(Photo by Adrian J. Hernandez . New Day Review)
Oct. 24, 2017 at Wayne Densch Center
Availability: DC Erik Chinander, OC/WR coach Troy Walters, DL coach Mike Dawson
- The No. 18 UCF Knights defeated the Navy Midshipmen 31-21 on Oct. 21.
- UCF held Navy’s No. 1 rushing offense to just 248 rushing yards.
- The Knights’ win over Navy was the game for UCF this season, winning by just 10 points.
- UCF’s five other victories were won by 27 or more points.
- Navy, which averaged just over 80 passing yards per game entering the Week 8 matchup with UCF, threw for 171 yards and a touchdown.
- The Knights’ D-line has helped UCF become the 16th-best scoring defense, allowing just 17.5 points per game.
- After the win over Navy, UCF is ranked 34th in run defense (133.17 rushing yards per game), and 61st in pass defense (214.3 passing yards per game).
DC ERIK CHINANDER: “I don’t know. I think it’s probably—people are trying to throw the ball a little more. I mean, it’s probably a byproduct of the teams. Also those guys up front do a really good job of stopping the run. Obviously, Navy is a gonna run it no matter what. But ECU’s probably gonna throw it no matter what ’cause that’s what they’ve done. But I think it’s as expected.”
“I thought they really performed well. You know, for the most part, we were on assignments. Navy was gonna get some runs; we knew that. They hit some runs on everybody. And impressive thing to me after looking at the stat sheet, if you’d have told me the longest run was 14 yards, I’d have said, ‘What?’ You know, I thought they had some ones that cracked us a little bit, but the longest run was 14 yards, so that’s a testament to the kids. Our eyes were not right on a couple of those deep balls. So that was a little disappointing. I thought we could have limited that a little more, but those are things we gotta get corrected, and I was happy as heck for the kids to get the win. Nobody panicked on the sideline. Kids were pretty composed. And, obviously, Bam Moore kinda grew up a little bit that game, so it was good.”
OC/WR COACH TROY WALTERS: “Yeah, it shows how much we’ve—how far we’ve come. You know, we’re talking to the coaches—if we’d had that performance last year, you know, we probably would’ve lost by 21, 24 points. But, this year, we’re able to find a way to win. That was the exciting part. You know, we didn’t play our best, when our backs were against the wall, when we needed a drive, when we needed a touchdown, we were able to score, and that’s what I think will make us better going forward, just facing some adversity, overcoming it and then finishing a game strong.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if anything prepares you [for adversity] except for experience, and, you know, we hadn’t been through a lot of adversity this year, but, you know, in practice, we try to simulate adversity. We go against our defense, and sometimes it’s not very easy to move the ball. And, you know, fall camp—it wasn’t easy to move the ball. We just kept plugging away, and, you know, there were days we didn’t have great practices, and the next day we came out, we persevered and had a good practice. So, you know, the offseason, the conditioning, what they go through with [director of sports performance for football Zach Duval], really, you know, tries to prepare ’em as much as possible for adversity and tough situations, and then we teach ’em that, you know, it comes to doing your job and the fundamentals and execution at any time, no matter if you’re up 30 or down 30 or if it’s a one-point game. You know, you gotta do the fundamentals and rely on the details, and, if we do that, we’ll be successful.”
DL COACH MIKE DAWSON: “Yeah, that option offense—it’s fun to prepare for, fun to go against. At the same, very stressful. Everybody’s gotta do exactly what they’re supposed to do on every single play, otherwise something big could happen. The guys did a great job of learning some new techniques and doing some new things. I thought they played really, really hard. Their assignment, most of the time, was try to take care of that fullback. They did a good job with it, and I know that they felt the pains of their labor, certainly, on Sunday when they woke up; that’s for sure.”
“Oh, without a doubt [that was the most physical game we’ve played all season]. Their offensive line—extremely physical. The backs—their B-backs came in and really pounded it up in there, and then the running-backs ran extremely hard as well. So, for our guys, absolutely. Their O-line was very strong, very technically sound. They did a really good job, and it was a battle, definitely, in the trenches.”
