UCF Football Blog

There was a rumor posted today on a Tennessee message board that Phillip Fulmer’s agent was contacted by UCF AD Keith Tribble.  The message board post can be found here.  It’ll be interesting to see if this rumor gains any steam.  It’s interesting that the poster called out UCF.  I would think that if it was a fabricated story, a more nationally recognized school would have been chosen.

The Orlando Sentinel had some O’Leary quotes today here.  O’Leary had this to say,

“The only thing that I am concerned with the running backs is not making use of them all. I don’t think Brynn is at the stage where he should be out there getting all the downs. We are at the stage where we need to keep fresh legs out there. Sometimes Tim (Salem) gets wrapped up so much into play calling. I have instructed him that I want different guys in by series this game. We have to get those different guys in there because they have already played this year. I don’t think it is fair to them to not play them, even though Harvey has really been the one who has shown up in practice. I think the other kids have legitimate potential to help us out.”

This is kind of funny because O’Leary said the same thing on October 6th.  He said the same thing at his Lunch with George back in September.   It’s been over a month since O’Leary first said that he talked to Salem about getting the other backs involved.  I don’t know what to believe anymore.  Brandon Davis has seen limited action (a few carries) and Latavious Murray has been missing for weeks.  I’ll give them credit for getting Brynn Harvey involved, but we need to try these other guys in and get them experience this year so we don’t have inexperience guys in the backfield next year.  Why isn’t Tim Salem listening?  Does George not have control over Salem?

I haven’t watched the ECU game broadcast yet, but I’ve heard that O’Leary was seen yelling at Salem a few times on the sideline.  That can’t be good.

Another sad fact: We haven’t surpassed our offensive yards per game average in the last 3 games.  We had 78 yards against Miami, 187 vs Tulsa, and 224 yards against ECU.  Our average per game for the season is 237 yards per game.  237 yards per game has us solidly at #119 (out of 119) for total offense.

I’ve heard a lot of optimism about the weak defenses UCF is about to face.  We’ve already faced some pretty crappy defenses and we helped raise their ranking with our lack of offense.

If you remove the Division I-AA (Charleston So.) team (126 yards) and UCF (78 yards) from Miami’s defensive stats, Miami would have the 67th ranked defense (instead of their #21 ranked defense).  Last week, before Miami’s game against Duke, Miami would have been ranked #77 without UCF and the I-AA game.

SMU’s (#119) and UTEP’s (#112) best defensive games were against UCF.  UCF has the lowest yardage total against SMU (280) by 185 yards.

If you take out UCF’s yards and the D1-AA team USF (#7 Total Defense) played, USF drops in the defensive rankings to #27, and if you take out #115 ranked FIU also, USF drops all the way down to #43.  USF had the luxury of playing Syracuse (#109) last weekend, and without that game, USF would be ranked #66 in total defense.

I’m hoping our offense turns it around, I don’t want UCF to be responsible for raising the defensive ranking of nearly every C-USA team.

Iliana over at the Sentinel has a blog questioning whether or not Tulsa’s offensive stats are inflated.  I’ve done some research this past week and I think not.  They’ve played some crappy defenses for sure, but New Mexico looks like they aren’t so bad when they aren’t playing Tulsa.

Here are the current defensive rankings of Tulsa’s opponents so far this year.

Here is what the stats would look like without each teams game against Tulsa:

As you can see in the table above, everyone EXCEPT SMU would be improved without the Tulsa stats (I know, it’s obvious).
Tulsa exceeded each teams average yards allowed by a significant amount in each game.  New Mexico would be the 31st ranked defense if it hadn’t played Tulsa.  New Mexico also played some decent teams such as:  TCU, Texas A&M, Arizona, and BYU.  I hope Tulsa doesn’t drop us 20 spots in the rankings.

Here is a funny quote from Mike Price (UTEP’s head coach) “I couldn’t understand in Tulsa why they ever had the nickname `Golden Hurricane,’” Price said. “They’ve never had a hurricane in Tulsa. Until Saturday night. Now I know what it’s like to be in a hurricane in Tulsa, Okla. Not very pleasant for us. (Tulsa has) a tremendous offense, and I truly respect what they’re doing.”

Kevin Smith continues be the only bright spot on the Lions team, and the NFL Network agrees …

Video of his 26 yard touchdown run against Houston can be found here. His run starts at the 45 second mark.  He tried to jump in the stands after the run, I guess he forgot he wasn’t in Detroit.  Detroit fans wouldn’t have known what to do with him anyways.

Released this afternoon, the latest polls are showing some respect to Tulsa. The undefeated Golden Hurricane (7-0) is now ranked and is the Knights next opponent:

• 22^nd in the AP poll
• 19^th in the USA Coach’s poll
• 19^th in the BCS poll

Tulsa is still the top ranked offense (ypg and scoring) in the NCAA after blowing out UTEP 77-35. Tulsa is averaging 624.71 yards per game and 56.57 points per game. And no, that isn’t a typo. Tulsa averages 267 yards on the ground and 357.7 yards in the air. However, Tulsa’s defense is ranked 99^th overall giving up 410.71 yards per game and 80^th in scoring defense giving up 27.1 points per game.

It seems George O’Leary has been hiding since the offensive debacle in Miami. Sure he has time to leave the team to made speeches outside the state, but he has been hiding from the press. He cancelled his availability Sunday for his scheduled press conference and today he ended practice 35 minutes early, allowing him the time to duck Orlando Sentinel reporter Zach McCann.

And what was he doing while making speeches outside the state? Ragging on the very fans that support UCF. Quoted from his Macon Touchdown Club speech:

Talking about angry fans - “They are looooosers,” O’Leary said.

After the Miami game - “I’m leaving Dolphin Stadium, some fan’s yelling and screaming and everything else, I looked at him and I said, ‘How much do you give to UCF?’ He goes, ‘I give $100.’ “O’Leary reached into his pocket and only had a five.”I said, ‘I owe you 95, don’t ever bother me again,’ “.

This, to me, is much worse and more embarrassing to the school than the one fingered salutes. Our multi-million dollar coach is insulting the very supporters of his program. It seems, in his opinion, you’re a loser if you’re unhappy with his team. As if we shouldn’t question why, half way through the season, we have the worst offense (average yards per play) in Division IA football. We rank 119 out of 119 teams.

This on top of Coach O’Leary’s comment at his last luncheon that he doesn’t count his first season at UCF. How convenient as he was 0-11 that year. Let’s all hope that next time we run into Coach O’Leary, he has more than $5 in his wallet.

Here is nice catch made by Corey Rabazinski. Corey broke his leg in the Miami game. I’ve read that his surgery was succesful and he is recovering. I hope he gets well soon and comes back full strength next season.

Here’s a beautiful one handed grab by Kamar Aiken for a touchdown.

I’m just trying to find ways to waste time during the bye week

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