This Friday night’s game between the UCF Knights (AAC 1-0, 4-1), and the Louisville Cardinals (AAC 2-0, 6-0) is going to be a throw down. At this point, each team’s dedication, motivation, and determination seem to be impossible to stop.
Leading the AAC, ranked in the Country’s Top Ten, the Louisville Cardinals have dominated their opponents while holding a 6-0 record.
The University of Central Florida has come out this season with the undoubted ability to win. While the Knights looked prime to upset the #12 South Carolina Gamecocks going into halftime, momentum turned and left them with just not enough time to dot the I’s on the victory.
UCF took that loss into perspective. Instead of looking back, they chose to only look forward. Chris Martin, UCF’s offensive lineman, said that we “won’t be satisfied till we’re conference champions.”
In their last game against Memphis, the Knights snuck out a ‘closer-than-it-should-have-been’ win, beating the Tigers 24-17. After a bye week and daily practices for the Knights football team, Chris Martin says that he is just as determined and motivated now than he was a couple of weeks ago. He reflects a certain kind of momentum, and motivation to look forward, a mindset that will only help UCF prosper in this Friday night’s game against the Cardinals.
“We have to believe that [we can win the conference], we’re forced to believe that, and we believe that we have the team to take us there. We thrive on that belief each and every day, and that belief gives us the drive and force to keep working harder,” Martin says. “Just like in Memphis, we truly believed we were going to win, even with all the misfortune we had, we still always believed we were going to win, and we truly believe we are going to go out to Louisville this Friday and do the same thing. We believe in ourselves to outplay them.”
While Martin brings in the confidence for his offense, UCF linebacker Terrance Plummer kills it for the UCF defense. Playing the game of his life against Memphis two weeks ago in a game saving win against the Tigers which earned Plummer the AAC defensive player of the week award the second time this season and now in the running for the Bronko Nagurski award. Plummer tells insiders “being up for the award, it’s an honor, but more importantly it just makes me more hungry, more hungry for the team, and more hungry for the game.”
When asked what the Knights will do to defend Louisville, T-Plum answered that “this is what this bye week has been all about, trying to get rested and have the upper hand against Louisville. They have a great quarterback and great receivers. Our mission is to get the upper hand by going in there, adjusting to their offense, and stopping them from driving down the field.”
The players did not just find that mindset on their own, coach George O’Leary certainly led by example to help them get there.
“Louisville is a very good football team,” O’Leary said. “They have a very good offense and a very good defense. They are well coached, and we’ll have our work cut out for us.”
Louisville defense has held opponents to just 7.3 PPG, the best mark in the nation. But Louisville does not just stop with their defensive ability to completely derail an offense. Cardinals quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, signal caller for Louisville’s explosive offense, amasses absurd yardage in the air and on the ground, averaging over 500 yards of offense per game.
“In order to stop them, we have to make progress with the defense,” O’Leary told insiders. “There is no subtle change we have to do, we just have to keep getting better.” O’Leary and the Knights have been preparing their defensive schemes all week in their preparation to try to limit Bridgewater. George O’Leary said during last week’s interview: “The bigger the playbook the worse the team. It’s not about adding more calls; it’s just doing what we do better. There are no predictions, we just have to go out there and play the game I expect my boys to play.”
This Friday night’s game will be one for the books. The Knights will not give in to the hype of playing a Top Ten team, rather they have spent days and weeks of preparation so their play on the field will determine the outcome. “It will be a test this coming Friday, a test for us as well as a test for them, so I definitely look forward to the competition.”
O’Leary and his team are as ready as ever to #ChargeOn against the Cards on ESPN, this Friday, at 8:00pm ET.