“Sure, yeah, absolutely [I’ve faced option teams in my coaching career]. We’ve seen it a bunch of different times. When I was at New Hampshire, Rhode Island was running it, so we saw it every year from those guys. We were lucky enough to make the playoffs that first year… When I was at Akron, we played against Army. So we saw those guys playing it. So we’ve seen it before. Between that and my experience with it and Coach Dewitt, obviously, coaching at Army and practicing against them a lot—I think we had some good ideas, some different ideas and had at least a plan to be able to go out there and operate against it.”
“Yeah, you could always get better. I think you never stay the same. You’re either getting better, or you’re getting worse, so, as long as guys keep coming to work every day like they have for the last however many weeks since July 26 there, keep going to work the way that they have been, they’ll improve ’cause they’ve been working super hard in practice. I think that [head coach Scott Frost] preach about the game being won on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then going through our process at the end of the week on Thursdays and Fridays mentally. But our guys really come to work hard. What we ask them to do in the trenches in there isn’t fun for a lot of guys, but these guys embrace it, and they take a lot of pride in the way that they’re playing right now, and I hope that they continue to do that.”
“Yeah, I think it’s very prideful group. These guys take a lot of pride in the work that they do. They know they’re putting themselves on film on every single play, and you can’t take it back, and you can’t change it. So, they wanna make sure that they don’t miss. They take good pride in being physical. When you watch ’em, they run to the ball really well, which to have the combination of both where they’re big enough to be able to strike and be strong enough to protect a point of attack and then also being able to run and get to the ball like they do on a consistent basis I think is a pretty unique combination of skill sets. So, these guys take a lot of pride in that.”
“Yeah, with all the guys, I think if you were to ask our guys across the board, really, there’s one stat that counts, and that’s the wins and the losses. That’s what we’re looking for. Sometimes, you’re gonna have more TFLs. Sometimes you’re gonna have more sacks. Sometimes you’re gonna have more tackles, depending on a whole bunch of different factors. If you look at the Navy stat sheet, they don’t come up with a ton of tackles, but the fullback didn’t run the ball for very many yards. So, I think that that’s something. These guys are starting to get smart enough to be able to see the difference. You know, the sacks will come in waves like they have. And that’s—since we’ve been here, it’s been like that. If you go back to last year’s season, and then the same thing with this year. You get into a couple games where you get a bunch, and then, you know, if the quarterbacks throwing it out quickly, or, you know, the coverage is there, or they’re going three-step. You never know what’s gonna determine in these factors. So, for us, we grade every single play of every single game. The guys know exactly where they stand with me all the time, as far as their success or not. And I think that they know if they don’t operate up front in this defense, this team is not gonna be successful. So, I think with every step we take as a program, every time we’re successful, these guys are smart enough to know they have a big hand in that.”
- In five games this season, defensive lineman Trysten Hill has recorded eight total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss.
DL COACH MIKE DAWSON: “Yeah, Trysten’s a great athlete. He’s got great size and great strength. Trysten, also, is a true sophomore. So he hasn’t played in a ton of snaps. So, he’s learning every single game. He’s learning about himself; he’s learning about his strengths and his weaknesses, and as long as he keeps working as hard as he’s been working, he’s gonna continue to do great things.”
- Frost and Chinander coached together at the University of Northern Iowa when Frost coached linebackers in 2007 and 2008.
- Both Frost and Chinander would meet again at the University of Oregon when Chinander became a graduate assistant there from 2010 to 2012.
- Frost and Chinander served under then-Oregon head coach Chip Kelly.
- Dawson worked under Kelly as a defensive quality-control coach with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013 and as an assistant defensive-line coach from 2014 to 2015.
DC ERIK CHINANDER: “[My relationship with Frost] has probably affected [my coaching], you know. You know, any time in this business, you don’t wanna go somewhere where you don’t know people. I mean, sometimes, you just have to take a job, or maybe you get a chance at a dream job, and you might not know people, but when you know people, whether it’s other assistants or the head coach, it makes things easier. It makes the transition easier. You know what you’re getting into, and he’s just the guy that I knew I wanted to work for because he’s an excellent head coach, he’s a family guy, I know how he treats the kids, so I’ve wanted to be along with him, kind of where he’s been, not to say that we’ll always be together or that kind of thing, but, right now, it seems to be working out really well.”
“No, actually, when we were at Northern Iowa together—we were at Northern Iowa together; we were roommates for a while, and we just became friends, and both of us were kinda lowly assistants back then, and, you know, who knew he was gonna be the head coach some day, but it seemed to work out pretty well.”
