ORLANDO, Fla. – UCF is steadily building themselves back up following a significant conference victory in the seemingly defunct Civil Conflict this weekend, improving to 1-1 in conference play and 3-1 on the road this year, but will face an entirely different monster this weekend in Houston.
Once touted as the best chance for a team within the “group-of-five” conferences to break the College Football Playoff stranglehold, the Cougars will now be climbing an uphill battle to make the conference championship (let alone the national title picture) after two losses to AAC teams in the past three weeks. This comes after weeks among the best of college football’s ranked teams and an early season victory against Oklahoma.
“Any team in this league can beat the other if it doesn’t play well,” said UCF Head Coach Scott Frost on the parity in NCAA football. “There’s close games all across the league, there’s upsets all across the league, I think this is a really good football league and really balanced.”
It is a simple way to look at things, but not necessarily an endorsement to the possibility of a huge UCF upset this weekend. Houston is still led by Heisman hopeful quarterback Greg Ward Jr. and the Knights don’t exactly have a template to knock off the powerhouse program, even with film on two successful tactics.
“It’s hard to relate yourself to Navy, their offense is just so much different than everyone else’s. They’re really good at what they do but it’s not, in a lot of cases, it’s not that similar,” explained Frost. “I thought SMU did a really good job schematically but they didn’t do anything crazy. I think their players just made more plays.”
Frost continued on to touch base with his team’s clear-cut strength this season; the defense.
“I said all along that the defense has been ahead of the offense as we’ve been progressing here, and the defense has really carried this team, make no mistake about it,” he said.
Now? The offense has some catching up to do, even with sparks here and there that signify a larger blaze to follow. Potential is not their problem, consistency and execution have been.
“If we were giving up a bunch of points, these games wouldn’t be where they were. I told the offense it’s time to start understanding how good they can be. At times our offense has been as explosive as anybody’s, we just haven’t been consistent enough, and part of that is believing that we can do it every time,” analyzed Coach Frost.
Thankfully playing on the road, even against a marquee opponent with a raging fan base, hasn’t unnerved the team-in-transition by too much. With a 3-1 away record it’s safe to assume that these players thrive in the moment, especially when faced with factors inherently working against them. Focus is not a trait that is automatic in collegiate football players, but rather a sign of the team’s drive to win. UCF seems to have that available in spades.
“It’s just kind of how it’s happened. We have been really focused when we go on the road, which has been a good sign. We’ve played really well at times at home, we just weren’t able to finish a couple of games. This team has showed up to play every week since I’ve been here,” said Frost.
Houston Head Coach Tom Herman knows that his squad looks vulnerable right now, acknowledging that this is the chance to bury the Cougars and for UCF to establish a true conference presence.
“They’re probably smelling blood. If I was on the other side at UCF, I’d say hey this is a wounded animal,” he said.
Even still, the Knights have a long way to go in proving that they are capable of hunting such dangerous game.
