After last weekend’s forgettable 55-28 defeat to SMU, UCF (6-4) will look to snag its sixth home win of the season as they take on UConn (1-9) at the Bounce House this Saturday at 4 p.m.
Here is everything you need to know ahead of the Knights’ matchup vs. the Huskies.
Ways you can follow the game
To Watch: The game will be aired on ESPN+. You can also follow the live statcast on stats.statbroadcast.com.
To Listen: You can listen to live commentary of the game on FM 96.9 The Game.
UConn: Rebuild Mode
Let’s be honest.
UConn is not playing good football this season. Sitting with a record of 1-9, the Huskies are in rebuild mode, as they saw head coach Randy Edsall step down earlier this season. To top it off, the school administration informed the entire coaching staff that they will not be returning following the 2021-22 season.
The school announced it has hired Jim Mora as the future head coach of the Huskies last Thursday.
Given this, what will UCF be looking at when the two teams clash this weekend?
A lackluster Husky defense
To say UConn’s defensive unit has struggled this season would be an understatement.
The Huskies’ defense is allowing 36.8 points per game, ranking among the bottom 10 of all NCAA Division defenses.
UConn has allowed at least 40 points scored against them in half of its games thus far.
Teams are putting up just over 440 yards per contest against the Huskies with the majority of these through the pass game (249.9). The run defense isn’t much of an upgrade, allowing offenses to rush for 191.4 yards per game.
The Huskies are struggling to force offenses to turn the ball over in addition, ranking No. 75 of all NCAA defensive units with 13 forced turnovers this season.
A bottom-tier offense
With the exception of redshirt sophomore dual-threat quarterback Steven Krajewski – who was recently named the team’s starter this week – UConn’s offense has struggled to do much of anything this season.
The Husky offensive unit is only producing 263.3 yards per outing, the nation’s third-worst.
Primarily, UConn has struggled to gain momentum from its ground game, rushing for just 99.7 yards per game.
The Huskies’ pass game hasn’t been much better, throwing for an average of 163.6 yards, ranking among the nation’s bottom 16 passing offenses.
Despite struggling the majority of the season, the offense did see some success in its lone victory vs. Yale.
Krajewski showed he can be dangerous with both his arm and his legs, completing 21 of 32 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns in the Huskies’ 21-15 win.
The redshirt sophomore showed off his speed when running for a 20-yard touchdown after faking the hand-off to running back Nathan Carter.
A bounce-back opportunity for QB Mikey Keene and the Knights
Prior to last weekend’s underwhelming performance in Dallas, UCF had won three of its previous four games.
Freshman quarterback Mikey Keene was playing the best football of his young collegiate career.
Keene seemed to be maturing as a starting Power 5 starting quarterback each week. Going away from his rookie mistakes, the freshman was taking his time in the pocket, surveying through all of his progressions, and seemed to be making the correct decisions with the football.
Keene’s 46-yard bomb to junior receiver Ryan O’Keefe in the Knights’ 49-7 rout of Temple sums up Keene’s progress in his maturity as a starter.
Keene took the shotgun snap, faked the handoff, delivered a pump-fake, then launched a deep ball to O’Keefe for the touchdown – all while showing patience in the pocket – something he was struggling to do in his first couple starts.
With a favorable matchup, Keene will get his opportunity to rebound from last week’s loss and lead the offense to a dominant outing.
Who’s favored?
According to ESPN, UCF is favored by 30.5 points and has a 98.1 percent chance to win the matchup.
The Over/Under total for the game is 55.5 points.
