UCF paper: "Blindsided"

[Jim Johnson]

From the Central Florida Future....

Blindsided

Knights' mistakes come back to haunt them in 24-17 loss to USF; Kevin Smith suspended prior to game

By: Chris Hoyler

So much for a home-field advantage.

In front of a crowd of 46,708, the third-largest Citrus Bowl crowd in UCF history, the small contingent of South Florida fans made the difference at the end, causing problems for a UCF offense that failed on a do-or-die fourth down at the USF 10 and lost 24-17 Saturday.

The Knights drove 70 yards in 2:46, but stalled inside the USF 20 and ended up with the fourth-and-six situation and 30 seconds remaining. Bulls' defensive end Chris Robinson broke through the outside to hit quarterback Steven Moffett, forcing a fumble and a turnover on downs.

"No. 85 gave it up," UCF coach George O'Leary said of tight end Mike Merritt's blocking mistake.

After the game, O'Leary was convinced the play was the perfect call, and it seemed that receiver Mike Walker, who finished with 12 catches and 133 yards, was open in the end zone.

"Oh, hell yeah, It's wide-open and (Moffett) is sitting there pumping the ball, and the tight end lost his protection," O'Leary said. "He was wide open and just one more second and the ball was gone.

"Great game to coach. We had the timeout saved to stop the clock and everything would have worked out well, but it didn't happen."

Nothing worked out well for the Knights and missed opportunities and mistakes ruled the day.

The biggest mistake came before the game, when running back Kevin Smith violated a team rule and was suspended for the game.

"No one person is more important than the integrity of this game," O'Leary said. "I don't have many rules, but the ones I have people are going to listen to. You make decisions in life and he made a bad one. That's why it's the ultimate team game."

Senior Jason Peters and true freshman Phillip Smith did their best to fill in for the star sophomore, with Peter carrying the ball a career-high 20 times for 98 yards and Smith carrying six times for 32 yards.

"I thought Jason did all right," O'Leary said. "He got tied up a couple of times with his feet out there and probably Kevin would have been gone in the open field.

"I think the other kid, Phillip Smith, went out there and did a decent job for a true freshman filling in. I was pleased with them."

Peters said he was disappointed in Kevin Smith, but that he'd accept the bulk of the rushing responsibility for however long he'd have to. According to O'Leary, that may have only been Saturday, as Smith received "a one-game suspension."

"I'm very disappointed," Peters said. "But as a team, we gotta play. Phillip did a great job and stepped up, he had some good runs, some strong runs. So, I'm not sure when Kevin comes back, we just have to get everything back on the ball and rolling and making sure we do good."

Peters and Smith had some holes to run through thanks to an improved effort from the much-maligned offensive line. Earlier in the week, O'Leary graded their season performance a 'D'. He was guarded in his praise, though.

"Without looking at the game film, I thought the offensive line did a lot better in certain areas," O'Leary said. "I think they got soft a little bit on some protections later in the game. They progressed from where they were last week and they need to continue doing that."

The Bulls took a 7-0 lead with 6:52 remaining in the first quarter on a Matt Grothe 7-yard touchdown strike to Marcus Edwards, who had plenty of open space on a crossing route in the middle of the field.

The seven-play, 79-yard drive was a harbinger of things to come for the USF offense, which had seven more drives of six plays or greater.

Grothe, a true freshman starting just his second game, made the Knights pay with his feet. He broke several tackles in the backfield and opened up the middle of the field with a series of successful option and draw runs. He finished as the Bulls leading rusher with 73 yards on 21 carries, taking all the hits the Knights defense could dish out.

"Tough kid, he did a good job last week and I give him credit," O'Leary said.

UCF kicker Michael Torres converted his first field goal this season from 22 yards out, and with the Knights down 7-3 late in the first half, receiver Willie Thornton broke through man-to-man coverage and caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Moffett to give the Knights a 10-7 lead.

It looked as if UCF would get the ball back with 1:09 remaining in the first half, with USF facing fourth and 20 at their own eight. But Blake Carter leveled punter Delbert Alvarado on his follow through, receiving a 15-yard personal foul and allowing USF to run out the clock.

"Oh, mother goose. We went in there and said 'Whatever you do, don't touch him, we just want the ball in great field position,'" O'Leary said. "That cost us points big time. When I said not playing smart, that's not playing very smart on special teams. Especially when I heard the special teams coach tell him 'Whatever you do, don't touch him, don't touch the punter.' I guess he doesn't know what that means."

Mike Benzer connected on his first career field goal from 30 yards out as time expired in the third quarter, tying the game at 10 after Torres hooked a 35-yard attempt wide right earlier in the quarter.

