The latest UCF spin

[bulls96go]

I'd rather play So. Miss, their fans have more class...

really? i thought their fans were the worse

[USFMikeB]

The keyword you used is "were".  They've been replaced by a group that is much worse.  No surprise, just look at this message board for the past several years...

[MavTechKNIGHT2]

This has been a long time coming.  I've been telling many knights about the talent differential, but few wanted to believe it.

Brandon's propoganda machine fueled much of the over-fervent behavior, all created from Orsini's idealisms.

I've watched enough games to know that if they were going to line-up Paul Carrington, and Welsh against us at DE then it was going to be a long day.  I told them, nice athletes, not DE's and certainly not great players like some contemplated.  

They talked about Wilcox being their future RB.  I told them he was a transition back at best, with some average speed.  I watched him in HS, he was slightly impressive but not going to get outside on us.  Kevin Smith was supposedly this find, and the RB they got from JC that Brandon would have you believe everyone in the nation wanted, quickly moved to FB when they realized he had no shake to his game, and zero speed (**** playing in the Upper MW JC leagues they couldn't distinguish that?).

Make no mistake, since the spring Coach O'Liary has brought in 4 prep school kids, and 6 JUCO's.  If they were not ready for this game they will never be ready.  They've got 10 JC players on their team, and 5 prep school kids.  For all the talk of academics over athletics they sure do have quite a number of borderline transfers.  Conversely USF has two JC transfers on our team, and no prep school kids.

They tried to load up with athletes but it didn't work.  Their real problem is the system.  O'Liar is a disciplinarian that has this thought of 'if you build it they will come' mentality.  It works in the BCS ranks, which is all GOL knows when it comes to college, but now with an actual heirarchy established you really, really need to be serious talent evaluators, real great salesmen, and willing to be very flexible with your program- like Leavitt has been.  You also need to be creative with your systems because you can't just line-up in a power-I set, with two WR's, and max protect with TE''s (which is what they try to do), and expect to blow people off the ball with average talent.  That's a huge flaw in GOL's thinking, he should know that with average talent, and little promise of drastic immediate talent upgrades, he must spread things around a bit, use confusion, mis-matches, and one-on-ones to create opportunity.

The second year into the GOL experiment and I think it could be a failure for them.  He seems to stubborn to learn other systems or ways, and refusing to believe that his old-school way has trouble working in the non-BCS world.   Look at all the good non-BCS programs, they do it with crafty offenses, and defenses that are short on size but long on speed and athletes.  It allows them to steal a BCS win or two, but to always be competitive in the non-BCS ranks.  With GOL's system it just won't be truly effective until he gets in superior talent (relatively speaking of course) at all the positions.  Until then I see his teams having real troubles with UAB, UTEP, Memphis, Houston, ECU, USM, and Marshall who all have better athletes at some positions and spread the ball around to create mis-matches and exploit UCF's weaknesses.  

What's worse for UCF is they've invested SO MUCH in GOL, and Orsini sold the boat on him- 5-7 year contract- that they really have no other choice but to stick with it.  If not they won't have much money to hire anyone real good.  But if I was them, I'd drop him now while the opportunity hasn't become irreparable, and really go after a great young mind- but make sure they identify that young mind first.  See if they can't grab a Chizik (who I was glad they didn't get in the first place and I said it to all UCF fans).  GOL has been the best thing for USF fans because he just doesn't have a clue what's been occurring down on the non-BCS ranks, and really doesn't care to understand.

You are absolutely out of your mind.  Why do you keep posting this stuff?  To keep me coming back here?  It is working.

Let's remember Bien, you guys have lost to a VERY mediocre PSU team and beat a TERRIBLE I-AA team, and a team that had a 16 game losing streak!  You are coming off a 4-7 year in which you looked awful.

Now, that may change soon.  It may not.  We will see in your next 4 games how good you might be.

The UCF players missed A LOT of tackles.  However, they were in POSITION to make plays.  They simply didn't do it.  I said it before and I will say it again.  The blowout occured more because we played so poorly than you guys playing great.  Hell, the two times PF went down field with a pass they ended up 7 yards out of bounds.

We will be fine and GO will succeed here.  It is impossible to tell after ONE recruiting class what this guy can do.  We actually got a few athletes this past class (yes, some that USF wanted) and we hadn't won a game all year.

The turn around will happen.  And I think that scares you.  And when you get scared you post crap like the above.

[MavTechKNIGHT2]

I'd rather play So. Miss, their fans have more class...

Someone quoted a Tampa Sports Authority official that said the parking lots were NOT any different than any other game.

If true, what say you?

[Guest S.  Bien]

You are absolutely out of your mind.  Why do you keep posting this stuff?  To keep me coming back here?  It is working.

