(Photo by Adrian J. Hernandez / New Day Review)
Sept. 5, 2017 at Wayne Densch Center
Availability: OC/WR coach Troy Walters, DC Erik Chinander
OC/WR coach Troy Walters
- With 360 yards and four touchdowns in Week 1, sophomore quarterback McKenzie Milton earned American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Everything we do is team. You know, there’s not one individual that wins or loses or has success. We’re a team, and I think the guys around him played well, and he made some great throws and created some things with his legs, and he just played a great game. So I’m happy for him. You know, he’s put in the work. He’s come through a lot of different situations to be where he’s at, and so I’m happy for him.
- The UCF Knights defeated Florida International University 61-17 in Week 1.
It was a good start. It was a good start. You know, we wanted to go out there and execute and play with energy and passion. I think we did that. You know, everybody got to play. It seemed like everybody made some plays, so I think we gain confidence as an offense. Some of the younger guys, you know, good to get them in. Not only get ’em in but have them make some plays and be contributors to the success of the offense. So, it was a good step, you know? The scary part about it is we have a lot we can improve on. And so we were very critical when we were watching film, and we know what we need to improve on, and we can make even another stride this week against [the University of] Memphis.
- In the win over FIU, UCF ran for 148 yards and four touchdowns on 45 carries.
- UCF averaged 3.3 yards per rush.
We gotta run the ball better. You know, we’re close. We’re close. We just have to finish our blocks. You know, I think, across the board, we got on our blocks. We got on our man, but we just didn’t finish, and so there was a hole initially, and then the hole closed, and, you know, the backs have to trust that we’re gonna get our blocks and trust the hole and trust where the opening’s gonna be and hit it, and I think if we can do that, then we’ll be much better this weekend.
- True freshman Gabriel Davis tied Dredrick Snelson for most receptions against FIU with four.
- Davis had 53 yards and a touchdown, and Snelson had 98 yards with a long of 61 yards.
Yeah, well, young guy, you never know what to expect. But, you know, those guys, they practice hard, and I always tell ’em how you practice how you’re gonna play. And so they put the work in during the week, and I was happy for Gabe, his first game, and, you know, he played like a veteran. And then Snelson, you know, he creates big plays, and, you know, he does everything you ask him to do, so I was very excited. Very excited about the whole receiving crew. You know, it seemed like everybody contributed. Everybody, when their number was called, made a play or two. You know, we got after it in the run game, so, all in all, I was excited, but, you know, we gotta be better this week playing Memphis, a great team, great defense. So we’ve gotta be better than we were last week.
- Along with Davis, true freshmen Otis Anderson, Marlon Williams and Emmanuel Logan-Greene made their collegiate debuts.
- Anderson tallied 31 yards on three receptions, Williams had 27 yards on one catch, and Greene-Logan recorded 22 yards on three catches.
Yeah, they’re capable of that type of performance. And, as a freshmen, you’re really not sure what, you know, what they’re gonna do, but they’re capable of doing what they did and capable of even bigger things. I think the more they play and the more they get their feet wet a little bit, they’re gonna be better each week. So, excited. Really had four guys. Otis, I don’t know if you counted Otis. Marlon. Gabe and Manny. So we really have four receivers, and the more they play, the better they’re gonna be, and we’re gonna be pretty deep at the wide-receiver position.
- Anderson nearly had a touchdown on the first drive of the third quarter, but, after review, the ruling was an incompletion.
Yeah, it was close. We thought it was—might be a touchdown, but you gotta maintain possession throughout the whole catch, and, you know, he didn’t do that, so I know it’s eating him up inside, and he’s a warrior, and he’s a competitor, so he came back to practice this week, and he wants to make amends for that.
- Against FIU, UCF utilized eight rushers, including quarterbacks Noah Vedral and Milton and tight end Anthony Roberson.
- Sophomore running back Jawon Hamilton had a game-high 12 carries for 57 yards and a touchdown.
We’re gonna play a lot of guys [at running back]. We’re gonna play a lot of guys, and then kinda whoever has the hot hand, you know, we’ll probably ride him a little more. But all those backs are capable of doing what we’re asking them to do of making plays, and so, you know, we’re fortunate to have that depth, and all of ’em are gonna play, and then we’ll just see, game by game, who’s the guy that kinda has the hot hand, has a good feel, and we’ll kinda ride him a little more.
