Talking UCF, Part II: The Irish Bowl
About a month ago we started talking about the Wolfpack’s opening game against Central Florida in this entry that you may enjoy.
Although you can summarize UCF as follows…
Seventeen starters return to a team that went 4-8 a year ago, 3-5 in Conference USA. Senior quarterback Kyle Israel closed last season playing well, and coach George O’Leary expects him to pick up where he left off. Junior tailback Kevin Smith has run for more than 2,000 yards in his career. UCF gave up 40 or more points four times last season.
…we thought that we would start a new entry to capture recent information that will prep you for the game. So, please use our comments section to post articles that you find and whatever UCF-comments that you would like to share.
Today’s N&O had a piece about UCF’s resurgence that I thought covered a lot of information that fans would like to know. Additionally, Pack Pride has posted their UCF Notebook.
In addition to previous analyses of UCF’s offensive and defensive units, our friends at Section Six have provided some more detailed bullet points that are both interesting and relevant:
– They have a group of linebackers who are light on talent, speed, and experience. We will be running the football at them a lot.
– They have an alarming number of true freshman wide receivers on the two-deep (PDF). Javid James was unimpressive during camp, while Willie Thornton has been banged up, which leaves Rocky Ross as the lone returning wide receiver guaranteed to see significant time on Saturday. That’s rather less than ideal. They may sort these WR issues out as the season progresses, but I think as far as the opener goes, this is going to be the death of them.
– Most recently, there have been questions regarding the kicking game.
– While the fact that several mainstream media folk think we’re going to be a “surprise” team this season makes me a little uncomfortable, the statistical indicators do agree with them. There’s the turnover margin and close losses. Our expected record last year based on points scored and allowed, 5-7. CAPP and SDPI. The last time our record didn’t accurately reflect our performance (2004), we bounced back with a winning season. So the moral is, and I write this really for my benefit as much as anyone else’s: don’t worry. We are not doomed to bad luck. And that will be immediately apparent.
O’Leary vs O’Brien
37 Responses to “Talking UCF, Part II: The Irish Bowl”
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08/31/2007
[...] Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007 The Irish Bowl, 6pm (ESPN360 -web only) East Carolina at Virginia Tech, 12pm (ESPN) Marshall at Miami, 12pm (ESPNU) Connecticut at Duke, 2pm (ACC Select – web only) Virginia at Wyoming, 2pm Georgia Tech at Notre Dame, 3:30pm (NBC) Wake Forest at Boston College, 3:30pm (ABC) Villanova at Maryland, 6pm (ESPN360 – web only) James Madison at North Carolina, 6pm (ESPN360 – web only) [...]
Maybe this is why we are a solid favorite in this game.
In terms of who we should be pulling for this weekend in the two conference games, we want BC and Clemson to win.
BC plays Miami, GT and Va Tech in the Coastal while Wake gets Duke, UVa and UNC. So based on Wake having a the easiest possible, we need Wake to lose whenever possible. We play both BC and Wake on the road, so again no advantage in our head to head matchups therefore we should pull for BC based on Wake’s easy schedule.
Clemson plays GT, Va Tech and Duke. FSU gets Miami, Va Tech, and Duke. Schedule is pretty even, so we would probably prefer Clemson to win because we get Clemson at home and FSU on the road.
I don’t think I need to explain who we are pulling for in the JMU/UNC game.
I would love to see James Madison ruin Butch Davis’ first game!!!!
^Anyone but Carolina?
only 8 points at home?
lots of folks must think UCF is for real.
Go Dukes! And I don’t mean the one’s in Durham!
Nice article with some new information about TOB and pregame routines.
http://www.wral.com/sports/story/1762273/
Thanks to the Section Six articles, I looked at UCF’s defensive stats from ncaa.org. ….and they’re pretty terrible.
Best case scenario for State is a huge margin in time of possession as State’s three backs were down UCF.
2006
Pass Defense……………….111
Rushing Defense ……………81
Pass Efficiency Defense …..98
Total Defense ………………106
Scoring Defense ……………101
2005
Rushing Defense …………….88
Pass Defense …………………81
Pass Efficiency Defense …….81
Total Defense …………………96
Scoring Defense ……………..76
I really respect what O’Leary did at GaTech. UCF is a dangerous opponent that could beat us. We’ll find alot about our potential in less than 48 hours.
