Notes & Quotes | Knights Look to Maintain Momentum Against FCS Austin Peay

(Photo by Adrian J. Hernandez / New Day Review)

Oct. 23, 2017 at Wayne Densch Center for Student-Athlete Leadership

Availability: RB Adrian Killins, OL Chavis Dickey, LB Chequan Burkett, RB Otis Anderson

• The No. 18 UCF Knights defeated the Navy Midshipmen 31-21 on Oct. 21 in their first-ever game against a military academy.
• Anderson scored his first-career touchdown, as Killins scored his second-longest run of the season, a 79-yard score.
• Killins’ first score was a 15-yard touchdown that showcased the 152-pound running-back break a tackle and carry a defender into the end zone.
• UCF defeated Navy during its homecoming.
• The win over Navy was the closest game UCF has been a part of, as all other contests were decided by 27 points or more.
• Navy was the first team this season to be within one possession of the Knights when entering the fourth quarter.
• Midshipmen quarterback Zach Abey, who was sidelined mid-game because of a head injury, became the first opposing player to rush for 100 yards against UCF’s defense.
• The Knights scored just one touchdown in the first quarter, their fewest since scoring none in the first against the Maryland Terps and seven in the win over the University of Memphis.

RB ADRIAN KILLINS: “I would have to say it’s a game that I’ll always remember because I always watched the Navy and Army game on TV, and it’s a lot of excitement on TV, and to actually play in that game, guys that’s gonna serve our country in the future, it’s a privilege and an honor to be able to play against those guys. They’re class guys. It’s not too often when you run the ball, you get tackled, and the opposing team help you up off the ground. So, they’re a class of guys, and it was a great game against them.”

 

“In games, we’re gonna face adversity. At times, the offense faced adversity, and we got frustrated, but everybody had to stay the course, and we got together, and we made adjustments on the sideline and came back on the field, and we had to execute. We had to play all four quarters of the game, and that’s what we had to do. We knew going into this game it was gonna be a battle, and we got that battle. And I’m glad that we got tested early in the midseason so that when it comes to [upcoming] games that we’re gonna play, when we face that adversity, it won’t be too bad as it was the Navy game.”

 

“I think we handled adversity well because we haven’t been down all season, I don’t believe, so when they scored and then we scored—so I think that going into the season, when we face adversity midseason like this, it’s gonna help us in the long run.”

 

“Yeah, I couldn’t wait for Otis to get his first touchdown. He got a couple touchdowns called back, so I was itching for him to get in that end zone, and he did, and he was making a lot of big plays for us. Otis Anderson’s a guy that a lot of people overlooked, so he’s out there now, and opposing defenses got a lot of guys to key on on our offense, and it won’t be easy.”

 

“Everyone likes to win. No one likes to lose. So each week, we celebrate after the game, and then when Monday hits, we—it’s back to the drawing boards and the next opponent. So, you take one game at one at a time, and you celebrate that game, and you move onto the next.”

 

“Everyone—I’m pretty sure everyone plays with a chip on their shoulder. I’m a smaller guy, so I know a lot of people be trying to get the big shots on me, but I feel like I have an edge on everyone, and they overlook me because of my size, so I just try to go out there and make plays, and my O-line been doing a great job particularly at times going through the holes, so I just like to make people miss and help my team win games.”

 

“My recruiting process—I just wanted to be in an offense that I could play early as a freshman and just get the ball in my hands and make plays and just win games. I wanna be a part of a culture that the coaches—they trust their players when they go on the field to make big plays, and that culture’s here, and I love UCF, and I love being here.”

 

LB CHEQUAN BURKETT: “I feel pretty good. We recovered yesterday with treatment with our medical staff. A couple players with foam rolls. We did a couple stretching. Did a little running, so I feel pretty good today. No serious injuries and just ready for Austin Peay [State University] and just preparing for Austin Peay.”

