(Photo by Adrian J. Hernandez / New Day Review)
Sept. 4 at Wayne Densch Center for Student-Athlete Leadership
Availability: OT Aaron Evans, WR Tre’Quan Smith, P Mac Loudermilk, S Tre Neal, LB Pat Jasinski
OT Aaron Evans
- Even after a 61-17, Week 1 win over Florida International University in which the offense allowed no sacks, Evans doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.
I think it’s exciting that we had the win, but I think there’s a lot of areas for improvement. And so those are the things I’m thinking about this week. Like, pat ourselves on the back. We can celebrate the win that night, the next day a little bit, but it’s time to move on and continue to move forward, continue to grow. So I know personally I’ve got a lot to work on. I see little critiques, little things that, in games—honestly it’s exciting because that means we can just keep moving forward, keep getting better as we turn our attention to [the University of Memphis].
- For Evans, the Knights’ rushing attack was a weak spot against FIU.
- UCF ran for just 148 yards on 45 attempts but scored four touchdowns, too.
Definitely the run blocking. Just the little details in the passing game that we continue to hone in on the run and run game. We need to continue to press on our man, continue to finish blocks, continue to get moving so we can spread that—the holes open so the running back has room to make big plays and overall increase in productivity.
- Quarterback McKenzie Milton earned American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week after throwing for 360 yards and four touchdowns.
Yeah, exactly. It’s a huge pat on the back for the O-line. I think we won’t get that pat, but I’ll give it to my teammates. So, yeah, without us doing our job, McKenzie won’t be able to do his job. So it goes hand in hand, and that’s just—indirectly, we’re getting recognized for it, and it’s good to see.
- UCF is starting conference play in Week 2 in 2017.
- The last time UCF played a conference opponent in Week 2 or earlier was 2009.
- In 2009, the Knights traveled to lose to the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles 26-19 in Week 2 to open conference play.
Honestly, I don’t know if our mental aspect has flipped at all because we are goal—we started the unity council, and it’s like a leadership thing we’ve been doing inside the football team. And our goal is conference championship. So each game is vital to winning. Like, our ultimate goal is to go to a big bowl, everything. So, like, every game is super, very, very important. So it’s paramount that we take each opponent, each team as a catalyst for our season. So, I don’t know if my attention has changed. My mentality. But, yes, it’s important. A big conference game, conference champs, so I do recognize that, but, again, each game is very important.
I mean, yeah, we don’t have as much film, obviously. We refer to last season’s film and from last week’s game. But, so, yeah, we don’t have as much film to look at. And just working out the kinks of a new season, like, just we’re all getting the ball rolling. So, I guess. But, again, prepare like every game is the most important game of your life, [and] we’ll be okay.
- UCF set a student-attendance record with 18,756 students at the win over FIU.
It’s awesome. I love it. I run on the field, and I sit there and take a deep breath when I’m running on the field, and I just look around and take a mental snapshot every time. It’s one of the more exciting parts of what we’re going to do—for me at least.
- The Knights played their only Thursday-night game of the season against FIU.
- For Evans, that’s helped him recover for Week 2.
Yeah, absolutely. They’ve been preaching recovery, recovery, recovery. If you have injuries, get in. If you’re sore, achy, get in, get recovered. And I felt really fresh today. So that was two days, three days off or just lighter. So, really, I feel a lot better. I think rest is very important. So I’m excited to go into this week feeling fresh.
- The Alabama Crimson Tide beat Florida State University 24-7 in Week 1, the LSU Tigers beat Brigham Young University 27-0, and the UCLA Bruins overcame a 30-point deficit to beat Texas A&M University.
I saw a little bit of the Bama-FSU game. Also a little of the Temple game. But, honestly, I didn’t watch too much. Sort of just detoxed. Didn’t watch any TV this weekend.
- True freshman quarterback Noah Vedral made his debut against FIU, throwing for 79 yards on 10-for-12 passing.
He does a good job as a freshman coming in. He’s got a really good energy about him. So he does a good job controlling us. And I think we respect him because he does work so hard consistently on a regular basis. So, all in all, I think it’s good to have him as a backup for McKenzie because we know that he can get in there and do the job and do it well. So he’s doing a good job.
