panther QB Medlock had a tough time finding an open receiver for most of the night.
Now I know that we sometimes have trouble filling up our home stadium for games and it is something that we can definitely improve on as a fan base but the attendance at last Fridays game down in Miami was downright pathetic. Truly I would be completely embarrassed if I were an FIU fan. I was very cautious about not calling this a rivalry game as I would not like to be accused of acting like those folks over there at that school over in Tampa did a few years ago acting like they were way above us but you can't call this a rivalry game when you need help from us getting 50% attendance at your home field.
I am really anxious to see how we measure up to the Nittany Lions of Penn State this coming Saturday and I hope we can bring home a win.
Go Knights! Charge On!
A review of the game would not be complete without mentioning the combined effort by Caleb Houston and Sean Galvin of the kicking team. Sean had 6 kickoffs for touchback in the game which helped the special teams tremendously and considering the job of punter was such a big question mark coming into the season Caleb did an outstanding job punting the ball with an average of 43 yards per punt.
When you keep the other team from putting up points on the scoreboard you must be doing something right. I am still hoping to see more of a pass rush from the four down lineman but overall I think the defense played very well. The pass coverage must have been good because it seemed as though Panther QB Medlock had a tough time finding an open receiver for most of the night.
Now I know that we sometimes have trouble filling up our home stadium for games and it is something that we can definitely improve on as a fan base but the attendance at last Fridays game down in Miami was downright pathetic. Truly I would be completely embarrassed if I were an FIU fan. I was very cautious about not calling this a rivalry game as I would not like to be accused of acting like those folks over there at that school over in Tampa did a few years ago acting like they were way above us but you can't call this a rivalry game when you need help from us getting 50% attendance at your home field.
I am really anxious to see how we measure up to the Nittany Lions of Penn State this coming Saturday and I hope we can bring home a win.
Go Knights! Charge On!
Thursday, September 5, 2013
FIU game preview
It did not seem as though FIU gave Maryland much of a fight last week for their opening game. Maryland put up some rather impressive offensive numbers on both the run and the pass. Given that our offense performed very well last week, I think we have a good chance of coming back home with our second win of the season. Of course two years ago I probably felt that way about our team taking on FIU and we left Miami with a disappointing 17-10 loss. There are more than a few players in Black and Gold who made that road trip a couple of years ago and still remember that long bus ride back to Orlando. I believe that will be a little bit of motivation that can give us the edge we need. I really want both our offensive and defensive lines to perform a little better than they did on opening knight. Hopefully we can get a few more sacks for our defense and prevent any from happening on offense.
Go Knights!
Charge On!
Go Knights!
Charge On!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Akron game review
One well played game under our belts and one in the Win column as we defeated the Akron Zips by a score of 38-7. Overall I think the effort was great on both sides of the ball as well as special teams. Blake looked very poised in the pocket and made some very accurate throws to all different receivers. I think the pass protection will have to be worked on in the coming weeks but I have no doubt that it will improve. Storm looked pretty good except for the few times that he was dancing around just a little bit too much. I think that he realizes that he is talented enough to break away on every play and sometimes is not just willing to take what is given to him. I'm sure the coaches will remind him of this in practice. Cedric Thompson looked good as well as true Freshman running back Will Stanback who got a few carries in the fourth quarter. On the defensive side of the ball I thought the run defense was pretty stout and the defensive backfield did a very good job keeping the extra yardage after the catches down to a minimum. In addition, the defensive backs did not allow any big yardage plays from scrimmage which was a small concern considering how young the players are back there. I would have to say that I was slightly disappointed that the defensive line did not put too much pressure on the quaterback and got only one sack. Great job by Terrance Plummer being named the AAC defensive player of the week. It was most deserved as he had 10 tackles total with three of them being tackles for loss.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)