 

“Yeah, I would say [Navy win was one of the most physical games I’ve played] ’cause they running the ball, like, 90 percent of the time. So, there was contact every play. You know, other teams, they have the occasional, like, passes and whatnot, but this team—you were kind of a lineman or a fullback every play. So it was probably one of the most physical games I’ve been a part of.”

 

RB OTIS ANDERSON: “It feels great that coaches actually believed in me to be able to get in and run the ball. In a time like that, you know, that’s things that you really wish for, coming out of high school, going into a big-time school like this.”

 

“A.K., he kinda put fear in my heart, honestly. He said—he came up to me, he was just like, ‘Be a playmaker. Do what you do. Just don’t fumble.’ So, that’s kinda in the back of my head the whole time, so i was running the ball extra tight. But just knowing that the coaches—the head coach and the running-back coach—had enough faith in me to go in at running-back in a big situation like that, knowing that most of the plays were gonna be inside zones just made me feel great as a player.”

 

“I think—was it homecoming for them? It was homecoming. They haven’t lost, I think—I think they won 17 games straight or something like that. So that was the longest win streak in the nation, so we just knew how they were gonna come out and play. We just didn’t really expect to have that many mistakes on offense. So, that played a big part and them limiting their mistakes and being so disciplined, that made is a very great game for us.”

 

“Honestly, the coaches didn’t really have to say anything to us. It was more of the players getting onto each other, and we were just frustrated that we were making mental mistakes and certain mistakes that really cost us because we have been doing that a lot this season. It’s just that we were able to make up with it, but this game was really, very important for us to be able to fight through adversity at a time like that.”

• UCF’s offensive line has helped the Knights produce the highest scoring offense in the nation at 47.3 points per game.
• Against Navy, the Knights ran for 247 yards, 18 more yards than their average of 229 rushing yards per game.

OL CHAVIS DICKEY: “I mean, in spring time, we put in a lot of work, and then I could see, like, in the weight room, during the summer, guys were committed, coming in early, doing extra stuff after. I mean, we really wanted this season to do well.”

 

“I mean, I’m just happy we, like, going undefeated right now. Just wanna keep it rolling, have a great senior year, hopefully do something special our senior year, like a great bowl game.”

 

“He’s taught me so much. Like, he’s really a good coach. He’s, like, very, like, technical. He shows us how to do things. He don’t expect us to do things he can’t do either. Like, if we do up-downs, he’s doing up-downs. So, it really makes us, like, have a good bond on the offensive line.”

 

RB OTIS ANDERSON: “I’ve been very impressed with the [offensive line]. Honestly, this is the best O-line I ran behind ever in my life. They come out with a chip on their shoulder. They take everything seriously. No matter what team we play against, they prepare hard in practice. And the seams are opening up, especially that last drive that I was in. It was just something that you can really dream about. It really feels great for them to be able to do what they do. They deserve all of the credit for that win.”

• Last season, the Knights lost in the 2016 AutoNation Cure Bowl after going winless in 2015.
• The Knights won conference titles in each of their first two seasons in the American Athletic Conference but has yet to claim another since.
• UCF is ranked for the first time since the 2013 season when the Knights won the 2014 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
• The Knights are off to their first 6-0 start in school history.

RB ADRIAN KILLINS: “Everyone wants to go to a bowl game, division championship and even national championship, but you gotta take it one game at a time, and you can’t overlook any team. You can’t try to live in the future. You gotta live in the present. So, we’re taking it one game at a time, and we’re just going from there.”

 

“It’s the same success as last year, but I’m pretty sure it’s bigger expectations from the fans and the staff, the professors here, so UCF is a growing school, and the tradition here is great, the support system is great. So, I’m pretty sure they’re looking forward to a lot of big things for us this coming season.”

