No Joy, Just Relief...

Summary: Led by a strong defensive effort, UCF managed to win an ugly game 17-12 over Houston.  UCF capitalized on a late forced fumble caused by Brandon Alexander to force a turnover by Quarterback Greg Ward Jr in the UCF endzone for a touchback. This key play avoided a possible game winning touchdown for the Cougars.

Blowhard James O'Korn

The Good: UCF's defense was put in an awful position all night because of our bumbling offense. UCF had only 228 yards of offense, completing only 6-18 passes for 100 passing yards and averaging a mere 127 rushing yards on 37 attempts. As a result UCF defense was constantly put in a position where Houston had a short field in front of them.  While Houston had many drives deep into UCF territory, our defense held strong and prevented the Cougars from reaching the endzone.  Clayton Geathers had one of his best games in his UCF career as his interception led to an early 7-6 lead that UCF would not relinquish again.  The senior made numerous key tackles in the first quarter preventing UCF from getting in a big early deficit.

The Bad:  Justin Holman had a a night to forget.  With a mere 100 yards passing, Holman made all UCF fans realize that we still face uncertainty at the QB position.   The bulk came from a 52 yard touchdown pass to Breshad Perriman which was a direct consequence of Houston's inept secondary tackling.  The Knights were a mere 5-14 on third down and held the ball for five minutes less than Houston on offense.  Considering our conservative style of play, that is a major problem. UCF also had an uncharacteristically undisciplined game as we had 10 penalties for for 90 yards.

Moving forward:  If UCF is to succeed this season in conference play, we will do so on the back of our defense.  Our secondary is outstanding as Brandon Alexander, Jacoby Glenn and Clayton Geathers are all playing at high levels.  While UCF is littered with playmakers at wide receiver, our woes at quarterback and offensive line prevent us from getting them the ball. We now face a Top 25 BYU averaging over 37 points per game led by darkhorse Heisman Candidate in Taysom Hill.  If we even have a punchers chance, we must play A LOT better. We were fortunate to beat Houston.  Were it not for a mistake by an overly ambitious backup freshmen quarterback in Greg Ward, UCF loses that game in agonizing fashion.  As good as our defense played yesterday, we were on the ropes the fourth quarter and literally got saved by the bell.   In college football you never apologize for winning, particularly in conference and on the road.  With that said, we leave this game with little joy, a lot of question marks and lots of relief.

Houston vs UCF Preview

UCF is now a 3 to 4 point underdog tonight against Houston with the total points projected to be at 50.5.  The Cougars have had an up and down season which saw them lose to Texas San-Antonio to then comeback, cover the spread and give #18 BYU a real challenge.

 Last time UCF played at Houston, we beat the Cougs 40-33 in a shootout.  This game got UCF into the top 25 in both the Coaches and AP poll.  It also earned Jeff Godfrey C-USA Player of the Week honors.

Uncle Luke is my homeboy

Unlike years past Houston has a more balanced attack.  Sophomore QB John O'Korn is averaging about 211 yards passing yards and as a team averaging just over 160 rushing yards per game.  After beating the tar out of floundering UNLV, Houston has now played six straight quarters of decent football after a tough tough start.  On defense Houston is 24th in the country in points allowed.  That might very well be due to soft competition playing the likes of Grambling and UNLV.  Against UTSA and BYU, Houston allowed an average of 30 points.  They did a stellar job though of stopping a high flying BYU offense the second half of that game.  Like UCF, Houston opens conference play today.

UCF comes into this game with one of our top wide receivers in Rannell Hall out for the first half after a suspect targeting penalty two weeks ago against Bethune Cookman.  UCF' offensive line has shown vulnerabilities and not allowed Sophomore Quarterback Justin Holman much time to get the ball away to his corps wide receivers.  I expect UCF to finally start feeding the ball to RB William Stanback as the first string rusher despite O'Leary's early stubbornness to play Dontravious Wilson as the primary tailback.

If we can finally find some semblance of a running game, UCF will greatly improve their chances for victory.  The Knights cannot force Holman to win this game thru the air. His decision making and accuracy are not where it needs to be.  I consider UCF fortunate to not have more turnovers early this season because Holman has thrown a quite a few questionable passes that had a high percentage of interception that we got away with.  Houston secondary is fast and they love to gamble.  If Holman does not improve on his decision making, it might be a long night for UCF.  On defense, a key matchup to pay close attention to will be Houston former five star WR Deontay Greenberry going up against our #1 CB in Jacoby Glenn.  Glenn who had a freshmen All-America caliber season and has continued his stellar play in 2014 despite a handful of mistakes.  He will lead our secondary which will be key as I do not expect a lot of points tonight. I do not believe the controversy surrounding O'Leary have been a distraction for the Knights.  UCF is if nothing else disciplined and strong mentally.

While I have little to no trust in our passing game, Justin Holman and our offensive line, there are far too many variables, unknowns and unpredictability surrounding this Houston team to consider them a clear favorite.

The only betting value I see in this game is the UCF money line at +130 if you absolutely must wager on this game as I see this game as a coin flip with Houston being only a slight favorite due to home field.  I however will be saving my monopoly money for this weekend.

A racist he is not...

Grumpy George O'Leary is a lot of things.  The old man is a rude, irritable, condescending, grouchy, a liar, likely an alcoholic and a goof.  O'Leary is not a racist however.  Just like Gunnery Sergeant Hartman played wonderfully by Lee Ermey in the Stanley Kubrick classic Full Metal Jacket, George dislikes everyone equally.  Props to longtime UCF basher Bruce Feldman for writing an article today quoting former UCF Coach David Kelly who the Knights fired disgracefully a few years back, who clearly stated O'Leary is no racist. There are lots of reasons to dislike George.  Being a bigot is not one of them.