ORLANDO, Fla. — Coach George O’Leary keyed in on the start of conference play and the team’s second half play at his weekly Monday press conference.
“Right now you go into conference play and this is conference week,” O’Leary said. “And that’s something I preach all the time and that’s been the only goal we’ve ever had since I’ve been here is to win the conference.”
Missed opportunities, missed assignments and protecting the ball were all harped on by Coach O’Leary as reasons that the team has gotten off to the slow start that they have. Redshirt senior H-back Joseph Puopolo returned to the field against South Carolina after missing the first three weeks of the season and was adamant about the back to back AAC Champions difficult push towards the conference schedule.
“I feel like we have a big target on our back [as back to back AAC champions] because people know when they play us that we are a hardworking team and we are going to go out there and we are going to compete every game,” Puopolo said. “We’re not going to give up and [conference opponents] know they have to bring their A-game when they come and play us.”
A huge concern for the Knights is their depth with the amount of injuries seemingly piling up, but that load will be lessened this week when the team returns week one starting running back Dontravious Wilson. Justin Holman, on the other hand, will likely miss the Tulane game and will return at the discretion of the doctor according to Coach O’Leary.
The Knights have led three of their first four games at half time with the only exception being a ten point deficit to Stanford in week two. Finishing the game has been something the team has been struggling with, but this troubling trend has not gone unnoticed by the coaches or the players.
“It really comes down to in the second half with this football team is turnovers, missed tackles and [missed assignments]. There is almost two and a half times as many in the second half as the first half and that’s what is causing the problem,” said Coach O’Leary.
Going forward for the Knights, learning from their mistakes and being able to overcome them is what can help them turn the tide against Tulane. Redshirt sophomore linebacker Chequan Burkett was in good spirits on Monday and was happy that UCF had a tough non-conference schedule.
“We learned good lessons. I’m glad we were able to go through that, go through the first few games we had,” Burkett said. “So we can go into the conference knowing what we need to work on, improve on, so we can go into the conference and just win.”
The Knights take on the Tulane Green Wave in New Orleans on Saturday at 12 p.m. as they hope to start the AAC conference play with a victory.
Photo Credit: Aileen Perilla