“Yeah, for me, coaching and playing on offense and coaching on offense, not coaching on defense, has helped me out tremendously, and I think—especially when you’re the head coach. You know, he can come over to th defense, and he can get in some of the drills, and the kids know that he knows what he’s talking about, and then, obviously, he does a great job with the offense, and then he played a lot of special teams in the [National Football League], so he can coach the kids on special teams. So I think there’s a certain level of respect from the whole team that this guy knows what he’s talking about. He’s just not gonna come over to the defense and start yelling and screaming. He knows what he’s talking about. So I think that’s helped him tremendously, also, breaking down film, scheming people and all those kind of things, but just from the head-coach perspective of assistants knowing that he knows what he’s talking about, players knowing what he’s talking about.”
“Well, I think, you know, first and foremost, I’ve never been a guy that’s going around looking for the next job. I think you just gotta do the best at the job you have, and then good things happen. But any time I’ve been anywhere—been with Chip Kelly, been with Mark Farley…been with different coordinators—I’ve tried to take the best from all those guys. And hopefully that’s made me better. I’ve seen some things they don’t do well, and I’ve tried to eliminate those from my repertoire, and I’ve seen the things that they do really well, and I’ve tried to add those things, so I think you always have to try to, you know, learn from the people you’re around even if it’s our graduate assistant, or even if it’s the wide-receiver coach, who I don’t get very much contact with, but I think I gotta learn from some stuff with him, too, that way you can keep growing as a coach, and one day, if somebody wants me to be the head coach, we’ll see if I’m ready.”
DL COACH MIKE DAWSON: “Coach Kelly’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever been around, and it was easy for me to tell that he was a great coach from the second I stepped on campus there. I actually had a chance to coach against him when I was coaching linebackers. I actually coached the O-line for him my second year there and got to learn with him and be around him, and I was amazed every day. His passion for the game, his knowledge of all the positions in different schemes. He knows what the umpires are doing on every single play. So, he does a great job of it, and he’s a tremendous coach, and I’m not surprised at all.”
- Linebacker Shaquem Griffin is third in tackles for the Knights, totaling 36 so far this season.
- Griffin was the American Athletic Conference’s defensive player of the year last season.
DC ERIK CHINANDER: “I mean, I think we all knew how good of a player he was. The thing about Shaquem is, you know, since his brother’s been gone—last year, they were—you know, spent a lot of time together, as twins do. This year, he’s grown more as a person than anything because his brother’s not here, so he’s using that twin time, now, to help the younger kids. He meets with the DB coach. He meets with the D-line coach. He meets with me. He meets with his coach. So I think he’s just grown as a football player and as a leader because—you know, when you got your twin brother, it’s kinda like, ‘Who should talk? Should I talk? Should you talk? Should we be loud?’ Now, it’s his show a little bit. So he’s helping the young kids. He’s stepping up as a leader, and I think just as a person and a leader, that’s where he’s made the most improvement.”
“Yeah, his play—his skill set’s still the same. I mean, his skill set was excellent. Now, he just knows so much more about the game of football since he’s been able to meet with all the different coaches, meet with the different position groups. He understands what the safeties are doing. He understands the linebackers are doing and how it relates to his job so he can perform just that much faster, that much quicker. He can help us get the calls out. He can concentrate on what the offense is doing ’cause he already knows what he’s gotta do.”
“You know, when you come in here, and you see a guy that has one hand, you know, your first reaction is, ‘Well, he probably can’t do it.’ But then once we got him in the game, it took me about all of about two practices to realize, yeah, this guy needs to be playing. So, that was a little shocking after we saw him, what he could do that he wasn’t playing. But, you know, when you first walk in here, you probably doubted him a little bit, which is a terrible thing to do. But once he got in the field, it was like, ‘Oh, man. We need to get this guy going.’”
- Defensive back Nevelle Clarke and wide receiver Tristan Payton were suspended for six games after both failed NCAA-mandated drug tests at the team’s 2016 AutoNation Cure Bowl appearance.
- Both have successfully served their suspensions and could see field time against Austin Peay State University on Saturday.
