Central Florida

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Will UC win against UCF?

  • Yes

    Votes: 1 4.2%

  • No

    Votes: 23 95.8%
  • Total voters
    24
Just an observation/comment on the topic of Fickell getting adjusted to head coaching duties:

-Situational decision making...We were down 31-7 and scored a TD about 1 minute into the 4th quarter. Why didn't we go for 2? We elected to keep it at a 3 possession game and make it 31-14. Then again when we scored to make it 38-21, we didn't go for 2. Why not? Why keep it at 3 possessions? It didn't end up mattering in this game. But we were right at the goal line at the end of the game. What if we would've scored with 30 seconds left? We wouldn't have had a chance to make it a 1 score game, with a potential onside kick and couple plays before a shot at the end zone type situation. Fickell was talking about making our own breaks...well doesn't that sort of thing qualify? Not going for 2 on 2 different occasions would've been a really silly reason to not have a shot at the end had we scored. Those kind of little things make me a little nervous.

-We also had the ball down by 24 with I think 8/9 minutes left. Our defense was worn out. We weren't stopping them. So when we had 4th and 6 at around our own 48, why did we punt? Why weren't we thinking in terms of "we need 3 TDs and the 2 pt conversions and we have 8 minutes to do it?" We already had the ball, so why give it back? If we pick up 6 yards there, we could be in position to cut it to 2 scores by the 6 minute mark. Instead we got the ball back with 5 minutes left, still down 3 scores...and again, we didn't even go for 2 when we did score.

I know we had a minuscule chance to win the game there. But we didn't do the things necessary to even give it a shot. I just don't understand it at all. Weird stuff happens in college sports all the time...but if you're losing you gotta swing for the fences and "make your own breaks". I mean, once we're down 24, who really cares if we fail on a 4th down or don't get a 2 point conversion? We're screwed anyway, so what's the difference if going all out makes it worse?

We are so early into all of this. There's really no sense in getting bent out of shape about it. Just have to hope it improves. But there's something in the back of my mind that worries about Fickell's in-game decisions. He seems to be a rockstar in every other facet. And that's great. But I just don't really get how we came to the decisions that we did on these plays in the 2nd half. And I don't know why that's something that would have to be learned. I just hope any of these kind of things don't cost us down the road, when we're hopefully competing for conference titles.
 
Pretty incredible the turnaround that Scott Frost has made at UCF. A team that won a Fiesta Bowl in 2013 and went 0-12 as recently 2015.

We don't stand a chance if we play like we played against Marshall. Most concerning about that game was it felt like in the second half our D played with little effort. Reality is they were probably just gassed from spending the entire game on the field but it didn't look good.

This staff needs to make some adjustments. We didn't do it against Navy and we didn't do it against Marshall. Time to shake some things up.

UCF - 44

UC - 28
 
jacobkdoyle said:
Just an observation/comment on the topic of Fickell getting adjusted to head coaching duties:

-Situational decision making...We were down 31-7 and scored a TD about 1 minute into the 4th quarter. Why didn't we go for 2? We elected to keep it at a 3 possession game and make it 31-14. Then again when we scored to make it 38-21, we didn't go for 2. Why not? Why keep it at 3 possessions? It didn't end up mattering in this game. But we were right at the goal line at the end of the game. What if we would've scored with 30 seconds left? We wouldn't have had a chance to make it a 1 score game, with a potential onside kick and couple plays before a shot at the end zone type situation. Fickell was talking about making our own breaks...well doesn't that sort of thing qualify? Not going for 2 on 2 different occasions would've been a really silly reason to not have a shot at the end had we scored. Those kind of little things make me a little nervous.

-We also had the ball down by 24 with I think 8/9 minutes left. Our defense was worn out. We weren't stopping them. So when we had 4th and 6 at around our own 48, why did we punt? Why weren't we thinking in terms of "we need 3 TDs and the 2 pt conversions and we have 8 minutes to do it?" We already had the ball, so why give it back? If we pick up 6 yards there, we could be in position to cut it to 2 scores by the 6 minute mark. Instead we got the ball back with 5 minutes left, still down 3 scores...and again, we didn't even go for 2 when we did score.

I know we had a minuscule chance to win the game there. But we didn't do the things necessary to even give it a shot. I just don't understand it at all. Weird stuff happens in college sports all the time...but if you're losing you gotta swing for the fences and "make your own breaks". I mean, once we're down 24, who really cares if we fail on a 4th down or don't get a 2 point conversion? We're screwed anyway, so what's the difference if going all out makes it worse?

