University of Crappy Football
UCF won Conference USA last year, over Southern Miss who gave us a bit of trouble at first. UCF was supposed to be better on offense, but not as talented on D. Their fans sure expected a game because they came out in force. They were everywhere, there is no way most had tickets. There were also some hiding in UF gear (who are we the Oakland Raiders?). Usually when we play someone outside the conference we let them hang around for a while and then pull away as our deeper roster comes into play. It was nice to see us just blow someone out (first time I’ve seen that in person). I don’t know that we didn’t slaughter them mainly because they were so bad. How many passes did their receivers drop? People were starting to feel bad for them after a while. For now I’ll say it was us.
Also I want to mention this because I’m surprised how few people seem to know about it, but after every game the band marches to Potato Rock (in front of Turlington) and then the percussion corps plays a few tunes. It’s a neat way to end the evening, very wholesome 1950’s. Up close you see that the band’s jackets are a part leather, part corduroy – poor bastards. This time UCF’s band came to have a drum off. They kicked our band’s ass. Their unis are snazzier too – sort of futuristic zoot suits.
I had the worst seats I’ve ever had in the Swamp, 60th row – 30 rows higher than I had ever been before. It’s a different experience up in the thin air, people are not packed in as thickly, cops don’t come around to check tickets or make you get off the benches. It is not as loud as when you are right on top of the field (but still impressive). You can also see what the band is doing. They run around and spell “Gators” as the crowd does the “Give me a G, give me an A!” routine. Who knew? As for the game the angle gives similar you a similar feel of watching a game on TV, save you can see the whole field rather than just the line and QB (I hate that about TV). The net result of this is I will be talking more about our schemes and than individual performances this week.
QB: We know what Leak is at this point, I’m getting tired of inventing new ways to say “smart, but inaccurate.” He had a good game, nice two minute drill. He also almost tossed a pick in the redzone when he threw off his bad foot. There was a pass rush, but it is better to take the sack than turn it over. UCF blitzed against our five wide and he cleverly ran straight up the field – once he got beyond the line it was open running. Tebow played more, but his ugly pick seems to have taken the bloom off a bit (good, it will stop the ignorant from calling for Leak to be benched). There seemed to be less “Te-Bow” chants, similar to how getting killed in Tuscaloosa ended those asinine “Ur-Ban Mey-er” chants (never saw someone become more popular before doing anything). They are not having Tim run the full playbook, only asking him to read half the field before he takes off. I correctly predicted every play from the formation before the snap on his TD drive; as Jackie O. Bryson can confirm. And yes, I’m aware and alarmed that I am talking about the backup more than the starter.
GRADE: A
RB: No one has really claimed the job yet, but as a whole the team ran well. Wynn (21) seems to be the best of the bunch for the moment. Latsko (42) saw a little more action, usually he just stays behind one to the guards and just hits that hole (well) – but then they run some misdirection out of that set.
GRADE: B+ (over half our 200+ yards came from QBs and WRs, that’s not worth an A)
WR: The new popular chant is “Per-cy” for Harvin (8). He again used his amazing speed to get us a couple of big plays. However he’s still at the stage where he just uses his athletic talent to make plays – not football skills (such as running good routes to get open). We’ll see how much he does against SEC talent. I caught Leak having to personally tell him wear to lineup a few times. The other freshman, Fayson (11), played the way freshman usually do – he got a holding call and dropped a pass. The often forgotten redheaded stepchild of the offense (you probably know him as Jemalle Cornelius (6)) had the best game of the unit, all of his catches were nice plays. UCF’s secondary was bad, but everyone made plays, and blocked for one another.
GRADE: A+
TE: Tater Salad (number 84 in your program, number one in your heart) was on the field a bit more, made a few blocks (Latsko is a better blocker, but Tater Salad is faster with the ball in his hands). And as we botched another extra point, it became clear that he runs a hot route in that situation and it was not his fault.
GRADE: B+ (just as an aside I haven’t seen another TE since 2004)
OL: Running lanes were open, but UCF did get a little pressure, about the only negative for our offense all game. The interior of the line seems to be the better spot.
GRADE: B+
DL: Wow!! What a difference Thomas (44) made. The Golden McNuggets got nothing on the ground all night and got a safety (why were they running laterally on their own goalline?). Thomas, our chief run stopper, keyed the pass rush too. Moss (94) and McDonald (95) made a few plays, but so far the line has not lived up to the hype whatsoever. That’s discouraging given how much I expected from (and pimped) Moss.
GRADE: A- (Thomas gets an A, everyone else a B+)
LB: They didn’t do anything spectacular, but filled well on the run, especially when their QB scrambled it seemed (he got upended twice).
