Greg Ward Jr., Demarcus Ayers and Kenneth Farrow will lead the undefeated #21 Houston Cougars into Brighthouse Networks Stadium this Saturday to take on the winless UCF Knights.
The biggest question for the Knights regarding Houston is: how do you stop their high-powered offense?
Houston is run by first-year Head Coach Tom Herman who is the only remaining new head coach to have an undefeated team in the NCAA following Florida’s loss to LSU. Herman is used to this kind of success though, having spent the last three seasons as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and QB coach where he infamously lost two starting quarterbacks and won the National Championship with third string QB Cardale Jones.
The Cougars are an AAC juggernaut and have been unmatched in almost every contest this season with an average margin of victory 24.3 points. Those lopsided victories have been mostly on the back of junior quarterback Greg Ward Jr. who has the looks of a Heisman contender considering the position the Cougars are in going into the back half of the season.
“I think [Ward Jr.] is just playing very headsy, he’s very tough to tackle in the open field, has great quickness and can extend the field real quick on you,” UCF Head Coach George O’Leary said.
No opponent has had an answer for their dynamic junior yet this season as he leads the Cougars in both passing and rushing yards and accounts for just over 50 percent of the points they have scored through the first six games of the season. Ward also finds himself in the top 10 in total offense with 2,155 yards and tied with Leonard Fournette for the lead in rushing touchdowns with 14.
“[Ward Jr.] can run the ball as good or better, in his case better, than anybody on his team. So it’s like playing against two running backs at the same time,” senior defensive end Thomas Niles said.
Given that the Knight’s defense held their own against a very tough Temple team that runs a pro-style offense, they could very well be ready for the Houston Cougar spread offense. However, stopping the spread is a completely different monster than stopping a pro-style offense.
The spread lends itself heavily to speed and a defense needs to be faster or just as fast in order to stop it. While the UCF defense showed its toughness against Temple, the Owl’s running back Jahad Thomas took advantage when the Knight’s seemed to tire as the time of possession began to fall out of their favor.
“They are a no huddle team, a high tempo team and you gotta create some 3-and-outs. That’s what ruins the flow of that initially,” O’Leary said. “I think big thing is and it doesn’t change when you play teams like [Houston], you have to tackle well and keep the hidden yards to a minimum.”
Junior Demarcus Ayers is the go-to receiver for the Cougars; he leads the team with 46 receptions and 562 receiving yards. Ayers is like a swiss-army knife for Houston with his roles in the return game and ground attack complimenting his gaudy receiving numbers.
What is really most impressive though about the junior is his field vision and ability to make a man miss because those intangibles can be really dangerous for opposing teams. The closest comparison skill-wise that the Knights have played this year would be South Carolina’s Pharoh Cooper who torched the team for 96 all-purpose yards and two scores.
Adding power to Houston’s finesse offense is senior running back Kenneth Farrow who led the American Athletic Conference with seven 100-yard rushing games last season. Farrow is a one-cut running back that likes to finish his runs by punishing defenders. The Knights have done a fairly strong job defensively against the run and specifically against power backs like Farrow. This is why Houston will likely utilize senior Ryan Jackson and sophomore Javin Webb often to change up the pace at the running back position against UCF.
Realistically though, Houston is going to put up a good amount of points even if UCF’s defense is playing at its highest level. The Cougars have scored at least 34 points in all of their contests this season and the Knight’s offense is going to need to keep pace with them. Justin Holman will have to contend with an incredibly strong secondary that returned all of its starters from last season and includes the likes of seniors William Jackson III and Adrian McDonald.
McDonald led the AAC in forced turnovers last season, registering five interceptions to go with three fumble recoveries. While Jackson is currently tied for third in the NCAA in pass breakups and has managed one interception and fumble recovery this season as well. The Cougars are dangerous when it comes to turnovers too as they rank fourth in the NCAA since 2010 in non-offensive touchdowns (33).
The Cougars secondary capitalizes on the pressure created by their front seven that is led by junior linebacker Steven Taylor. Taylor leads the American in sacks with 8 after back-to-back 3 sack games against Tulsa and SMU. Nationally, the junior linebacker is ranked second in tackles for loss per game and fourth in sacks. Taylor shows excellent instincts and has a knack for being involved in almost every defensive play for the Cougars.
Houston is 1-5 all-time against UCF; however they arguably pose the toughest test to date for the Knights on both sides of the ball. The most important factors for the Knights going into their homecoming contest have to be containing Houston’s speed and capitalizing on good offensive field position.
“We’ll have our work cut out for us on defense and the key to the game is going to be offense as far as controlling that ball and not giving up 3-and-outs,” O’Leary said.
Establishing long drives against this Houston defense will not come easy given the way the Knight’s offensive line has looked, but avoiding dropped passes and Justin Holman’s growing pocket awareness could help close that gap a little.
“There’s one person on almost every [offensive] play just missing their assignment and that’s just one thing that we really need to fix. We all need to work together and really go out there and just execute [the game plan] as a whole,” senior H-back Joseph Puopolo said.
Nevertheless, an absolutely flawless performance is necessary for this young Knights team if they hope to pull off a shocking homecoming upset against Houston this Saturday at Brighthouse Networks Stadium.
