Coming off a disappointing 5-7 campaign in 2011, the UCF football team feels like they have something to prove this year.
“It’s still there (a chip on the team’s shoulder). I think it won’t be there until we win conference because that’s our ultimate goal first and foremost. The season we had last year was very disappointing,” senior linebacker Jonathan Davis said. “So, we still have that bad taste in our mouth till this day.”
In its first opportunity to show some of the progress they made during spring ball, the UCF first team, sporting black jerseys, defeated the second team wearing gold jerseys, 20-7, Saturday afternoon at Bright House Networks Stadium in the Knights annual Spring football game.
Sophomore quarterback Blake Bortles, who is currently No. 1 on the Knights depth chart after a strong finish to his rookie campaign, led UCF’s first team offense, completing 27-of-45 passes for 239 yards and a touchdown.
Bortles, who takes over for Jeff Godfrey (left program after last season) as the Knights starter under center this year, had a variety of different situations thrown his way by Coach George O’Leary in order to get his young quarterback prepared for the upcoming season.
“I really wanted to put Blake under some heat because I think it’s going to happen pretty quick in the early part of the season and I wanted to see how he really took it on,” O’Leary said. “There still needs to be more of a sense of urgency, but I thought he handled it well.”
Bortles encountered everything from a 4th-and-17 play to a no-huddle offense in an attempt to test his maturity as the Knights will face some tough opponents this season, including Ohio State and Missouri.
“The whole second half, two-minute drill- I wasn’t expecting that. It definitely helped us. We’ve been working on practice – a high tempo offense and he shortened the play clock…Those situations do help because you never know when you will come across a situation like that. The situations he did put us in today did help,” Bortles said.
Bortles will be looked to as the Knights leader this season, especially after Coach O’Leary said it was the Oviedo-native’s team now.
“That meant a lot to me. That meant I had his trust- the coaching staff believed in me, and they believed I can get the job done and lead this team,” Bortles said. “That’s something as a player I have to take that and live up to it. I have to show them they made the right decision in making that statement.”
Bortles didn’t disappoint, helping the first unit get off to a fast start as he marched them 60 yards down the field in the opening minutes of the first quarter, which ended with a two-yard rushing touchdown by Miami-transfer Storm Johnson.
Shawn Moffitt, who is expected to anchor the Knights kicking unit this season, nailed a 45-yard field goal just before the first quarter ended, and the Black team took a 10-0 lead after 15 minutes of play.
The second quarter saw more dominance from the Black team, as Bortles led UCF on a 74-yard drive, capped off by a 10-yard touchdown pass to Quincy McDuffie that gave the first team a 17-0 lead going into halftime.
McDuffie seems poised to be one of the Knights primary deep threats this year, as he finished with 62 yards on five receptions, to go along with a touchdown catch.
The Gold team would get their only score of the contest when Troy Gray recovered a Bortles fumble in the third quarter, taking it the distance for a 59-yard touchdown, getting the second team within 10 points.
From there, the game would slow down, as Coach O’Leary experimented plenty with his freshman and incoming talent in search of players that could make an immediate impact.
“I use the Spring to see what freshman are gonna be penciled in. I’ll sit down with the staff and see where any of these freshmen that we feel good about can come in,” O’Leary said.
An area of concern last season was the kicking game, but that was a positive that came out of Saturday. Moffitt finished the game with another long field goal as regulation expired, putting a 49-yarder through the posts for the final score, 20-7.
Other noteworthy performances included senior runningback Latavius Murray, who followed up his strong finish to the 2011 season, when he ran for 233 yards and two touchdown against UTEP in the Knights season-finale win, with a nine carry, 67-yard effort for the first team.
Murray is slated to be the Knights starting back this year, however he will face stark competition from redshirt senior Brynn Harvey, as well as Miami-transfer Storm Johnson.
Johnson’s two-yard touchdown scramble was the only rushing score of the game. He finished with 33 yards on six carries and a touchdown for the Black team.
Harvey, who started for the second unit, posted 30 yards on 10 carries.
Senior Rob Calabrese, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, had a shaky return, throwing nine-of-17 for 42 yards as the starting quarterback for the Knights Gold team.
There were some encouraging signs from several young players, including freshman wideout Breshad Perriman, who notched 64 receiving yards on four catches. The 6’2″, 200-pound Georgia-native received great praise from Coach O’Leary throughout Spring ball.
Josh Reese, who had 461 yards and two touchdowns in his freshman campaign, had a solid outing Saturday, leading all receivers with 64 yards on nine receptions.
Defensively, Jonathan Davis paced UCF with nine tackles, two sacks and one break-up as he enters just his second season as a linebacker. Senior A.J. Bouye also had a solid game, recording the only two interceptions 0f the game, while also posting three tackles and one break-up.
Troy Davis, Willie Mitchell and Victory Gray each recorded a sack and combined for 15 tackles.
Overall, UCF finished Spring ball on a positive note as plenty of players received looks, and the Knights saw who could potentially make a difference this season.
“We ended Spring the way we wanted to end it. Basically, we got everybody in the game, and I think each team ran 80 plays. That’s a good day’s work,” O’Leary said.
The Knights will look to build off the strong performances from not only their upperclassmen, but also their slew of promising rookies as they head into the 2012 season.
With the amount of returning core pieces and strong incoming talent, the UCF football team has a good shot of leaving Conference-USA on a good note and restoring their title as league champions.
