Nov. 10, 2009
By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
UCF coach George O'Leary thinks the best quarterback the Knights have seen this season is Texas senior Colt McCoy, who strengthened his Heisman Trophy candidacy last Saturday with 470 passing yards.
But O'Leary gave McCoy that nod with one qualifier.
"That just might change this week," O'Leary said with a chuckle, referring to which quarterback is the best UCF has seen so far.
Dead ahead for the Knights (5-4 overall, 3-2 in Conference USA) is a showdown against gun-slinging quarterback Case Keenum and No. 12 Houston (7-1, 3-1). Few quarterbacks in the country can top what McCoy has done this season at Texas, but Keenum is certainly one of them.
Keenum's statistics look like something out of the now-defunct Arena Football League. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound junior from Abilene, Texas, has passed for 3,815 yards and 28 touchdowns, while completing 70.9 percent of his passes and throwing just five interceptions.
He's had at least 359 yards passing in every game but one, he's topped 500 yards three times and he's thrown at least three TDs in six games this season. At this rate, he's on pace to throw for 5,087 yards and 37 scores.
And the pressure is now on the UCF defense to slow down Keenum and Houston's runaway offense. The game pits Houston's strength (No. 1 in the nation in pass offense and scoring) against UCF's biggest weakness (No. 114 in the nation against the pass).
"They have a very dynamic offense, but we feel like we're up for the challenge," UCF safety Derrick Hallman said. "It's a big opportunity and I can't really explain how excited I am to be facing a team that throws the ball 50 or 60 times a game. Case Keenum is a great player and I'm excited to be on the same field competing against him, but we'll be ready."
Part of being ready for Houston is being ready for the change in tempo that the Cougars present opposing teams. Houston not only runs a no-huddle offense, but they also look to snap the ball again just seconds after the previous play ends. They not only limit team's substitution patterns and come at them in waves, they test opponent's stamina levels.
O'Leary said many of Houston's big plays this season have come after defenses have been a step slow because of fatigue or a lack of familiarity with the fast tempo that the high-scoring Cougars play with.
"With them it's like a game of conditioning because they have a very fast tempo," Hallman said. "At the end of the day, it's going to be whoever is in the best condition who wins the game."
UCF hopes to have gutsy quarterback Brett Hodges back for Saturday's noon kickoff after the senior missed the Texas loss because of pain in his left ribcage. Hodges was battered in the 21-20 Marshall victory two weeks ago, but stayed in the game long enough to throw the winning touchdown with 23 seconds to play.
Hodges said as much pressure as the UCF defense is under to slow down Keenum, the Knights offense knows that they will likely have to put up points in bunches to stay in the game. UCF has topped 30 points just twice this season - 32 against Memphis and 49 against Rice. Houston is averaging 42.1 points per game.
"What's ultimately going to help us win this game is scoring points and everyone knows Houston's offense puts up points and puts them up in a hurry," Hodges said. "We have to hold the ball, not turn it over and don't make mistakes.
"We have to put points on the board. This game we can't make mistakes. Some games you can have a turnover and still pull off the win. But against Houston with their ability to score so fast, we can't afford to be turning the ball over. So we're really focused on being better this week."
John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFathletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.