Let's remember Bien, you guys have lost to a VERY mediocre PSU team and beat a TERRIBLE I-AA team, and a team that had a 16 game losing streak!  You are coming off a 4-7 year in which you looked awful.

Now, that may change soon.  It may not.  We will see in your next 4 games how good you might be.

The UCF players missed A LOT of tackles.  However, they were in POSITION to make plays.  They simply didn't do it.  I said it before and I will say it again.  The blowout occured more because we played so poorly than you guys playing great.  Hell, the two times PF went down field with a pass they ended up 7 yards out of bounds.

We will be fine and GO will succeed here.  It is impossible to tell after ONE recruiting class what this guy can do.  We actually got a few athletes this past class (yes, some that USF wanted) and we hadn't won a game all year.

The turn around will happen.  And I think that scares you.  And when you get scared you post crap like the above.

Mav,

Here in lies the problem.  You all are buying into the propoganda machine over there.  

I know what talent is, and I know what kind of talent you have.  I am not trying to disrespect your school just give you a dose of reality.  The talent gap is bad at UCF, you had guys in position to make plays but they didn't?  You want to know why?  Because a better play beat them.  I've seen guys in position to make a tackle on Clinton Portis but they didn't because Clinton juked them or made them miss?  How was he able to do that?  Simple, he was the better athlete.  Or even better, I'll give a UCF analogy, Daunte Culpepper was amazing, a freak, and he carried your team on his shoulders with a wonderful supporting cast.  You won many games, and came close to the one's you should have lost because of talent.  TALENT!  Players don't make plays against other players because of talent!

Some knights are contemplating that George O'Leary's first class was a wash because he got there late and didn't have time to recruit.  Well, that's somewhat true, but then how did Mike Price out recruit him at UTEP, or the Mississippi State coach do it in the last minute?  George O'Leary had a very talented RB named George Stripling visit, he absolutely wiffed on a kid that wanted to stay home.  George is now getting carries at UL, but that's the difference, UCF settled for Curtis, who was considered decent and actually pushed the over-rated Wilcox for playing time, but then was summarily beat out by a true freshmen, and big FB this year.  You guys need to read the tea leaves, why does every year GOL put freshmen in-place of upperclassmen or guys that have been around a year or two, because the younger guys are better than what's already there, and that's still not saying much.  There's a difference between a guy like Fred Rouse pushing for playing time as a freshman, and a kid like Kevin Smith.  If you don't understand this, or if it falls on deaf ears then you'll continue to spend the remainder of this year wondering why a coach with loads of experience is struggling against marginal programs.

My second point is O'Leary's offensive system.  It's the wrong system to implement for a struggling program.  You need to be spreading the field, creating mis-matches, trying open up the game a bit more.  It takes time to develop big linemen on both sides of the ball, particularly ones that can consistently dominate the line of scrimmage and allow you to run a straight power-I.  If a team shuts down your running game you guys are toast.  It was proven all last year, and we proved it again this year. It didn't take much because you don't have any speed at RB or quickness at OL to get to the outside so you're team must be a between the tackles power program.  That's all GOL has developed.  All teams need to do is have some decent corners and stack the LOS and force Moffett to pass.

This isn't rocket science.  If you want to say I am crazy then say what you want.  We ran the ball 66 times against you guys because we've spent years developing big OL, and we've got one of the best RB's in college.  It's not a mystery, it wasn't done by smoke and mirrors it was simply giving GOL what he wants.  The difference with us is we had the speed to get outside, so our running game wasn't one dimensional like yours was against us.  All our LB's had to do was crowd the line, and hit their gaps.  Bam, there was the RB waiting to get tackled.

A lot of what I am saying many of your brethren are complaining about on your board.  It's all facts, you lack talent, you lack speed.  Your system on offense is entirely to antiquated to allow you to exploit the athleticism you do have, and on defense they just lack the horses and speed necessary to compete.  Therefore you're going to have to score, probably 25-30pts in a game to win.

PSU is far from mediocre and you'll see that as the course of the season wears on.  FAMU, for being a horrific 1-AA team has already won their first 1-AA contest, and almost won their game before us, and you guys, well I'll let you be the judge of that.  WE definitely have a lot to prove and the next six weeks will say a lot about our team, but one story that was proven on Saturday is that GOL is in need of significant talent.  And bringing in a few last minute JC's like Kenny Jackson, Eldemire, or Gabourel is not going to solve the problem.  Here are the JC's on UCF's roster- Jackson, Eldemire, Gabourel, Sinclair Brown, Domenick Kelly, Jason Peters, Glenroy Watkins, Marlon Williams, and Clarence Howard.  Prep school kids- Javid James, Jordan Richards, Breon Rogers.  All brought in during Coach O'Leary's tenure, all brought in to bring some athleticism.