GRADE: B+
DB: They were confused at several points again – running around and talking to each other, literally grabbing and pulling people to where they were supposed to be. Nelson (1) seemed the most confused. Again this could be a problem when we get to the meat of the season. Also I noticed that Joiner (19), not the hard hitting Nelson, is one who comes up into the box when they expect run (so I assume he is the strong safety). They also use Nelson as the slot corner in the nickel often (he occasionally blitzes). Their WRs were dreadful, even against our backups they just dropped pass after pass.
GRADE: B+ (as bad as UCF was there were no picks or notable plays).
ST: Special teams will cost us a game some point this year. That is two bobbled extra points now – our kicker is inconsistent enough as is, thank you. Some coach needs to tell Nelson to fair catch occasionally because he is going to get hurt or fumble eventually. I was right that he had those big returns last week because Southern Miss’s punter was out kicking the coverage. Nelson also has to control his temper – he is a personal foul waiting to happen.
GRADE: D
Coaching: Meyer has drastically cut back on his shovel passes from last year, on to the next complaint – but not today because honestly he is handling Tebow and Harvin well, cutting back the play book and using them at the right time so they can experience some success early. UCF found success running wide to our left and hitting comeback routes early, but our defense made good adjustments and both of those had dried up by the second quarter.
GRADE: A
Football 101: A “comeback route” is when a receiver runs hard up the field to make the cornerback covering him think he is running deep. The he suddenly stops and runs back toward the line scrimmage to catch the pass before the defender can react. Defenses can counter this three ways: drift a linebacker over to get in the passing lane, put a safety over the top so the corner jump the route, or switch to zone from man-to-man.
Fans: The place emptied out pretty early, which tells you most Gator fans are not students of the game. We were pretty nice to the UCF folks (42-0 will do that). Props to Jackie O. for screaming before the snap and getting into the cheers as much as any drunk freshman. But she doesn't get gambling.
GRADE: A-
Play of the Game: Tie: Harvin’s first TD gave everyone in that stadium the sense that UCF might be very athletically outmatched. Caldwell’s TD at the end of the half ensured that UCF had nothing to take into the locker room. Even I whipped out my keys at that point.
Player of the Game: Marcus Thomas. He was our pass rush and his presence on the line kicked up our already great run defense a notch. Always funny to see a fat guy do a sack dance.
Bottom Line: We have a bunch of questions right now: RB, OL, DBs. Tennessee will tell us a bunch. They barely beat Air Force, so I’m predicting victory – but we are not good enough to win the SEC.
Also I want to mention this because I’m surprised how few people seem to know about it, but after every game the band marches to Potato Rock (in front of Turlington) and then the percussion corps plays a few tunes. It’s a neat way to end the evening, very wholesome 1950’s. Up close you see that the band’s jackets are a part leather, part corduroy – poor bastards. This time UCF’s band came to have a drum off. They kicked our band’s ass. Their unis are snazzier too – sort of futuristic zoot suits.
I had the worst seats I’ve ever had in the Swamp, 60th row – 30 rows higher than I had ever been before. It’s a different experience up in the thin air, people are not packed in as thickly, cops don’t come around to check tickets or make you get off the benches. It is not as loud as when you are right on top of the field (but still impressive). You can also see what the band is doing. They run around and spell “Gators” as the crowd does the “Give me a G, give me an A!” routine. Who knew? As for the game the angle gives similar you a similar feel of watching a game on TV, save you can see the whole field rather than just the line and QB (I hate that about TV). The net result of this is I will be talking more about our schemes and than individual performances this week.
QB: We know what Leak is at this point, I’m getting tired of inventing new ways to say “smart, but inaccurate.” He had a good game, nice two minute drill. He also almost tossed a pick in the redzone when he threw off his bad foot. There was a pass rush, but it is better to take the sack than turn it over. UCF blitzed against our five wide and he cleverly ran straight up the field – once he got beyond the line it was open running. Tebow played more, but his ugly pick seems to have taken the bloom off a bit (good, it will stop the ignorant from calling for Leak to be benched). There seemed to be less “Te-Bow” chants, similar to how getting killed in Tuscaloosa ended those asinine “Ur-Ban Mey-er” chants (never saw someone become more popular before doing anything). They are not having Tim run the full playbook, only asking him to read half the field before he takes off. I correctly predicted every play from the formation before the snap on his TD drive; as Jackie O. Bryson can confirm. And yes, I’m aware and alarmed that I am talking about the backup more than the starter.