I’ll be watching our OL and QB position. If Daniel Evans has a high completion %, good yards, and no bonehead INTs – I’ll feel pretty good about him at the position. That was the one thing about Jay Davis – he had a couple of games against mediocre competition and it didn’t look easy for him out there – bad sign.
Meant to add – hoping to see us run the ball very well. If we can’t run it against a team like this, another bad sign.
Anyone else watching LSU/Miss. State?
Hard for me to pull for anyone in the SEC, but the Bulldogs are playing with a lot of heart tonight. They’re totally overmatched, they’re getting killed on TOs and it’s still only 10-0.
I watched. Interception #4, followed by LSU’s show-no-mercy 40 yard touchdown drive in one minute, has pretty much sealed the deal for me. If Miss State has anything left, they’d better use it soon or it’s going to get ugly.
This reminds me of some of the FSU/NC State games back during the Sheridan years. We’d hang around…we’d do some nice things…but FSU had too much talent and they’d just slowly pull away.
The first year we played them, we lost 38-3 and I actually felt good about losing by five touchdowns.
It’s getting ready to be 24-0. But Miss. State shouldn’t get too down. They’ve played well.
I agree, they’re really overmatched. And they’re going to be outmanned in almost every conference game this year. I’m not convinced that Croom will survive the season.
I remember those FSU games too, and thinking about them just makes me realize how far we’ve come in the last 10 years.
Now it’s 45-0.
I wish we were playing Miss State. That was really painfull. I’m not sure Croom will survive another two weeks. That LSU defense was a monster. It looked like they were playing about 10 defensive backs at the same time.
The LSU/VT game next week could be a dandy.
^I hope we have 400 yards of rushing on Saturday.
MSU’s defense is upper-mid echelon SEC caliber, and will keep them in most games this year (with the exception of the really big boys). Same cannot be said about the offense. They better hope Hennig or whoever is behind him gets a lot better real quick. They O-Line appeared solid, but the QB play was god awful. Weak arm and poor decision making make for a bad combo.
I say they go 5-7, with wins against Tulane, Gardner-Webb, UAB, and Ole Miss at home with an upset against either Alabama, Kentucky, or South Carolina. That would show some improvement and probably keep Croom around 1 more year.
O, I think Pack fans should pull against Clemson whenever possible this year, if only to tip the scales a bit in recruiting. Mattes, in particular, seems to be Clemson then NC State and he’ll be at the FSU game.
As for LSU, they look good but not #2, NC-caliber good. MSU served them up a ton of TO’s to help out the LSU offense.
It’s hard to say who’s BCS-title material after one week of play.
“This reminds me of NCSU/FSU sheridan games” Sheridan only played FSU once I remember maybe twice certainly not much. You were probably still in diapers then anyway. And I really don’t see how you can combare UCF and FSU. Not even close. Really far out there dude. But hey ain’t you the guy that said you was going to burn down the RBC Center. Going to game Saturday, you not going to try and burn down Carter Finley are you? If you going to game be nice know so security can be on alert.
Wow. Didn’t realize we had some nut job on the site. If Noah really did talk about burning down our facilities I think Statefans has an obligation to notify the authorities. After VT, things like this can’t be taken lightly. I am going to the game also and taking my family. Only thing I want to worry about is UCF not some nut going all Cho on us.
Haze: Didn’t even think about the impact on recruiting. Considering our chances for winning the division title are likely to be over by week four, you are probably right that we should pull for FSU.
Walking Wolf: I am fairly certain he was comparing the LSU/Miss St game to our early games against FSU.
Thanks Mr. O. I assumed since this was a Wolfpack blog he was referring to NCSU.
I really respect what O’Leary did at GaTech.
Take a little closer look at the GT years. Separate GOL’s record into two categories…..w/ and w/o Friedgen. When you do that, you have to wonder how much of GOL’s success at GT was due to Friedgen.
You know what they say about people that assume.
“But hey ain’t you the guy that said you was going to burn down the RBC Center.”
“If Noah really did talk about burning down our facilities I think Statefans has an obligation to notify the authorities.”
Who even are you guys? This is how rumors get started…