[Sitting_BULL]

Let's remember Bien, you guys have lost to a VERY mediocre PSU team and beat a TERRIBLE I-AA team, and a team that had a 16 game losing streak!  You are coming off a 4-7 year in which you looked awful.

.

Well at least we beat the team that lost to Buffalo!!!!!!!!!!!

ucf has a lot of nerve calling ANYBODY mediocre.  ucf has mega work to do just to be as good as mediocre!

It's amazing the stupidity of ucf posters.  You come here and say beating you doesn't prove anything.  Well if ucf is so bad that beating them doesn't prove anything, then what the hell are you doing here?  Get lost!

[kdawgy_orlando]

LAST WEEK . . .

THIS WEEK . . .

[MavTechKNIGHT2]

Mav,

Here in lies the problem.  You all are buying into the propoganda machine over there.  

I know what talent is, and I know what kind of talent you have.  I am not trying to disrespect your school just give you a dose of reality.  The talent gap is bad at UCF, you had guys in position to make plays but they didn't?  You want to know why?  Because a better play beat them.  I've seen guys in position to make a tackle on Clinton Portis but they didn't because Clinton juked them or made them miss?  How was he able to do that?  Simple, he was the better athlete.  Or even better, I'll give a UCF analogy, Daunte Culpepper was amazing, a freak, and he carried your team on his shoulders with a wonderful supporting cast.  You won many games, and came close to the one's you should have lost because of talent.  TALENT!  Players don't make plays against other players because of talent!

Some knights are contemplating that George O'Leary's first class was a wash because he got there late and didn't have time to recruit.  Well, that's somewhat true, but then how did Mike Price out recruit him at UTEP, or the Mississippi State coach do it in the last minute?  George O'Leary had a very talented RB named George Stripling visit, he absolutely wiffed on a kid that wanted to stay home.  George is now getting carries at UL, but that's the difference, UCF settled for Curtis, who was considered decent and actually pushed the over-rated Wilcox for playing time, but then was summarily beat out by a true freshmen, and big FB this year.  You guys need to read the tea leaves, why does every year GOL put freshmen in-place of upperclassmen or guys that have been around a year or two, because the younger guys are better than what's already there, and that's still not saying much.  There's a difference between a guy like Fred Rouse pushing for playing time as a freshman, and a kid like Kevin Smith.  If you don't understand this, or if it falls on deaf ears then you'll continue to spend the remainder of this year wondering why a coach with loads of experience is struggling against marginal programs.

My second point is O'Leary's offensive system.  It's the wrong system to implement for a struggling program.  You need to be spreading the field, creating mis-matches, trying open up the game a bit more.  It takes time to develop big linemen on both sides of the ball, particularly ones that can consistently dominate the line of scrimmage and allow you to run a straight power-I.  If a team shuts down your running game you guys are toast.  It was proven all last year, and we proved it again this year. It didn't take much because you don't have any speed at RB or quickness at OL to get to the outside so you're team must be a between the tackles power program.  That's all GOL has developed.  All teams need to do is have some decent corners and stack the LOS and force Moffett to pass.

This isn't rocket science.  If you want to say I am crazy then say what you want.  We ran the ball 66 times against you guys because we've spent years developing big OL, and we've got one of the best RB's in college.  It's not a mystery, it wasn't done by smoke and mirrors it was simply giving GOL what he wants.  The difference with us is we had the speed to get outside, so our running game wasn't one dimensional like yours was against us.  All our LB's had to do was crowd the line, and hit their gaps.  Bam, there was the RB waiting to get tackled.

A lot of what I am saying many of your brethren are complaining about on your board.  It's all facts, you lack talent, you lack speed.  Your system on offense is entirely to antiquated to allow you to exploit the athleticism you do have, and on defense they just lack the horses and speed necessary to compete.  Therefore you're going to have to score, probably 25-30pts in a game to win.

PSU is far from mediocre and you'll see that as the course of the season wears on.  FAMU, for being a horrific 1-AA team has already won their first 1-AA contest, and almost won their game before us, and you guys, well I'll let you be the judge of that.  WE definitely have a lot to prove and the next six weeks will say a lot about our team, but one story that was proven on Saturday is that GOL is in need of significant talent.  And bringing in a few last minute JC's like Kenny Jackson, Eldemire, or Gabourel is not going to solve the problem.  Here are the JC's on UCF's roster- Jackson, Eldemire, Gabourel, Sinclair Brown, Domenick Kelly, Jason Peters, Glenroy Watkins, Marlon Williams, and Clarence Howard.  Prep school kids- Javid James, Jordan Richards, Breon Rogers.  All brought in during Coach O'Leary's tenure, all brought in to bring some athleticism.

Clarence Howard is a Prep guy with 4 years of eligibility.  These guys you have mentioned were brought in because of the lack of talent that was here PRIOR to O'Leary.  That is why he said he wouldn't take JUCOs unless it was necessary and found it to be extremely necessary.