Definitely. He’s he carries himself well. I notice that he doesn’t goof off a lot, or at least it’s tastefully done if he does goof off—maturely, as I guess you would say. So, all in all, I think he does have a maturity about him, and I think that’s why he’s able to handle the pressure.
WR Tre’Quan Smith
- Smith helped Milton’s AAC Offensive Player of the Week honors by catching two of his quarterback’s four touchdowns.
Yes, of course, I’m always happy to see one of my teammates win the offensive player of the week, especially the quarterback, because that’s where everything starts with the quarterback. If the quarterback’s not having a good day, I’m pretty sure offense’s not gonna have a good day.
- Despite scoring 60-plus points in a season-opener for the first time since 2011, when the Knights won 62-0 over the Charleston Southern Buccaneers, Smith said his team could’ve scored more.
I believe we was pretty satisfied. But we know we could’ve put up way more points, you know? A lot of missed opportunities out there. When we look at film, we say, “Okay, we did what we was supposed to do. We came out with the win.” But it was so many missed plays, you know, so many missed assignments that we could’ve did better on.
[Memphis is] a good team. You know, a very high-powered offense. You know, it’s going to be a shootout. You know, we can’t leave missed plays on the field. We’ve got to do everything we can to take advantage of every opportunity because we know their offense is gonna put up points.
- The looming threat of Hurricane Irma could force UCF and Memphis to reschedule their upcoming game.
Yeah, I think that’s very important, you know, having some time off to rest. But we also, you know, looked at film a lot, you know, even though we was off. We still study film a lot, and we came back today, you know, studied more film on guys and just practiced getting ready. We don’t talk too much about the storm because it may come, and it may pass by, but we’ve got to be prepared for whatever the outcome may be.
- Memphis was picked to finish first in the AAC West, according to an AAC media poll.
- Smith said he wants to use the Memphis game to show UCF is one of the best teams in the conference.
I believe this game is very big even though they’re [in the other division], you know? Our conference chose them to win our conference. But when we play this game, it’s really going to decide the fate of our team, you know, the outcome of our season. And we wanna show everybody that we can be the best in our conference.
- Saturday’s bout with Memphis is scheduled for 8 p.m.
With the conference play beginning so early. We got to buckle down and really be serious and pay attention to details. Because we don’t want to miss any opportunities to get better and to prove people wrong. So the conference game being so early. I feel like all of the guys know what’s at stake. And, you know, we’re doing our best to prepare and we’re ready for it.
- True freshman wide receiver Gabriel Davis had four catches for 53 yards and a touchdown in his debut.
Gabe really stepped up, but it didn’t surprise me at all because knowing the person that Gabe is and if you guys came out and watched Gabe practice. He do it in practice. It’s no shocker. He pays attention to detail. He want to be out there. He want to learn. So it’s no shocker. What you see on the field by Gabe Davis…it was expected from me.
- Freshmen like Davis, Greg McCrae and Cordarrian Richardson each scored their first touchdowns last week.
Everybody was happy because everything was going in our favor, again. Then the young guys were getting into it. The young guys are making plays and scoring. And, you know, coming from someone like me, a veteran, I just wanna see the team happy. When young guys score under me, it just makes me happy knowing that they’re happy and doing what he can to help the team.
- Vedral got the back-up nod over Darriel Mack Jr.
- Though, head coach Scott Frost said that doesn’t mean Vedral is confirmed to be the next starter for the Knights.
I feel like Noah is very vocal for freshman. You know, even when he in practice, he know how to take control of the offense, you know? You know, to quiet them guys down and make sure they know what they’re doing. That’s what I feel like he did. He did the same thing in the game. You know, he prepared. The way he prepared in practice, it showed in the game.
- In Memphis’ Week 1 win over the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, the Tigers allowed 279 passing yards.
Looking at Memphis’ defense, we’re really looking at the DBs and studying the film on the DBs, coming from a receiver. And they got a pretty good defense, but we trying to take advantage of the DBs and missed opportunities that they shown on film. We trying to take advantage of that.
