Know your enemy
by BrooklynHorn on Sep 9, 2007 2:18 PM CDT
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PrintIt may be a bit early in the week for this, but I was looking ahead to this Saturday, and I realized how very little I know about Central Florida's football program, other than the fact that George O'Leary is their coach [you may remember him as the guy who was supposed to coach Notre Dame but lied on his resume and ended up at UCF instead]. I also seem to remember some big upset they were involved in a few years ago.
It turns out that upset was over Alabama in 2000, a bit longer ago than I thought. But I remember that when O'Leary took over (2004), people were writing that this was a program on the rise. In fact, he lead them to an 8-5 record in 2005 and an appearance in the Conference USA championship game. Last year, however, they took a step backward, going 4-8 with no notable wins.
Basically, I'm just fishing for some insight from those of you who know more about the program. I imagine PB will give us a pretty thorough preview this week, but I'm curious because this is an interesting Florida school (enrollment of 39,000) that I somehow know very little about.
Also, it may interest all of us that Central Florida began this season with an upset of NC St on the road, but before we put a lot of stock in that, a quick glance at the stat sheet indicates that NC St. was suffering the growing pains of a new coach. The Wolfpack had double the penalty yardage and 2 more turnovers than UCF in a game they otherwise dominated.
Still, this is a team that is 1-0 against BCS opponents this year, and we're getting them on a day that they're breaking in a new stadium.
We cannot overlook this game.
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Ah yes
I knew I remembered something significant about this program. I think that was it.
by BrooklynHorn on Sep 10, 2007 12:27 AM CDT up reply actions
living in central flroida
We've been hearing how this is a program on the rise for at least 5 years, but it has yet to materialize, other than the decent 8-5 record 2 years ago and first ever bowl bid. They used to play in the cavernous Citrus bowl, but Texas will christen their brand new stadium, so expect some excitement, although the stadium is relatively small. They usually have some decent atheletes, though they have always seemed to have a hard time putting it all together.
When this game was announced, I couldn't help but wonder: Why are we playing at UCF??? Is Mack teying to appeal to Florida recruits (a la playing at Tulane a few years ago)?
Maybe Mack just wants
to take the team to DisneyWorld
by BrooklynHorn on Sep 10, 2007 12:27 AM CDT up reply actions
O'Leary's defenses....
...have allowed 362, 373 and 345 points per season. This is just another flavor of Alphabet Soup. We'll kick this tomato can by 34 points.
I did some reading and...
The UCF game was scheduled to give the Horns a road game but against an opponent they should beat handily. Giving Texas a Florida recruiting presence was also apparently a priority.
In the NC State game, they won because they were disruptive in the NC State offensive backfield, and caused two turnovers early in the game and able to stay on the field on offense to limit NC State's opportunities.
The game will be their home opener and they have had two weeks to prepare for Texas, as they didn't play this week. They will likely be very aggressive with run blitzes and complicated defensive schemes.
If UT can withstand the first quarter with no turnovers and comes out with the intensity of the TCU game, we'll take their best punch and then score on a lot of big plays
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