DC ERIK CHINANDER: “[Clarke’s] practiced up with us today. We’re gonna see, you know, how he does, and all those kind of things, and, you know, Nevelle’s gotta earn his way back into the rotation just like everybody else. So we’re gonna take this week and see how he practices and maybe get him some reps in the game and all those kind of things, but he’s gotta do his work and show everybody that he’s ready to go.”
“You know what, to be honest with you, [administrative-reinstatement processes for Clarke are] not my deal. That’s for the head coach and the administration and all that kind of thing. I just know that he’s practicing with us now, and once they tell me he’s ready to roll, then we’ll get him ready to roll.”
OC/WR COACH TROY WALTERS: “Yeah, he’s back. Not sure what his role’s gonna be. You know, we’re glad to have him back. You know, he’s paid the price. He’s done his time and excited to have him back. Where he plays, where he fits in, you know, we’re unsure right now, but he’s doing a great job at practice, you know, running down on special teams, and we’ll just kinda see where he fits in. We don’t wanna really break the chemistry of what we have going on right now. So, you know, it’s a game-by-game decision of where he’s gonna play.”
“Yeah, hopefully this game turns out the way we want it, and, you know, we can get a lot of guys some reps and keep guys healthy and fresh for the stretch run, and, you know, we plan on playing a lot of guys for guys to get some experience heading into the stretch run.”
- The Knights host the Governors for their first FCS game of the season.
- UCF was originally scheduled to play the Maine Black Bears in Week 5, but the Memphis Tigers game was rescheduled to that week because of Hurricane Irma’s impact.
DC ERIK CHINANDER: “Yeah, I think we’re gunning for a shutout every week, but I think this is a good team. You know, they’re 4-1 in their conference. Their head coach has done an unbelievable job getting them to where they’re at. They present a lot of problems. A lot of formations, a lot of motions, a lot of different plays, so it’s gonna be—the thing I wanna see is our kids get lined up, and they execute versus all of the different formations, and, now, hopefully, if we get lined up, we’ll have a great day defensively. If we can’t get lined up, there’s gonna be some issues. But this is gonna be a great game for us to test our rules and our techniques, so I’m excited to watch that.”
“I don’t know if [missing games early in the season] helped because, you know, it’s so early in the season. Nobody was really beat up yet. This is gonna be the week we kinda see ’cause this was supposed to be a bye for us, so this should’ve been a little bit of a recouping week, but we’ll see. But so far, these kids…haven’t blinked, they haven’t faltered one bit, so I’m excited where the kids are at, and I think they’re doing an awesome job.”
- UCF boasts one of the best offenses in the nation, as it is tied with Ohio State University for first, averaging 47.3 points per game.
- The Knights have had 16 players score touchdowns this season.
OC/WR COACH TROY WALTERS: “Yeah, a lot of guys [I’d like to see score that haven’t yet]. [Emmanuel Logan-Greene] hadn’t scored. Cam Stewart. Has Cordarrian [Richardson] scored? He has? Okay. ‘Cause we all work on—Franks, Jordan Franks hasn’t scored. The entire offense, man, they’ve gone through a lot. We’ve worked their tails off in practice, so any team those guys can be rewarded in a game, it’s awesome. So, you know, hopefully, before the end of the season, those guys will be able to get in the end zone, and we make a point of emphasis that everyone has to be ready, and you never know when your number’s gonna be called, and, when it is called, you’ve gotta be able to make a play. So I think everybody’s embraced that, and when guys’ numbers have been called, they’ve made plays.”
“It’s tough, it’s tough ’cause every game, we got something new. Every game, we’ve got a new wrinkle. There’s not one guy to focus on. And so it makes it tough on the defense. You know, the guys we recruit—you know, we want guys that have versatility. A tight end that can flex out wide. I think last game, Akins flexed out as the single receiver, and the next play, he has his hand on the line of scrimmage. And Otis [Anderson] can play receiver and running-back. [Adrian Killins]—you know, the more we can do, the more versatility, the more we can move guys around, then the harder it is on the defense.”
“You know, obviously, we got our playmakers. Tre’Quan [Smith], you’re gonna try to find ways to get him the ball. [Jordan] Akins, you’re gonna try to find ways—this offense is not so much based on any one guy. You know, we play so fast. You know, we scheme defenses up. We find where their weak link is, and we call plays, and whoever’s in that spot—for example, the outside receivers—they don’t switch. And so Tre’Quan and Gabe [Davis] might be on the outside. Or Tre’Quan and Marlon [Williams]. And we might call a play for the right receiver. In that case, it’s Marlon. And so he’s—you know, it might be Tre’Quan, it might be Manny—whoever it may be. So, you know, there’s some things we kinda scheme, but, other than that, we just run our offense and kinda whoever’s in it at the time, they make a play.”
