Sept. 13, 2009
By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
At times Saturday night, UCF executed well enough to be viewed once again as one of the elite teams in Conference USA. At others, the Knights were their own worst enemies with early fumbles and untimely penalties.
As a result of those mistakes, UCF left Hattiesburg, Miss., as frustrated 26-19 losers to Southern Miss in the C-USA opener for both teams.
For UCF, it exited wondering what might have been had it not slogged through a poor start. As it turned out, a 14-0 hole was too deep to dig out of even though UCF gamely strung together three long, gusty scoring drives and a fourth to draw within a score late in the game.
Looking back on the frustrating night, here are five things that we learned coming out of Saturday's UCF-Southern Miss game:
1. Brett Hodges is the starter at quarterback for the foreseeable future. The fifth-year senior, a transfer from Wake Forest, simply gives the Knights a better chance to win at this point with his calmness in the pocket and his accuracy. Coach George O'Leary and offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe confirmed as much after the game, anointing Hodges the starter for next Saturday night's home game against Buffalo.
Hodges played mostly mistake-free football by hitting on 15 of his 26 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns. He was masterful on UCF's 18-play, 68-yard drive in the first half, one that gobbled up 8:46 off the clock. Hodges connected on passes of 19, 20, 29 and 4 yards on the drive, culminating on his TD strike to the blossoming Kamar Aiken. Rob Calabrese was given a chance to start a second consecutive game following a poor opener against Samford, but he was again unable to move the offense. Two fumbles in the first three drives doomed his chances of success.
2. Mistakes will kill you on the road vs. C-USA's elite. Those two early gaffes - a low pitch by Calabrese to Rocky Ross and a Calabrese fumble - played a major role in the Knights falling into a 14-0 hole. UCF avoided disaster on the first possession when Southern Miss shanked a field goal, but Martez Smith made the Knights pay on the third possession with a 25-yard TD return of Calabrese's fumble.
UCF needed to play mostly error-free football to challenge a loaded Southern Miss squad, but shot itself in the foot from the start. The sloppy first quarter set a bad tone for the night and basically undermined the solid play over the final three quarters.
3. O'Leary was right that Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis is a star in the making. Tailback Damion Fletcher is well on his way to becoming just the ninth player in NCAA history to run for 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons and 6-foot-6 wide out DeAndre Brown already has NFL scouts drooling, but it's actually Davis who makes the USM offense run like a well-oiled machine.
O'Leary said earlier in the week that it was Davis who concerned him the most, and it was easy to see why considering how well he spread the ball around Saturday night. He completed 23 of 33 tosses for 253 yards and wasn't intercepted.
Making matters worse for UCF, Davis was dropped just once all night. UCF's defensive line, arguably the team's strongest unit, continued to struggle getting pressure on the passer. UCF has just two sacks in the first two games.
4. Despite its struggles running the ball, UCF showed an ability to control the ball and keep Southern Miss's high-powered offense off the field. UCF had an 18-play march for its first score that stretched for more than eight minutes over the first and second quarters. UCF had another 79-yard drive in the second quarter to lead to a touchdown.
This particular statistic shows how hot and cold the offense was on the night: On their four scoring drives, the Knights controlled the ball for 31 plays; on their other nine possessions, UCF was on the field just 26 plays. Four of those possessions resulted in frustrating three-and-outs.
5. UCF's young offensive line still has some work to do in muscling foes off the line of scrimmage. It's downright shocking to see an O'Leary-coached team net just 15 yards rushing for the game. Sophomore tailback Brynn Harvey had little room to run all night, ending up with just 37 yards on 14 carries (a paltry 2.6 yards a carry). And the early 14-0 deficit got the Knights out of the run game, forcing Hodges to throw the ball to keep drives alive.
To make matters worse, UCF allowed three sacks. Clearly, the inability to run the ball allowed Southern Miss's defensive line to focus primarily on rushing the passer.
UCF must run the ball - next week against Buffalo and more importantly when it travels to powerful East Carolina later in the month - if it is going to become a feared offensive unit once again.
John Denton's Knights Insider runs each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on UCFAthletics.com. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.