Nov. 21, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Quotes | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2
| Tulane at UCF Nov. 21, 2009 |
| Live from Bright House Networks Stadium | |||||
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final |
| Tulane | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| UCF | 7 | 7 | 28 | 7 | 49 |
Quote of the Knight
Senior center Ian Bustillo
"It is always great playing at home. You never want to lose at home. We had one tough loss against Miami, but we had a great season at home."
The Future is Bright
Determined to send their 13 senior teammates out in style, several of UCF's underclassmen had big games for the Knights. Of the seven UCF touchdowns, five were scored by freshmen and sophomores and the other two by junior Kamar Aiken. Sophomore Brynn Harvey scored the first three on the ground for the Knights, while freshmen Jonathan Davis and Brendan Kelly added the team's final two scores.
On defense and special teams, UCF forced five turnovers, with freshman Kehmal Ishmael and sophomore Darius Nall each forcing one. Sophomore Ronnie Weaver had two of the Knights' fumble recoveries, and Nall had two of the team's three sacks.
"This was a day for the seniors. I would like to thank the underclassmen for helping us have a great day," said senior defensive tackle Travis Timmons.
All told on the afternoon, freshmen and sophomores accounted for 268 rushing yards. Sophomore Brynn Harvey had 107 yards on the ground in the first quarter and finished the game with 129 yards on 16 carries. Jonathan Davis added a career-high 76 yards while sophomores Brandon Davis had 34 yards and 13 respectively.
"We are getting a lot of really good reps out of the young kids," said head coach George O'Leary. "We have 13 seniors leaving, and they have done a marvelous job for UCF, but we are a team that has a lot of depth now because of our young kids."
Harvey's Hundreds
Brynn Harvey had another impressive day on the ground for the Knights. The sophomore was a workhorse early on for the team, and the team's dominance allowed Harvey to watch his fellow running backs from the sidelines in the fourth quarter. Harvey finished the game with 129 yards on 16 carries with three touchdowns. It was his second-straight 100-yard rushing game, his fourth of the season and the fifth of his UCF career.
On the strength of a 50-yard touchdown scamper early in the first quarter, Harvey had 107 yards and was over the 100-yard plateau by the end of the first 15 minutes.
With his three touchdowns, Harvey now has 13 on the season, tying Willie English (1991) for the third-most in school history. He also collected back-to-back three-touchdown games, becoming the first Knight to do so since Kevin Smith rand for three against Memphis (Sept. 22, 2007) and Louisiana-Lafayette (Sept. 29, 2007).
Rushing Defense
The consistent strength of UCF all season and having entered the game third in the nation, the rushing defense was even better Sunday, holding Tulane to -30 yards on the ground. The total is the second fewest for a team in FBS this season. Including today, UCF has held its last four opponents to under 100 yards rushing.
Led by the dominance against the run, UCF was able to post its first shutout since shutting out South Carolina State in the season opener a season ago. Tulane had only 50 yards of total offense in the game, and the Knights' defense forced five Green Wave turnovers.
The UCF offense benefitted from the takeways, scoring 28 points off turnovers, including on three-straight possessions early in the third quarter.
"Their defense is really good, much better then I thought," said Tulane head coach Bob Toledo. "I thought we could establish some kind of run and be able to throw the ball a little bit, but they snuffed us out. They are really good."
Putting It Away
After taking a 14-0 lead into halftime, UCF left no question of the outcome of the game with a dominant third quarter. The Knights forced three turnovers in the quarter, and scored touchdowns on each of their four possessions to outscore the Green Wave 28-0 in the period.
The last time UCF scored 28 points in a single quarter was on Sept. 22, 2007 when it scored 28 in the second quarter in a 56-20 victory over Memphis.
The dominance in the second half is nothing new to the Knights, who have now outscored their opponents 186-102 after halftime this season.
No Letdowns
Showing maturity and discipline, UCF has avoided letdowns after playing ranked teams this season. In the three games after games against Miami, Texas and Houston, the Knights are 3-0 with victories over Rice, Houston and Tulane.
You Can't Score Without the Ball
Over the course of the last two games, UCF has been tremendous controlling the time of possession. In tonight's game, UCF held the ball for over 19 minutes in the first half and finished the game with 37:23. On the strength of Harvey's success on the ground, the Knights have a combined 76:53 in time of possession while their opponents have had the ball for only 43:07.
Other Notes
UCF improves to 21-10 all-time on senior day...UCF is now 6-1 at home this season and 14-6 in the three-year history of Bright House Networks Stadium...The Knights are 6-0 all-time at Bright House Networks Stadium against Conference USA West Division teams...UCF outgained Tulane 504 to 50 in total offense...The 504 yards of total offense are the most since 506 on Nov. 10, 2007, at UAB...Redshirt sophomore Darius Nall had two first-half sacks and now has four on the year...Justin Boddie became the 11th different Knight to record a sack this season...Junior Reggie Weems, a Louisiana native, had his first career interception in the second quarter... Since 2005, UCF has won 14 out of 19 games, including three out of four games this season. That marks the most wins in any month of the calendar over that span...With the offensive outburst, UCF improved to 17-1 over the past 32 games when scoring 20-plus points. The Knights are only 1-13 when scoring less than 20 over that stretch...The 29-yard Kamar Aiken touchdown reception on the first play of a third-quarter drive was UCF's fifth single-play scoring drive this season...Scout Team Players of the Week were Brandon Davis and Nick Black(offense), Emery Allen (defense) and Ash Weekley (special teams).