Well it is finally upon us, the biggest and arguably most important game of the Bearcats season takes place Friday when the UCF Knights come to Nippert Stadium. The winner of this game will have the inside track to winning the division and setting themselves up for a spot in the American’s conference title game in December.
It’s no secret UCF has been the top dog of the conference for a few years now, a spot at the top that UC would like to grab a hold of, and this season has been more of the same. Yes, UCF lost a road game to Pittsburgh. by one point, but it is still an extremely dangerous 4-1 squad who has been putting up 49 points per game.
UC finally put together a full four quarters of football on the road at Marshall, last week’s performance that saw a rejuvenated Desmond Ridder and a defense that lived in the backfield. These things are going to have to continue Friday night to give the Bearcats a chance, make no mistake about it this is not Miami of Ohio, and this is not Marshall, a sloppy first half or too many defensive lapses and UCF can blow this team out like they did last year.
UCF will be led by freshman quarterback Dillon Gabriel, although UCF started the season trying out multiple guys at the position, including Notre Dame transfer Brandon Wimbush, it has been Gabriel who found the most success and has been leading the charge since week 1. He comes into the game with a staggering 14/2 Touchdown/Interception ratio, but both of those interceptions were in the loss to Pitt so UC is going to need to take some chances and force some turnovers to get that offense off the field.
The Knights use a multitude of running backs to take the pressure off of Gabriel, they currently have four different guys averaging over 6 yards a carry and all of them have multiple scores.
The receiving game is a different story, the Knights far and away rely on junior Gabriel Davis to keep the passing game going. Davis comes into this game fresh off a 100+ yards and three touchdown game against UConn, and on the season he’s racked up 500 yards receiving and eight touchdowns (no other player for UCF has more than two touchdowns).
UCF does have a defense to compliment that offense, they come in surrendering only 97 points on the season, good for an average of 19 a game. It’s defense that has also forced opposing quarterbacks into some bad throws intercepting four passes so far on the season and forcing another five fumbles. Linebacker Nate Evans provides the senior leadership for the defense boasting a team leading 29 tackles.
UC will certainly have their work cut out for them Friday night, they need to clean up the penalties that have plagued them so far and they will need to remain defensively sound for all 60 minutes, but these are not impossible tasks. Having the game in prime-time, at Nippert, with a crowd that’s rumored to be even larger than the opener against UCLA is sure to provide an added boost to the Bearcats. The crowd and the atmosphere will be electric Friday night and I believe UC does pull this one out (I also think the OSU game is the only loss on the regular season), and after we beat UCF on the football field everyone can pile into Fifth Third Arena for some Midnight Madness and keep the party going.