P Mac Loudermilk
- After the first touchdown of the game, UCF ran a two-point conversion play where Loudermilk completed a pass to tight end Jordan Franks.
- Loudermilk said it was a spur-of-the-moment call.
Bam-bam call. We did not know we were going to do that. We’d practiced something like that during the week, but I didn’t think we’d actually run it. So when he called it, I was like, “Okay, I got one chance. Let’s not mess it up.” So, went out there and tried to execute the best I could.
- In high school, Loudermilk played quarterback.
Just, like, to try to help, to try to help the team win however I can. You need me to punt? I’ll punt. Throw a two-point conversion? I’ll do that. So whatever they need, I’ll do.
- Loudermilk pinned a punt on FIU’s one-yard line, leading to a safety on the ensuing first play.
- All three of Loudermilk’s punts against FIU were inside the 20-yard line.
Oh, that’s tough. I gotta to go with the two-point conversion because it’s been three and a half, four years since I’ve thrown a ball in an actual game. So, that was pretty sweet.
- Last season, the Knights went 4-4 in conference play.
I think it’s always great when you can boost the atmosphere of a game. With it being a conference game, it’s going to be a tough one. Our conference is very tough at football. I think as long as you prepare like we know how to do and give it our all, then we’re going to come in here, and we’re gonna play our best ball.
- Cornerback Mike Hughes took over punt-returning duties for UCF and had a 43-yard return against FIU.
Mike’s a great athlete, great kid. When I first saw him, I think it was the last week of camp, I saw him catch a couple of punts, and he made a few guys miss. I was like, “This guy’s gonna be special.” So, whenever you can have that kind of weapon on the field, it’s always a plus.
S Tre Neal
- The University of Central Florida’s defense allowed 335 yards (201 passing, 134 rushing) in a 61-17 win over the FIU Panthers on Aug. 31.
We did pretty good as a defense. I think the key was we played together as a defense. You know, we kinda had some missed assignments, miscommunication, but when you playing together as a defense, you can kinda mask those issues. Everybody’s running to the football. Everybody’s trying to make a play. I think you can mask those kind of deficiencies.
- On Saturday, the Knights will host the University of Memphis.
- Last season, the Tigers ranked 15th in points per game (38.8) and ranked 14th in passing yards per game (304.4).
- In Memphis’ season-opening win against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, the Tigers ran for 319 yards behind two 100-yard rushers in Darrell Henderson and Patrick Taylor Jr.
They’re a really explosive team. You saw last week, they ran for 300 yards. And, you know, last year, they were throwing the ball all over the place. You know, they’re a really balanced team, so I think the key would be just keeping the ball in front of us, trying to make them drive the ball instead of, like, three plays, they go 100 yards or 90 yards. You trying to to just keep the ball in front of you, tackle, get up, play another play.
- Last season, the Knights didn’t start conference play until a Week 5 matchup with East Carolina University.
- This season, the Knights host Memphis in Week 2 to open the conference schedule.
You know, it’s conference week, so already early. So we’re already, you know, we’re focused, we’re ready. We kinda—we’re excited for a conference game. You know, this game, we talk about all season, we wanna win conference. And this is our first road block in the road, so we wanna go through this team, and we wanna beat them so that we can open other people’s eyes, let [them] know that we’re the real deal, and we’re really serious about winning this conference.
I mean, last year, we kinda had a couple of games to get rolling and get gelling as a unit. Now, it’s, you know, it’s Week 2. I mean, we just had our first game last week. Some of these guys have never played a college-football game, and now we’re going into conference [play]. It’s a bigger game. You know, it’s a big deal, but, at again, you wanna make these guys feel, you know, “You guys have already gone through it. This is college football. There’s nothing that’s gonna change except the importance of the games, and, right now, this is a really important game.” So I’m telling them, try to keep them focused. Not as much giggling, having a little fun. We’re gonna be focused and understand what’s going on this week.
- Neal believes he’s seen the Knights return to prominence this season.
- UCF boasts conference championships from the 2013 and 2014 seasons, the first two seasons the Knights were in the AAC.