GRADE: A
RB: No one has really claimed the job yet, but as a whole the team ran well. Wynn (21) seems to be the best of the bunch for the moment. Latsko (42) saw a little more action, usually he just stays behind one to the guards and just hits that hole (well) – but then they run some misdirection out of that set.
GRADE: B+ (over half our 200+ yards came from QBs and WRs, that’s not worth an A)
WR: The new popular chant is “Per-cy” for Harvin (8). He again used his amazing speed to get us a couple of big plays. However he’s still at the stage where he just uses his athletic talent to make plays – not football skills (such as running good routes to get open). We’ll see how much he does against SEC talent. I caught Leak having to personally tell him wear to lineup a few times. The other freshman, Fayson (11), played the way freshman usually do – he got a holding call and dropped a pass. The often forgotten redheaded stepchild of the offense (you probably know him as Jemalle Cornelius (6)) had the best game of the unit, all of his catches were nice plays. UCF’s secondary was bad, but everyone made plays, and blocked for one another.
GRADE: A+
TE: Tater Salad (number 84 in your program, number one in your heart) was on the field a bit more, made a few blocks (Latsko is a better blocker, but Tater Salad is faster with the ball in his hands). And as we botched another extra point, it became clear that he runs a hot route in that situation and it was not his fault.
GRADE: B+ (just as an aside I haven’t seen another TE since 2004)
OL: Running lanes were open, but UCF did get a little pressure, about the only negative for our offense all game. The interior of the line seems to be the better spot.
GRADE: B+
DL: Wow!! What a difference Thomas (44) made. The Golden McNuggets got nothing on the ground all night and got a safety (why were they running laterally on their own goalline?). Thomas, our chief run stopper, keyed the pass rush too. Moss (94) and McDonald (95) made a few plays, but so far the line has not lived up to the hype whatsoever. That’s discouraging given how much I expected from (and pimped) Moss.
GRADE: A- (Thomas gets an A, everyone else a B+)
LB: They didn’t do anything spectacular, but filled well on the run, especially when their QB scrambled it seemed (he got upended twice).
GRADE: B+
DB: They were confused at several points again – running around and talking to each other, literally grabbing and pulling people to where they were supposed to be. Nelson (1) seemed the most confused. Again this could be a problem when we get to the meat of the season. Also I noticed that Joiner (19), not the hard hitting Nelson, is one who comes up into the box when they expect run (so I assume he is the strong safety). They also use Nelson as the slot corner in the nickel often (he occasionally blitzes). Their WRs were dreadful, even against our backups they just dropped pass after pass.
GRADE: B+ (as bad as UCF was there were no picks or notable plays).
ST: Special teams will cost us a game some point this year. That is two bobbled extra points now – our kicker is inconsistent enough as is, thank you. Some coach needs to tell Nelson to fair catch occasionally because he is going to get hurt or fumble eventually. I was right that he had those big returns last week because Southern Miss’s punter was out kicking the coverage. Nelson also has to control his temper – he is a personal foul waiting to happen.
GRADE: D
Coaching: Meyer has drastically cut back on his shovel passes from last year, on to the next complaint – but not today because honestly he is handling Tebow and Harvin well, cutting back the play book and using them at the right time so they can experience some success early. UCF found success running wide to our left and hitting comeback routes early, but our defense made good adjustments and both of those had dried up by the second quarter.
GRADE: A
Football 101: A “comeback route” is when a receiver runs hard up the field to make the cornerback covering him think he is running deep. The he suddenly stops and runs back toward the line scrimmage to catch the pass before the defender can react. Defenses can counter this three ways: drift a linebacker over to get in the passing lane, put a safety over the top so the corner jump the route, or switch to zone from man-to-man.
Fans: The place emptied out pretty early, which tells you most Gator fans are not students of the game. We were pretty nice to the UCF folks (42-0 will do that). Props to Jackie O. for screaming before the snap and getting into the cheers as much as any drunk freshman. But she doesn't get gambling.
GRADE: A-
Play of the Game: Tie: Harvin’s first TD gave everyone in that stadium the sense that UCF might be very athletically outmatched. Caldwell’s TD at the end of the half ensured that UCF had nothing to take into the locker room. Even I whipped out my keys at that point.
Player of the Game: Marcus Thomas. He was our pass rush and his presence on the line kicked up our already great run defense a notch. Always funny to see a fat guy do a sack dance.
Bottom Line: We have a bunch of questions right now: RB, OL, DBs. Tennessee will tell us a bunch. They barely beat Air Force, so I’m predicting victory – but we are not good enough to win the SEC.
posted by El Breto @ 11:34 PM
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