Nov. 19, 2010
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By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
NEW ORLEANS, La. (UCFAthletics.com) - As deflating as last Saturday's loss to Southern Miss was for UCF, it did manage to narrow the focus and set a direct course for the Knights for the final two games of the regular season.
Win on Saturday at Tulane and again next week in Memphis and the Knights will win Conference USA's East Division and host the league championship game on Dec. 4. Lose on Saturday or next week, and all of UCF's dreams and positive vibes could be gone in the blink of an eye.
What UCF is most happy about, though, is that it is full control of its destiny. There will be no depending on others, no going to complicated head-to-head tiebreaker formulas as long as the Knights take care of their own business and win the final two games.
And ideally that's a position that they are just fine with.
``That loss (last week against Southern Miss) hurt because we really wanted to win it and put ourselves in a good spot in the conference. Now, we have to let go of that one and go win this one because we're only a game up now,'' UCF standout defensive end Bruce Miller said. ``We've put ourselves in the corner and we have to win out. We control our own fate and that's a good thing.''
A week after seeing its 11-game C-USA winning streak come to an end, UCF (7-3 overall, 5-1 in C-USA play) will look to start another winning tear and remain atop C-USA when it faces Tulane (4-6, 2-4). Because of their 49-35 defeat of East Carolina three weeks ago, the Knights have the edge in the East Division. But the only way the Knights can guarantee that they stay ahead of East Carolina (5-1) and Southern Miss (4-2) is to rebound in a big way on Saturday afternoon inside the Louisiana Superdome.
``We can't have any more letdowns because East Carolina is right there. We lose a game and they are in the championship and we're not,'' said senior linebacker Derrick Hallman, echoing his message to teammates all week. ``So we can't lose anymore games. We know how big this week is and next week, too.''
UCF coach George O'Leary said repeatedly that his team put last Saturday's 31-21 home loss to Southern Miss behind it quickly this week. The Knights simply did not play well enough on either side of the line of scrimmage to win, O'Leary said. Add in coverage errors in the secondary, an inability to get stops on third down, not protecting freshman quarterback Jeff Godfrey and more woes in the kicking game and the Knights simply didn't make enough plays to keep alive a winning streak that had reached five games.
But O'Leary likes having a senior-dominated team in a position now where there's a must-win mentality. This team, O'Leary said, has met almost every challenge he has put in front of it, and he expects the same come Saturday against Tulane.
``The kids are very resilient,'' said O'Leary, noting that coaches often take losses harder than players do. ``They understand what is at stake as far as two games left, and if they do what they are supposed to do, we win our division and host the conference championship. It is very clear what has to take place.''
One thing that UCF hopes takes place is a return to the defensive dominance that the Knights displayed earlier in the season. UCF allowed just 97 points (13.8 points per game) in the first seven games of the season, but has struggled mightily of late against fastbreak, spread offenses. The Knights have yielded 99 points (33 points per game) over the past three weeks.
Tulane runs a similar spread offense and has put up points in bunches of late. The Green Wave beat Rutgers earlier in the season and whipped Rice last Saturday by scoring 54 points. They rank 47th in the nation in passing yards (238.7) and 68th in scoring offense (26.2).
``The first half of the schedule was old-fashioned, smashmouth football and then now we're in this stretch where it's spread football and we just haven't adapted to it well enough,'' UCF defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable said. ``We have a big game this week and a lot of it is the same stuff that we've been seeing. We need to adjust to what we're seeing and play a lot better.''
O'Leary and Huxtable have been critical of UCF's linebacking play of late, feeling the unit is getting blocked by wide outs too often and missing too many tackles. The Knights hope to have senior linebacker Lawrence Young back this week after he missed the Southern Miss game with his second concussion of the season.
Blown coverages in the secondary and inconsistent play by the front seven has led to UCF's struggles on third down recently. In the first seven weeks of the season, UCF foes converted on third down just 37 percent of the time (37 of 100). In the past three weeks, East Carolina (12 of 17), Houston (eight of 16) and Southern Miss (11 of 16) have converted 63.2 percent of the time (31 of 49).
O'Leary said the linebackers have played far too ``soft,'' a critique that has served as motivation for Hallman and the linebacking corps.
``I had 24 hours (to get over the Southern Miss loss). You can't dwell on that because it will hold you back,'' Hallman said. You are losing a work day if you are beating yourself up and getting down on yourself about how you have played.
``I take (the `soft' label) personally,'' Hallman said. ``It's a huge challenge because you don't anybody calling you or your comrades soft. That's a big challenge and we know we have to play better as a group and individually.''
The Knights also hope to play much better offensively a week after being limited to just three scores against Southern Miss. UCF entered the game on a roll offensively, having punted just twice in the previous eight quarters. But when tailback Ronnie Weaver was shutdown over the final three quarters and freshman phenom quarterback Jeff Godfrey was intercepted twice, UCF's offense ground to a halt.
Godfrey, who has re-written many of the freshmen records at UCF, admittedly struggled last week with Southern Miss throwing blitzes at him on almost every passing down. He knows much of the Knights' success depends on his ability to bounce back from his first poor performance.
``They sent a couple of blitzes at me last week that we hadn't gone over, but I felt like we made the adjustments on the sideline. But we didn't get the job done and came out with a loss,'' Godfrey recalled. ``I sensed they were trying to keep me in the pocket, dropping their D-ends.
``But that game is over with and we have to go and beat Tulane,'' said Godfrey, who will be playing on the same field as his NFL idol, New Orleans Saints' quarterback Drew Brees. ``It took me awhile to get over the last game because I played a bad game, but it's time to move on and do our jobs. You have to show that you can bounce back. We have to bounce back and show people what we can do.''
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John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.