Of course. I mean, you start winning your conference, then you can start playing, you know, the big boys. And we always considered ourselves—we think we’re the upper tier of this conference, even if people think we’re not. We believe that we can win this conference, and we think we are gonna win this conference, and, right now, Memphis is the next team in the road. That’s what we gotta go through. Win it, that’s what we’re gonna try and do.
- Redshirt freshmen Brandon Moore and Grant and true freshman Antwan Collier made their UCF debuts in the win over FIU.
- Moore had two unassisted tackles, Grant had one assisted tackle, and Collier recorded a solo tackle.
They did good for a first game. They did a lot better than I did. I think the first couple plays, they were kind of a little anxious—not really scared, but they were so excited that they were almost panicking. But once they calmed down, you know, they played really good, kinda how we expected them to play. But, now, I told ’em, “Y’all’s first game. Y’all really aren’t rookies anymore.” I told ’em, “We’re going through this over and over for the rest of the year. So you guys know the hang of it. You know how we’re gonna go through everything. So just ready to be play faster and play better teams.”
- Hughes had the only pass break-ups for a UCF defensive back against FIU, tallying three.
He’s a really explosive guy. I mean, you guys saw it on punt returns. Couple of plays he made at corner. You know, he’s an explosive guy. I Mean, he was JUCO All-American for a reason. And he’s a really quick-twitch guy, explosive. You know, he’s really good football player, and I think he has a big impact, and he’s experienced. We have a couple of young guys who have never really played. He’s kinda been in that fire a little bit. So once we get him gelling, get him calls a little bit better, he’ll be a really talented player and really helpful player for us.
- As a general football fan, Neal tries to watch anything and everything on football, including a bevy of Week 1 games.
I watched the Bama-FSU game. I think that’s really the one—LSU versus BYU. I paid attention to that one. I watched the UCLA game last night, but I went to sleep when they were winning, so I woke up and went to get taped, and I see they lost. And I was like, “Oh, my goodness.” But, I mean, you know, I try to watch the good games, you know, just to see where—trying to measure ourselves as a team, where other teams are at right now. You know, I love football. I love watching it. I try to watch every kind of stuff about it, so just watched a few of them.
LB Pat Jasinski
- Memphis beat ULM 37-29.
We did [watch Memphis]. Obviously, not as a team, but me and a couple of guys who got a chance to watch it, go over what we’re going to be seeing next week.
- In 2016, FIU went 4-8.
- Memphis went 8-5 last season.
Absolutely not. They were [a] very strong team last year, and they have a lot of key guys back. So, you know, they’re going to be strong across the board. Up front. At skill positions. So, from a defensive standpoint, their offense is, you know, a challenge. But that’s exactly what we want. We want to challenge. We want to see what we are really all about.
- Outside linebacker Dedrion Bacote suffered what could be a season ending-injury in the season-opener against FIU.
I mean, it’s big. You know he’s a great player. He gives it his all. He plays with a lot of passion. And he’s very explosive. He can make plays that turn games around. But, you know, we’re deep on this defense—where you got that next-man-up mentality. So, whoever takes on his role, we’re 100 percent confident that they’re going to step off and do what we asked them.
- Jasinski is one of seven new starters on the Knights’ defense.
Up front, it was a little shaky, at first. You know, it was that first-game jitters, but I think once we got settled in and we got a lot of key drives that I thought were pretty good. You know, we’re getting off the field, forcing them to punt a lot. We had some turnovers, scored a couple points, and when they had that short field, we held them to three. So I thought that was big. So we showed a lot of signs of strength, and I think, going forward, we just improve and improve week by week and game plan. I think we’ll have a pretty strong defense.
- As a junior, Jasinski has never played a conference game before Week 5.
It is a little weird since I’ve been here. We haven’t had a conference game so early on. I talked to the guys. Everyone’s really excited that we get Week 2—really feels like such an important game because it is a conference game, and they are going to be a challenge. They had a great record last year, and they got a lot of talent. So we’re all excited to see what we got.
For more on the Knights, as they approach their first conference game of the season, follow Ryan Weiss on Twitter at @NDR_RyanWeiss.
