Anytime UCF plays a brand-name out-of-conference opponent, the game takes on great meaning. The Knights lost their original season-opening opportunity against North Carolina, but UCF remained as Georgia Tech's one non-league outing.
And that road contest did not disappoint (at least for Knight fans), whether it was the 49-21 victory, the 660 yards of total offense, the 417 passing yards and four TD passes by UCF signal caller Dillon Gabriel or the five takeaways (plus a blocked field goal) by the Knight defense (and that's after five in UCF's 2019 bowl win vs. Marshall). All that translated to multiple player-of-the-week honors for Gabriel—and an ABC national audience of more than 3.14 million viewers saw it happen.
The Knights are on ABC on a national basis again Saturday against East Carolina (of note, announcers Dave Pasch and Mike Golic Sr. will do the game remotely)—the first time UCF has appeared on ABC on back-to-back weekends since 2017 when it happened to end the regular season versus USF and then against Memphis in the league title game.
Here are some areas to watch when the Knights meet the Pirates (the first time UCF has opened a season with two games away from home since 2014):
- To play or not to play? Last week UCF had the "advantage" of having seen Georgia Tech win the previous Saturday at Florida State—while Tech had no surefire way of knowing exactly what to expect from the Knights in their opener. This week it's reversed—with ECU opening its season (the Pirates' first three scheduled games vs. Marshall, South Carolina and Norfolk State all were lost to conference and COVID changes) against a UCF squad with a game under its belt. Said ECU coach Mike Houston this week, "There's still probably some unknown about us as far as UCF goes, where we have a little bit of confirmation on what we thought we were going to see because we saw them play. All in all, I wish we had played one by now, but it is what it is."
- What's next for Dillon Gabriel? UCF coaches had not been shy about noting the offseason work Gabriel put in to make himself a better quarterback. And there was no question there had to be a much higher comfort level with a full season of college football on his resume. Still, with all the expectations, Gabriel on the road delivered a career-high 417 passing yards and tied his career best with four TD passes. That stat line will be hard to replicate every weekend---yet it has to give opposing defensive coordinators pause. All it means for Gabriel is that he's likely to see opponents dial up even more exotic ways of attempting to slow down the Knights' ability to throw the ball. Of note is that ECU comes at UCF with a new defensive coordinator in Blake Harrell, who said this week, "I want to call it video game-like with what they've been able to do."
- The Pirates don't lack firepower. UCF a year ago broke out to a 35-3 lead against ECU by scoring TDs on its first five possessions and piling up 418 yards by halftime. But Knight players presumably heard nothing about that this week. Instead they watched on video how the Pirates outscored UCF 22-6 in the second half, thanks to 318 yards, 198 of them through the air. ECU junior quarterback Holton Ahlers certainly is a known commodity in the Knights' defensive conversations. Ahlers in 2019 threw for 313 yards against UCF, after completing 29 passes for 406 yards versus the Knights in Greenville in 2018 (in a game that marked Ahlers' first college starting assignment). Also of note is that Ahlers had three consecutive late-season games in 2019 in which he completed 32, 32 and 34 passes for a combined 1,407 yards and 11 TDs. Also back for the Pirates is receiver C.J. Johnson who had 106 receiving yards against UCF last year as a freshman.
- What will Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium be like? With Georgia Tech approved for 20% capacity in its stadium last weekend, UCF players didn't think the atmosphere was much different than normal. But ECU will have no fans in the stands Saturday (other than a few hundred family members of players). Josh Heupel's line about bringing your own juice may be even more applicable this week. It's only the third time ECU begins a season with a league game in the latest start to a Pirate season in 73 years.
- Who starts faster? Last year against ECU the Knights had 250 total yards and 21 points after one period of play. UCF didn't quite follow that script in the Georgia Tech opener (21 points for the Knights in both the second and fourth periods). But the Knights prospered in typical fashion by running 92 total plays. No team in the country scored more in the first period in 2019 than UCF (14.5 points per game in those first quarters)—and the Knights averaged 78.1 plays per game last fall (94 vs. FAMU—only 14 games all season featured more than that--89 vs. Tulane, 88 at Cincinnati, 87 vs. ECU). Only two teams in the country averaged more plays per game in 2019 than UCF did—Wake Forest at 81.1 and SMU at 79.7. The Knights were one of eight teams to run off more than 1,000 plays a year ago—but five of the other seven played either one or two more games.