ANN ARBOR, Mich. – UCF is coming off of their first win since December of 2014 and will get no easy breaks in the second week of college football as they take on Michigan in The Big House.
We had a chance to catch up with Maxwell Bultman of The Michigan Daily to get an inside look at what to expect from the first game UCF has played against a top five ranked team since the 2013 Fiesta Bowl.
1) Michigan steamrolled Hawaii 63-3 and will be playing a UCF squad that, while headed in the right direction with a new coach and system in place, went without a win in 2015. What level of competition are the Wolverines expecting when the Knights visit the Big House? Lax, confident, level-headed take on the opponent as part of a stronger conference?
To be honest, none of the players or coaches talked a whole lot about UCF specifically during the press conferences this week. Most of the reporters’ questions were about Michigan’s players and the coaches impressions of them through one week of the season.
That’s not to say Michigan is taking UCF lightly, they just weren’t necessarily asked what they expected out of their opponent this week. In general the team is very confident, especially about their defense, but it’s hard to give a UCF-specific answer about their approach or mindset.
2) Scott Frost has coached against Jim Harbaugh before in their Pac-12 days and is familiar with what a Harbaugh-coached team plays like. Can you tell us what characteristics the team has taken on since his installation as Michigan Football’s head coach?
More than anything, they really seem to have adopted his love of competition. Harbaugh puts competition at the forefront of just about everything (from having players compete for jersey numbers to what post-spring-game meal they get) and they seem to enjoy it.
Last year, the winners of drills in practice would run because they had earned the right to get better. I think that pretty much tells you what you need to know about the level of buy-in he’s had.
3) The Knights are aiming to be included in an expansion of the Big 12 conference and Saturday’s game will be an indicator of how well the team would perform against a powerhouse similar to Michigan in the future. Fans always look back to the 2013 Fiesta Bowl victory against Baylor and see a team with fit for expansion that year. In a situation where UCF puts up a fight (W or L), with the new coaching staff and play of game, will that be more of a gain for UCF (and possibly Michigan) or a loss to Michigan?
If Michigan lost on Saturday, it would be a bigger loss for Michigan, which has its sights set very high for 2016. If the Wolverines win one that’s closer than expected, it’s probably more meaningful to UCF.
Pundits will bash the Wolverines, and justifiably so, if they struggle to put away a team that went 0-12 last year. I just don’t know how much the players will care about that. But if UCF is out to show it can play with Power-Five teams, keeping it close at Michigan Stadium seems like it would mean a lot to the Knights.
4) Most UCF players have never played in front of a crowd anywhere near what the team will be walking into on Saturday, triggering extensive game-planning this week for the noise. How much of an impact does 110,000 fans make on a team operating in a territory completely new to them?
I’ve never played organized football, much less in front of 100,000 people, but I can say that the stadium looks massive from the field. The place doesn’t look like it can hold 100,000 people until you see it filled. Then it feels like everyone in the entire city is there. I can’t speak to the psychology of playing in front of a crowd that big, but it does have the potential to shock players when they walk in for the first time in front of that many fans.
5) Do you see communication on the field as difficult in an environment as large as in the Wolverines’ stadium?
Not as much as you might expect. While there are absurd numbers of people there every week, the construction of the stadium is not really conducive to holding in sound. It’s one single bowl, so a lot of noise escapes out of the top without being redirected back toward the field.
I can’t speak to other stadiums UCF has played in, but I wouldn’t put the Big House in the elite tier of noisy stadiums.
6) With an entirely new system still being worked out, and only one instance to show game play behavior, there isn’t much of a sample size to identify this Knights team by. What are some of the elements to the Wolverines’ game might UCF be able to take advantage of?
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying Michigan should have an advantage in talent. If UCF is going to have a chance, it’s going to need to rattle the Wolverines’ quarterback, Wilton Speight, who started his first career game last week.
On offense, perhaps UCF can try to take advantage of Michigan’s linebacking corps, which lost all three of its starters from last year. That said, in Week 1, one of those new backers won Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, and another is Jabrill Peppers, who is always a threat.
7) Where on the field is Michigan’s greatest strength? How about potential weaknesses?
Michigan’s greatest strength is probably its defensive line, but you could make a case for its secondary, too.
The Wolverines entered the year looking to rotate eight players on the D-line, but it’s worth noting that one of those players (Maurice Hurst) did not play in Week 1 with an undisclosed injury, and two more (Bryan Mone and Taco Charlton) left the field early with injuries.
If none of them play against UCF, then the secondary is the strength, likely returning All-American Jourdan Lewis (who sat out last week with an undisclosed injury) to a unit that starts four seniors. Cornerback Channing Stribling and safety Delano Hill each returned interceptions for touchdowns last week. It’s a hungry group, and while they play a lot of man coverage, they seem to embrace the challenges that poses.
Weakness wise, it’s still the relatively inexperienced linebackers. Game experience matters a lot, and while all three players do have game experience, it is a position of relative uncertainty right now.
Plus, the defensive line depth could become an issue if all three of those players have to sit out.
8) What does Michigan need to do in particular, as far as pinning down opportunities for UCF to score, to secure the game on Saturday? What’s your prediction on performance for the game?
Mostly Michigan just needs to not turn it over. Speight had one bad interception against Hawaii, and he almost threw another, but that’s really the only way I see this one going badly for the Wolverines. If they don’t shoot themselves in the foot, they could cruise to another big win.
I think Michigan will win 56-7.