- Memphis allowed 29 points in its season-opening win against the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
Defense is very similar to ours. You know, they’re gonna be multiple up front. They’re gonna show you some three-down, some four-down. They’re an attacking defense. They’re gonna pressure you. They’re gonna try to create turnovers, create havoc up front. They’re gonna leave their corners on an island. They got a pretty good secondary—athletic. And so it’s kind of a mirror image of our defense in terms of all the things that they do. So I think going against our defense in fall camp has really helped, and, you know, we’re gonna have to get after—we can’t turn the ball over ’cause they’ve got an explosive offense. We gotta protect the ball, and we gotta get first downs, and then when we get in the red zone, we gotta score because their offense is pretty potent, and what you saw last week we know is not really who they were and who they are, and so we’ve gotta bring our A-game.
- Milton had just five incompletions in his 16-for-21 passing night.
- Last season, he completed just 57.7 percent of his passes.
It’s not hard at all. He wants to be great. He wants to be great, and then we’re gonna hold our guys to championship standards. And so, you know, he played a good game, but there were a couple throws we’d like to have back—couple decisions. And he knows that. And he embraces the—not the criticism—but he embraces the corrections and goes out this week, and he wants to be better than he was. So, as a unit, as an offense, we have guys that wanna be great, and they’re held to a high standard, and we’re gonna hold ’em to that standard, and they accept that and embrace it, and there’s always things we can do better.
- Hamilton fumbled in the Knights’ second drive of the game.
- That turned into a 75-yard touchdown pass during FIU’s ensuing drive.
I mean, if a guy fumbles, and he’s happy, or he’s excited, or he’s not disappointed, then you probably question—you know, you question. But those guys understand that—you know, it’s important them to understand what we’re trying to do within each run play and where the hole is gonna be, what the scheme, what the defense is playing so they know exactly where that hole is gonna be, where that cut’s gonna be. And so, you know, all across the board, we can improve, and, a lot of times, you’re gonna make your biggest improvement between Game 1 and Game 2. And so that’s what we have to do. We have to go to work this week and make the biggest improvement from last week to this week, and, if we do that, I’m excited about our chances.
DC Erik Chinander
- Chinander’s defense held FIU to just 134 rushing yards, 201 passing yards and two touchdowns.
I thought, you know, when the ones in there, we operated pretty well. You know, I think the stat line was pretty good when those guys were in there. Obviously, we gave up the one long pass when those guys were in there, but they played the run well, defended most of the passes pretty well. You know, credit to FIU, they had a pretty good plan. You know, they were gonna let him throw three-step when they were protecting with five or six, and they were gonna protect with seven or eight when they were gonna take a shot to not let us get to the quarterback, so it was a good deal by them. I thought they had a good team, and they were coached up well, but I was happy about how the first and second unit rolled, and then we kinda saw what those third-unit guys. Maybe if some guys can help us, maybe if some guys are what we thought they were, they need a little more time.
- UCF only managed one sack in the game against FIU.
- Chinander attributes his team’s lack of sacks to the way the Panthers were playing.
To me, like, I know, you know, whatever the fans and the media and all that stuff, if you have 25 sacks, everybody’s saying you have a great pass rush. You get one, they say, “Oh, your pass rush stinks.” Well, to me, they protected with eight, and they released three receivers. We get a pick, so, advantage us. So, I mean, it’s ebbs and flows, right? If they’re gonna protect with a bunch, we’re gonna get some interceptions. If they’re gonna protect with only five, we’re gonna get sacks. That’s just how it has to work. You know, and our defense, and I think we all have to understand that, you know, when you have a great pass-rush group, a great group up front, you’re probably gonna get a little more max protect, and that’s fine. That’s the way football goes, and we adjust, and we move on.
- Entering the Aug. 31 matchup, UCF was relatively blind and didn’t know what to expect from FIU and its new coaching staff.