“It makes our job a lot easier when [McKenzie Milton] understands the offense. We can call whatever we want. You know, our playbook is expansive when he’s back there because he knows everything. And so you’re able to really do what we wanna do and give ’em different looks and shifts and motions, and it looks difficult for them, looks different for the defense, but it’s what we do. And McKenzie knows it all, so it really helps.”
- Frost and his wife Ashley are expecting their first child within approximately a week.
- He could potentially miss the trip to Southern Methodist University.
OC/WR COACH TROY WALTERS: “Yeah, I’m ready [when the Frosts have their baby]. Our staff is ready. You know, we do a great job—you know, even on game day. You know, Frost calls the play, but we do a great job as a staff of providing input and, you know, so I—you know, there’s only one Frost, and he hasn’t a great mind and everything, but we’re confident that if he does have to go, we have to call the game, I have to call the game, you know, collectively, we’ll be just fine.”
“Yeah, I mean, you know, we come up Thursday with a call sheet, and, you know, everybody has input, and we basically call plays off that call sheet, and so, you know, we’ll have first-, second-down calls, second-and-long, third downs and, you know, really go off that call sheet and then, throughout the course of the game, I think our coaches this year have done a great job of kinda getting a feel of the game and tendencies and what they’re doing, and so we can go off the script a little bit, and, you know, we got a great offensive staff. If I call it, it’s not gonna be just me. I might have input from everybody, and we’ve got such great coaches that I’m confident we’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing.”
“I had my second one. I had my daughter. We played [the USC Trojans] on Saturday, flew back, and, Sunday afternoon, we were game-planning, and I got a text from my wife saying her water broke. And I’m thinking it’s a water pipe ’cause it was a month early. And I’m thinking water pipe or something, and so she says I’ll meet you at the hospital. So she drove herself to the hospital. It was about 4:30. At 9:30, my second child was born. So, it actually was—if it’s during the week—it actually was a good time because, you know, Sunday, you’re just kinda preliminary game-planning. So I was able to be there with her kinda game-planning in the hospital and carry on the rest of the week.”
- True freshman backup quarterback Noah Vedral saw meaningful playing time against Navy, as Milton was sidelined with a minor hamstring injury for a drive before returning for the rest of the game.
- Vedral finished 1-for-1 for three yards and had a snap go over his head.
OC/WR COACH TROY WALTERS: “Yeah, we put him in a tough situation. You know, ’cause McKenzie got hurt during a drive. You’d like for maybe call a timeout to get him some snaps, and, you know, but we didn’t. You know, he had the one that went over his head, and then, you know, for the situation, he did a good job. And even Memphis when he’s been in and East Carolina when he’s played, you know, he’s done a great job, and, you know, he prepares like he’s a starter, and so, you know, hopefully, he gets some quality reps this weekend and continues to get better so if something does happen to McKenzie, then he’s ready to go.”
“Both athletic. Noah’s probably faster. Probably can do more with his legs in terms of being a runner. You know, McKenzie, we really don’t wanna—we’re gonna have him run but don’t want him to run too much and get beat up. Noah’s a little thicker, so he can take some hits better than McKenzie, but, you know, there are certain plays that, as we go throughout the week that the guys like, they’re comfortable with, and, at the end of the week, [quarterbacks coach Mario Verduzco] sits down with those guys, and he kinda, ‘What do you like?’ and we kinda know going into game which quarterbacks do what well, and we go from there.”
- Richardson did not play against Navy.
- He last rushed for 59 yards on eight carries against East Carolina University in Week 7.
OC/WR COACH TROY WALTERS: “No, [Richardson’s not injured]. We just—you know, kinda the flow of the game, the feel of the game. There were a couple receivers that didn’t play. Manny didn’t play. You just kinda get a feel of the game and kinda who’s hot? And, you know, we’re so deep that there’s some games that guys don’t get in, but he’s healthy, and, you know, we’ll see him this week.”
For more on the Knights, as they prepare for Austin Peay, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