I do NOT argue with you about the offensive scheme.  It is simply awful and GO needs to either take the play calling over or get rid of Salem.

My problem with your original post is that it made O'Leary out to be a bad coach.  That is simply wrong.  I do question some of the stuff he has done here in these past two seasons.

As far as making plays I agree with you to a point.  The talent level of the players out ont the field is not THAT different.  Don't get me wrong.  There is certainly a difference; that was obvious.

My point is, during the USC game, our guys INITIATED contact on defense.  Against USF, they let the offensive players initiate the contact.  That is not talent.  That is being scared.  You will miss some tackles at times but you have to be aggressive and we weren't.  We were VERY aggressive against USC.  And outside of Hall, your talent level is not much better than USC.

[TripleB]

I'd rather play So. Miss, their fans have more class...

Someone quoted a Tampa Sports Authority official that said the parking lots were NOT any different than any other game.

If true, what say you?

Psst, Mav, Mike said So Miss fans have more "class", not that they were neater. I think taunting pregnant women and taking someone's cooler and sodomizing it would fall under the "class" category ..... and you ever quote Bill O'Reilly again, I kill you.

[Guest S.  Bien]

Clarence Howard is a Prep guy with 4 years of eligibility.  These guys you have mentioned were brought in because of the lack of talent that was here PRIOR to O'Leary.  That is why he said he wouldn't take JUCOs unless it was necessary and found it to be extremely necessary.

I do NOT argue with you about the offensive scheme.  It is simply awful and GO needs to either take the play calling over or get rid of Salem.

My problem with your original post is that it made O'Leary out to be a bad coach.  That is simply wrong.  I do question some of the stuff he has done here in these past two seasons.

As far as making plays I agree with you to a point.  The talent level of the players out ont the field is not THAT different.  Don't get me wrong.  There is certainly a difference; that was obvious.

My point is, during the USC game, our guys INITIATED contact on defense.  Against USF, they let the offensive players initiate the contact.  That is not talent.  That is being scared.  You will miss some tackles at times but you have to be aggressive and we weren't.  We were VERY aggressive against USC.  And outside of Hall, your talent level is not much better than USC.

Mav, I don't think generally speaking that O'Leary is a bad coach, probably the better way to put it is he's not the RIGHT coach for UCF.  He's very antiquated in his thinking, his offense and defensive systems require superior athleticism at a lot of different positions to succeed.  I also believe his mentality, of a 'if you built it they will come' and this is 'my way or the highway' routine is fine to an extent but he really needs to get his elbows deep in talent evaluation and salesmanship.  He's being out hustled on the recruiting front and lost a few kids he should have had last year.

I question his hunger, his system, and his mentality.  It's not I don't think it will work, or that he's a bad coach, I believe UCF needs a young hungry coach, that is relentless on selling a vision, goes for straight speed, and spreads the field to help you all create mis-matches.  I mean come on Mav, if you hate the offensive system then it's not the OC's fault exclusively.  A HC isn't powerless in deciding the type of offense he wants to run.  Leavitt chose a spread a long timie ago because he knew it would help us be competitive quicker.

As far as the JC and Prep school kid argument.  That's fine, I have no problem with him taking them, however don't declare yourselves on par with Stanford, Notre Dame, who do not take JC transfers.  He needed athletes to be competitive and he went after some quick fixes.  Fine, he's got to win some games and the maturity of the JC's will help.  However, he also needs to be careful that he's not plugging gaps with JC's because of some bigger misses on the HS front.

As far as our game goes.  You guys did try to initial the play.  You guys blitzed real well, but PJ made plays or Hall made plays, or Ponton made plays when the time arose.  You're going to find out soon that USC is really a very bad ball club, and what's worse they have an awful running game under Spurrier.  They seemed to run against you as if they had to, and had two true freshmen running and they looked every bit the part.  Do you realize that in three games they haven't broken 50 yards rushing in a game against anyone.  

Here's a stat for you.  UGA only surrendered 42 yards rushing to USC.  Boise State ran for 178 against UGA, and La-Monroe (a pitiful squad) ran for 103!  That should show you that your run defense against USC, which had their FB Tuman suspended for your game, and two OL- Saint Preaux, and Goddard- and were without another back-up RB.   They still passed for 360 yards on you.   USC gave UCF fans a false sense of security, but the numbers don't lie.  USC has an awful rushing attack, dreadful, and they were missing 6 starters for your game due to injury or suspension.  

I hope that helps.  Again, not trying to be mean but the facts are facts.  Few UCF fans would play, let alone get scholarships on many of the squads you've played, and that includes the JC's, preps, and most of even this latest class.  Help's a long way away, particularly if O'Leary continues on this antiquated format of offensive and defensive play.

The good news is La-La, and Marshall are not good teams.