• UCF hosts Austin Peay on Saturday in what was originally a scheduled bye week.
• The Knights last played the Governors in 1984 and lost 24-21.
• Austin Peay is 5-3 on the season, losing both games to FBS opponents the Cincinnati Bearcats and Miami University by a combined score of 57-24.
• The Governors narrowly lost to Cincinnati 26-14 in both teams’ season-opener.
• UCF has allowed just 17.5 points per game this season, good enough for 16th-best in the nation.

RB ADRIAN KILLINS: “I would say the biggest challenge [this week] is just staying the course and trusting the process and not overlooking this team. They’re a football team just like us, and they’re very hungry, so they would love to come in here and shock us and shock the world by beating a ranked team, so I’m pretty sure the coaches [are] preaching the same thing. ‘Let’s go shock ’em at their house.’ So, they’re a football team just like us, and we can’t overlook ’em now.”

 

“It all starts in practice. We have great practices, and everyone know what they’re doing. It correlates on Saturday. So, we’re gonna have a great week of practice this week, you know, going into Saturday game. I can’t wait.”

 

OL CHAVIS DICKEY: “I mean, we just gotta go out there and prepare. We gotta prepare for this week like any other week. We gotta watch film. We gotta go out there attack practice every day and just stay focused and don’t let nobody from the outside tell us, like, ‘Oh, this game is gonna be easy,’ and this and that. We just gotta go prepare.”

 

LB CHEQUAN BURKETT: “They have great athletes. They got many formations that you have to line up to. So, gotta be sound with our assignments and just sound with our keys just as last week. So, every week is—gotta be dialed into what each position group has to do, so communication is gonna be big this week. And just being dialed into your keys is pretty much everything, the game plan.”

 

“Just take every week like the past week, previous week that we had. Practicing hard on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesdays, Thursday and Fridays and having great practices during those days led us to victory those past weeks, so, this week, just trying to go with the same game plan and work hard throughout the week and know that, hey, we work hard throughout the week. Saturday, it’s gonna be easy and should have a victory.”

 

“Any shutout be a confidence in the defense. You know, that’s a big step as a defense. They have scholarship athletes just as we do, so getting a shutout on them would be big, and it would definitely give us a platform to go from going into [Southern Methodist University] week.”

 

RB OTIS ANDERSON: “[Coaches] just really told us to prepare like we were about to play a conference game. So we have to take it as serious we have been taking all the other games and just prepare as hard.”

 

“Nah, we preparing just as hard we did for last game and the game before that. So all of these games that we’ve been going through, we prepared hard for, and we’re doing the same for this one.”

• Redshirt freshman starting cornerback Brandon Moore forced a fumble and recovered it in the quarter with the Knights leading just 24-21 over a driving Navy team.
• Anderson also contributed to sealing the victory by scoring his first collegiate touchdown in the waning minutes of the game on the ensuing drive to give the Knights a 10-point cushion.

LB CHEQUAN BURKETT: “It felt great. We knew as a defense that we were going against a great rushing offense, the top rushing offense of FBS, so we knew that we had to bring our A-game and be sound, our keys, especially with them running the triple-option [offense]. So, we were just dialed in with that and knew that our part on defense was gonna be big getting stops ’cause with that offense there, they’re programmed to manage the game and keep a hold of the ball. So we knew that third-down stops and getting them to punt would be big.”

 

“I think it’s big, you know, that young guys definitely stepping up, especially with the play that Bam made. That’s really big—game-changing. You know, it was probably the play that gave us the victory. You know, it was just—everyone knows that when it’s their time to step up, then you step up, so, everyone just trust everyone. The offense trusts the defense, and everyone just bought into what Coach Frost is bringing to the program with our offensive and defensive coordinators giving us as a game plan.”

 

RB OTIS ANDERSON: “Situations like that, when they believe in us that much to be able to get the ball and make big plays like that, especially with Bam making that big play on defense to get us the ball back, that just makes us feel more comfortable in the game, and it kinda comes a long way with confidence and experience.”

For more on the Knights, as they prepare for Austin Peay during what was originally a bye week, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.