UCF Game Preview

Saturday should be an interesting night game for us. After all, we are 4-0 in night games this year. But it's a bit different than most night games. We are traveling up to Orlando and playing the UCF Knights. They have a small, on campus stadium of 45k that has been known to get loud (and have fantastic tailgating by all accounts). It's sure to be an emotional game for UCF, seeing as they are 0-19 against top 25 teams since becoming a Division 1 program, they'll be hungry. We are an instate school and one of the Big 3. Their fans are doing a whole lot of chirping and we are sure their team is posturing with some of this faux-pseudo confidence too. But hey, any given week any one team can beat any other team, so it should be a good test for us.

Last year, we beat UCF 20-14, but the score was not indicative of the game. UCF did a whole lot of nothing that entire game, scoring on a kickoff return and an interception return for a TD. Long gone is their fantastic kickoff returner and cornerback Joe Burnett, as is most of their secondary. They are very green and inexperienced on the secondary as a whole.

Their defense is by no means exceptional and although they do have some experience, they are by no means strong. They are ranked 51st, despite playing sub par competition at best. They are 95th against the pass and 15th against the run. Despite their high ranking on run defense, I expect us to run for over 125 yards on them. They have little depth and have padded their statistics against no name teams.


On offense they are ranked 100th. They are lead by Brett Hodges, who has completed 61.6% of his passes, but has thrown for 6 TDs and 6 ints. He does appear to be an accurate QB, just seems to struggle with some of his decision making.

Their rush offense is ranked 83rd. Brynn Harvey leads the way with a 4.2 yard per average carry and 536 yards rushing on the season with 6 TDs. He should be easy to bottle up behind a weak offensive line. I would expect 2-3 TFL and an average day at best for him.

Their passing offense is ranked 84th and is led by Rocky Ross and Kamar Aiken, with 17 and 11 catches respectively and are nothing to write home about, and between DVD and Harris, it should be easy to keep them from getting separation and allowing our defensive line a chance to get sacks and force poor throws.

When it's all said and done we expect UCF to hang around for the first quarter or so purely on emotion until Miami's superior speed, talent, and coaching allow us to pull away and coast for another victory.

Our Prediction:

Miami 35

UCF 16