No, I mean, I think, you know, that the kids went out and did what we told them to do, did what we coached ’em to do. FIU came out in some things that we hadn’t seen, you know? Some game plans that, you know, we had to watch Elon [University] and Ball State [University] and kinda see what their offensive coordinators were gonna do, and he came out with some new things, obviously, to his credit. And the kids adjusted pretty well to new formations and some new plays, so I thought that was good. I thought that sideline demeanor was good. I liked the energy when we made a big play. So, happy with everything that way and happy with the way that they got over to the sideline. If somebody made a mistake, there wasn’t a bunch of blame cast. There wasn’t a bunch of, you know, bickering and that kinda thing. It was like, “Let’s get it fixed, and let’s move on, guys.” And it was a good sideline demeanor.
- Safety Tre Neal and cornerback Mike Hughes led the Knights’ secondary with an interception and three pass break-ups, respectively.
I thought they played well. I mean, obviously, you know, some new guys, like we talked about, rolling guys in and out. You know, Chris [Johnson] was in there. Mike Hughes was in there. Brandon Moore was in there, and Rashard Causey was in there, and Bryon Brown was in there, so I think it’ll be a little better once our group gets solidified and they’re used to working together. But, for the most part, they played well. You know, we obviously gave up one long pass, but, other than that, it was pretty well played.
- Linebacker Dedrion Bacote will miss significant time because of a leg injury.
- While the team is unsure of how long he’ll be out, the team could expect to see him back this season.
- Bacote has already undergone surgery for his leg.
Yeah, well, I mean, the good news is going in, we had five we felt really good about. Obviously, Shaquem [Griffin] and Titus [Davis] and then [Bacote] and Shawn Burgess-Becker and Eric Mitchell. So, now, Eric Mitchell and Shawn Burgess gotta take up more of an onus to get ready to play ’cause they’re gonna be the next guys in. We really didn’t know who the next guys were gonna be, and we wanted to use this game to kinda see. And, unfortunately, the decision was made for us. You know, Bam Bam’s an awesome kid. You know, great team guy, great player, practices like crazy, and he’s just fun to be around. So it was unfortunate what happened to him, but it kinda made a decision quickly.
Shawn’s ready to go. He’s gonna play, and we’re gonna get him out there. We hold nothing back.
- Even though Hughes had only been at UCF for a little less than two weeks when the season-opener came around, he has found himself in a comfortable position.
Yeah, I mean, obviously, you guys probably watch just as much as we do, and, obviously, there’s some times where he’s kinda looking like he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, but then he made some plays out there. So, I think, this week, he’s really more dialed into the scheme. You know, last week, he was kinda learning all the base calls and the game plan, and that’s a lot on a guy that’s been here for five days. So, obviously, there were some times where he was a little confused, but he made some plays, and he showed some athletic ability, and I think he’s gonna be a really good player for us.
- In the season-opener against ULM, Memphis rushed for 319 yards and four touchdowns behind 100-plus-yard performances by Darrell Henderson and Patrick Taylor Jr.
- Henderson had 169 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries, and Taylor Jr. tallied 131 yards and a score of his own on 15 touches.
- Quarterback Riley Ferguson, who threw a measly 10-for-25, 97 yards and an interception, scored the fourth rushing touchdown.
I mean, obviously, they have a, first and foremost, they got a great quarterback that runs their system the way they want him to run it. He’s an [read-pass option] guy. He’s a read it and pull it. He’s more of a pull-to-throw than a pull-to-run guy. He tries to get your defenders sucked up and then make something happen downfield. They have a great skill group. You know, those receivers are back. Those running backs, they got three good running backs that are really, really good players. They can make one guy miss and go to the house, and those running backs are really, really good on special teams, too. Some of the skill players, I think, they’re as good as anybody in our league, so it’s gonna be a challenge for our guys.
- The UCF-Memphis matchup has been rescheduled for Friday at 6:30 p.m.
If the game gets moved, it gets moved. I mean, I have no idea when we’re gonna play. I don’t really care when we play. If they roll the ball out in the parking lot and say, “Let’s go,” we’ll go. But, if the game gets moved up, we’ll have to change, yeah, the preparation a little bit. And I’ll wait until they tell me, but we’ll obviously make a few adjustments to how we practice and the game plan—those kind of things.
For more on the Knights, as they look to battle for the top of the conference, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
