Picked as almost certain losers against South Carolina, the UCF Knights nearly pulled off the improbable. He’s a quarterback, but he’s kind of different. If there is a black mark on Spurrier’s record here, it’s that none of his teams have ever played for an SEC championship.
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In addition to Nunez, true freshman center Zack Bailey also made his first start, filling in for the injured Alan Knott. Mitch was sidelined the past two weeks and will be out a few more. Where I thought the linebackers failed was in QB containment throughout the game, as well as in outside containment on Pharoh Cooper’s broken play TD.
One of the more notable changes that will be seen is true freshman quarterback Lorenzo Nunez getting the start for the Gamecocks. Nunez had come off the bench against United Kingdom and Georgia. But there could be a place for Perry (Orth) and Michael Scarnecchia hadn’t played yet either.
For now, this is Nunez’s show to run.
“We have to improve”, O’Leary said after the game.
“We’ve got to perform better than we’re performing”, O’Leary said. “That was the best way for us to do it”.
Head coach Steve Spurrier announced that Nunez would get the start against UCF on Tuesday. He has 89 career receptions for 1,410 yards, including 17 catches for 220 yards this season. The play was created to go to star receiver Pharoh Cooper, but Nunez saw tight end Jacob August when he rolled out. It completely turned momentum, too. Central Florida recovered a fumbled punt by Pharoh Cooper on the 1 yard line and ran for a touchdown on the very next play.
Furman had allowed FCS rival Coastal Carolina to amass 488 yards in the first game of the season.
Today’s UCF vs South Carolina college football game has a start time schedule of noon eastern time and airs on TV channel ESPNU. The Gamecocks would span the field for 168 yards on three drives in just four and a half minutes to make the score 28-14. Shell has flipped to left tackle. It’s tough to stop a team from scoring when they have 4 downs to get in the endzone from 1 yard out. Yes there was the drop by Drico Johnson on the first play, but overall the defense held it’s own. But tell me, do injuries decide to run the Wild Knight?
Hoke’s addition hasn’t yielded an immediate turnaround.
The Gamecocks fell 52-20 to Georgia on Saturday night. Freshmenrunning backs Taj McGowan and C.J. Jones will carry the load in traditionalsets for now, after combining for 162 yards on 42 carries, while wide receiver Nick Patti, who has the Knights’ lone rushingtouchdown on the season, is used in wildcat packages. There were also a number of occasions where Schneider had several seconds to throw but no one was open. Moore’s 40 tackles rank third in the SEC.
In an effort to build that confidence, Spurrier and his coaching staff have shaken things up a bit. Holloman promptly intercepted two passes.
As the first half ended for UCF on Saturday, the Knights found themselves in a position they had been in two of their previous three games: atop the scoreboard.
Against Maine Tulane gained 497 total yards and averaged 4.9 yards per rush, finding the end zone four times on the ground.
Forced back onto the field by that series of rapidly stalled UCF offensive drives, the Knights’ defense, holding back South Carolina all game, collapsed. It seems completely reasonable for him to coach three more years and hang it up. Central Florida Knights scored 33.3 points compared to allowed 31.2 points with point differential of 2.2.
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After dropping their last two games, the Gamecocks have seemingly come up with more questions than answers regarding their play.