We are so early into all of this. There's really no sense in getting bent out of shape about it. Just have to hope it improves. But there's something in the back of my mind that worries about Fickell's in-game decisions. He seems to be a rockstar in every other facet. And that's great. But I just don't really get how we came to the decisions that we did on these plays in the 2nd half. And I don't know why that's something that would have to be learned. I just hope any of these kind of things don't cost us down the road, when we're hopefully competing for conference titles.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the not going for two is mind boggling to me why he wouldn't. Almost have to wonder if he was just unaware, which if so is inexcusable. Got to wonder what role his assistants and other coaches are playing in-game. If it's overwhelming to him maybe he needs to delegate some duties.

Regardless, this team won't win games as bad as this offense is. He seems dead set on not only a pass first offense, but a pass to the sideline at the line of scrimmage mentality. Not only has this proved completely ineffective, our QB simply can't make that throw. The defense is playing up on the receivers and even when Moore completes the pass, it's met quickly for an easy tackle and a no gain. College football has seen so many gimmick offenses that can put up 5-600 yards a game and somehow we can't figure out how to play north and south in our passing game. It's frustrating to watch and unfortunately I see no way it changes this year.
 
UCBearcats said:
Pretty incredible the turnaround that Scott Frost has made at UCF. A team that won a Fiesta Bowl in 2013 and went 0-12 as recently 2015.

We don't stand a chance if we play like we played against Marshall. Most concerning about that game was it felt like in the second half our D played with little effort. Reality is they were probably just gassed from spending the entire game on the field but it didn't look good.

This staff needs to make some adjustments. We didn't do it against Navy and we didn't do it against Marshall. Time to shake some things up.

UCF - 44

UC - 28
Click to expand...

I would be astonished if UC scored 28 points...I was thinking more like 3 or 10...13 max
 
UCBearcats said:
Pretty incredible the turnaround that Scott Frost has made at UCF. A team that won a Fiesta Bowl in 2013 and went 0-12 as recently 2015.

We don't stand a chance if we play like we played against Marshall. Most concerning about that game was it felt like in the second half our D played with little effort. Reality is they were probably just gassed from spending the entire game on the field but it didn't look good.

This staff needs to make some adjustments. We didn't do it against Navy and we didn't do it against Marshall. Time to shake some things up.

UCF - 44

UC - 28
Click to expand...
On the radio in the 4th quarter, Jim Kelly said the defense was just gassed. He said that multiple times. I'm hoping that's all it was.
 
david aka the TYZ said:
Yeah, the not going for two is mind boggling to me why he wouldn't. Almost have to wonder if he was just unaware, which if so is inexcusable. Got to wonder what role his assistants and other coaches are playing in-game. If it's overwhelming to him maybe he needs to delegate some duties.

Regardless, this team won't win games as bad as this offense is. He seems dead set on not only a pass first offense, but a pass to the sideline at the line of scrimmage mentality. Not only has this proved completely ineffective, our QB simply can't make that throw. The defense is playing up on the receivers and even when Moore completes the pass, it's met quickly for an easy tackle and a no gain. College football has seen so many gimmick offenses that can put up 5-600 yards a game and somehow we can't figure out how to play north and south in our passing game. It's frustrating to watch and unfortunately I see no way it changes this year.
Click to expand...
Just like the mod said on BCN, the ball takes forever to get to the sideline. Pick six waiting to happen.
 
david aka the TYZ said:
Regardless, this team won't win games as bad as this offense is. He seems dead set on not only a pass first offense, but a pass to the sideline at the line of scrimmage mentality. Not only has this proved completely ineffective, our QB simply can't make that throw. The defense is playing up on the receivers and even when Moore completes the pass, it's met quickly for an easy tackle and a no gain. College football has seen so many gimmick offenses that can put up 5-600 yards a game and somehow we can't figure out how to play north and south in our passing game. It's frustrating to watch and unfortunately I see no way it changes this year.
Click to expand...

Moore's arm strength is terrible. his downfield passes are consistently floated and underthrown. He is incapable of throwing the out routes effectively. None of this is going to magically change.

On Saturday, when the second string had taken over at every other spot, Moore was still playing. I think Fickell felt if he put Trail in the game and had some success, he could create a QB controversy, so he is going to stick with Moore regardless of outcomes.
 