"I was concerned about that kid (Torres)," O'Leary said. "I've got to look at that situation, he's missed two now that are chip shots and I'm not going to put up with that much longer. We'll look at it this week and see what's up. I don't think he's trying to miss, I just don't think he's finishing his kicks, from what I can see on the sideline."

The first drive in the fourth quarter gave USF all they needed to retake the lead. Moffett was sacked on third and five, setting up Aaron Horne's worst punt of the day, a 33 yard floater that put the Bulls in UCF territory.

Four plays and 46 yards later, Grothe hit running back Ben Williams in the end zone for a two-yard touchdown. UCF promptly hit the field and doubled up their futility from the previous drive, going back 10 yards on three plays and giving the Bulls another possession in Knight territory.

"That's one thing we have to work on," Moffett said. "What Coach was saying, we have to learn how to sustain and play a great game.

"We can't be so sporadic and come out and have three great drives and then come out and have three bad drives. We have to be consistent."

USF was forced to punt after picking up a first down, but Alvarado could not field a ground-ball snap. Linebacker Jordan Richards was in his face before he could recover, blocking the kick and setting up a 31-yard touchdown for Carter, making up for his earlier error.

Grothe came back out and immediately took control of the game, picking up 47 yards on three consecutive plays, including 40 rushing yards. He delivered the final blow when he escaped the UCF pass rush again and rolled to his right, finding a wide open Ean Randolph in the back right corner of the end zone for the game-winning 27-yard touchdown.

"That's very difficult, that's the worst feeling ever," cornerback Joe Burnett said. "All we talk about is pass rush, pass rush and getting some time so we can take care of coverage. Give us at least a second, contain them in the pocket and then when he gets outside the pocket and throws it down deep, (people) are like 'Oh, man, the coverage, it's all on the coverage now.' But, all in all it's a time thing so we just have to stay together."

O'Leary singled out safety Sha'reff Rashad and cornerback Emery Allen for letting Randolph break contain and get behind them.

USF improves to 3-0 on the season. UCF (1-2) will now move on to Conference USA play against Southern Miss on Sept. 26. It's the same record they had in non-conference play last season, when they were 7-1 in C-USA.

"We learned that we can bounce back especially after that loss at Florida," Peters said. "We are not a team that when we lose, we are going to be on a losing streak. We bounce back, they just outscored us today."

Center Cedric Gagne-Marcoux had a slightly different sentiment.

"It doesn't really matter because we didn't win," he said. "I think we improved at some points, we played harder and we did some better things but we still have to improve."

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[WoolyBully]

Not too dissimilar than "Knights Radio" on the way back from the game.  But let's not forget,

the lump sum of UCF's second half scoring came from recovering a botched punt within walking

distance of the endzone.  Interesting to see, through the season, if they do "bounce back".

[windbane]

geez, how many players can O'leary blame for the loss?

[Guest Ari_Hinkelberger]

They said Grothe was a "true freshmen."  

incorrect.

red-shirt freshmen.

[CRBULL]

Was the title of the article referring to USF vs UCF or O'Leary vs players on his team?.......

[MikeG]

"No. 85 gave it up," UCF coach George O'Leary said of tight end Mike Merritt's blocking mistake.

O'Leary singled out safety Sha'reff Rashad and cornerback Emery Allen for letting Randolph break contain and get behind them.

"I was concerned about that kid (Torres)," O'Leary said. "I've got to look at that situation, he's missed two now that are chip shots and I'm not going to put up with that much longer. We'll look at it this week and see what's up. I don't think he's trying to miss, I just don't think he's finishing his kicks, from what I can see on the sideline."

O'Leary sure likes to throw all his players under the bus. I think I rather have Leavitt's lack of praise than this approach. And his players follow suit with their comments

[Matt]

yea thats one thing i noticed about reading that article, is just about every quote from their coach is about a specific player and how bad they did.

[___ Eats It]

Jim may be a crazy, emotional mofo who looks like he's going to snap at any minute, but I've never... NEVER... heard him throw a kid under the bus.

[E.T.]

Man ! 2 weeks in a row.

O'Liar is just shameless ... asked Biatchie about this ... wondering when he will write about that.

The media has loved Georgie so far, but they need to expose him on these statements.

Just SOFA KING sad for a coach to bash his players in the media  

[BullsWinBucsWin]

In front of a crowd of 46,708, the third-largest Citrus Bowl crowd in UCF history, the small contingent of South Florida fans made the difference at the end, causing problems for a UCF offense that failed on a do-or-die fourth down at the USF 10 and lost 24-17 Saturday.

What game was this dude watching?