Anyone able to explain to me just what in the h-e double hockey sticks we think we're doing on offense? I don't get it one bit. Our defense is awful. It's bad. We give up drives, big plays, we're on the field a lot, it's bad. Really bad. Why not use the offense to at least try to help them out a little bit? We threw the ball 40 times and our RBs combined for 13 carries...which is the same amount as the QB. WTF? I mean, Hayden Moore is a 56.3% career passer and he's at 53.5% this year. So why are we throwing so much before 3rd down? NORMALLY I'd understand it. I like having balance and keeping the defense guessing on whether it's run or pass. But this isn't normal. Our defense is bad, our 3 RBs are good, the QB can actually move a little bit, and we complete a low % of passes. So why stop the clock 17 times with incompletions and 0 yard plays? How about we run early and try to set up 3rd and manageable? Is that so crazy? We have a 0% chance of winning if we're going to try to have a shootout with UCF, USF...basically anyone good. So why are we making these games so long? The goal for our offense should be to chew up 5 minutes any time we have it. I don't even care if we score. Just keep the defense off the damn field as much as possible.

I get that we aren't that good, but getting our a$$es beat every week without even being competitive is getting a little old. I mean we're 2 TDs off from even covering spreads. That's underachieving...even for a rebuilding team. We have 5 games left that *should* be winnable. Not saying we will win, or even should win, but they should be winnable. What are we doing to set ourselves up to win those games? I figured even at our worst we were better than Temple, ECU, and UConn. But now idk. I mean we'll almost certainly lose to Temple. And the way we're trending, those other games aren't locks either. And I'm not even putting Tulane in the category of games we should win. We aren't seeing much progress. That should start to change at this point. Our coaches have now had time to see what these guys can and can't do. Let's see some adjustments now.
 
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Defense

Is the Bearcats defense that bad? It has to be that we do not have the athletes to compete. I am sure they are trying, and that the coaches are putting them in proper positions, but they are lacking the athleticism to get the job done. Am I wrong?
 
M64W said:
Is the Bearcats defense that bad? It has to be that we do not have the athletes to compete. I am sure they are trying, and that the coaches are putting them in proper positions, but they are lacking the athleticism to get the job done. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

I was at the game and would agree with your assessment. Our seats were right behind the UCF bench. They were massive and fast. There were a lot of plays where our guys were in the position to make the play and just got straight up ran over. Not much Fickell can do about that.
 
jacobkdoyle said:
Anyone able to explain to me just what in the h-e double hockey sticks we think we're doing on offense? I don't get it one bit. Our defense is awful. It's bad. We give up drives, big plays, we're on the field a lot, it's bad. Really bad. Why not use the offense to at least try to help them out a little bit? We threw the ball 40 times and our RBs combined for 13 carries...which is the same amount as the QB. WTF? I mean, Hayden Moore is a 56.3% career passer and he's at 53.5% this year. So why are we throwing so much before 3rd down? NORMALLY I'd understand it. I like having balance and keeping the defense guessing on whether it's run or pass. But this isn't normal. Our defense is bad, our 3 RBs are good, the QB can actually move a little bit, and we complete a low % of passes. So why stop the clock 17 times with incompletions and 0 yard plays? How about we run early and try to set up 3rd and manageable? Is that so crazy? We have a 0% chance of winning if we're going to try to have a shootout with UCF, USF...basically anyone good. So why are we making these games so long? The goal for our offense should be to chew up 5 minutes any time we have it. I don't even care if we score. Just keep the defense off the damn field as much as possible.

I get that we aren't that good, but getting our a$$es beat every week without even being competitive is getting a little old. I mean we're 2 TDs off from even covering spreads. That's underachieving...even for a rebuilding team. We have 5 games left that *should* be winnable. Not saying we will win, or even should win, but they should be winnable. What are we doing to set ourselves up to win those games? I figured even at our worst we were better than Temple, ECU, and UConn. But now idk. I mean we'll almost certainly lose to Temple. And the way we're trending, those other games aren't locks either. And I'm not even putting Tulane in the category of games we should win. We aren't seeing much progress. That should start to change at this point. Our coaches have now had time to see what these guys can and can't do. Let's see some adjustments now.
Click to expand...

This is a rebuild and I told myself before the season that I wouldn't get too upset no matter what. That being said you're spot on, not only is this is a bad team, this is a very poorly coached team. I don't even even think TT and his staff would be doing a worse job at this point in terms of on the field coaching.

Based on what Luke has done on the recruiting trail the talent will improve. Let's hope that the staff and Luke learn from the mistakes this season and get better as the talent improves.
 
UCBearcats said:
This is a rebuild and I told myself before the season that I wouldn't get too upset no matter what. That being said you're spot on, not only is this is a bad team, this is a very poorly coached team. I don't even even think TT and his staff would be doing a worse job at this point in terms of on the field coaching.

Based on what Luke has done on the recruiting trail the talent will improve. Let's hope that the staff and Luke learn from the mistakes this season and get better as the talent improves.
Click to expand...

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