Bulls and Knights both Lose

By on November 24, 2018

Photo-Travis Failey

Tampa, Fla. — It was the same old song and dance on Friday as the UCF Knights earned their 24th straight win, completing the team’s second consecutive undefeated regular season with a 38-10 victory over USF.

“We’re not a very good football team,” Charlie Strong said. “You look at us and we’re very fortunate to have won the seven games that we won. You look at the last five, when you can’t score, when you have to be able to stop people and you give up the big plays, then it’s really hard. It’s all three phases and we have to get better.”

Photo-Travis Failey

Photo-Travis Failey

While the Knights’ victory will surely be celebrated by the UCF faithful, the most impactful event of the night came on a 3rd and 7 run that left UCF QB McKenzie Milton hurt on the field following a hit from USF DB Mazzi Wilkins.

Milton was unable to leave the field under his own power and was carted to the locker room with a knee injury.

“You hate to see that happen to Milton because he’s such a competitor,” Charlie Strong said. “Then he goes down and it happened right in front of our sideline. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and I just hope that he’s able to work his way back through it because it’s a really tough injury.”

Photo-Travis Failey

USF QB Blake Barnett missed another game due to injury and Chris Oladokun started for the Bulls. On his first drive the Bulls offense ran just four plays before punting. By the end of his second drive Oladokun was 5 for 8 with 39 passing yards before a deep pass down the sideline was jumped and intercepted by UCF DB Richie Grant. Brett Kean would enter at QB for USF the next drive.

Photo-Travis Failey

Photo-Travis Failey

USF DB Nick Roberts intercepted a pass from Milton just a few plays later and returned it to the UCF 13-yard line, but the Bulls’ failed to execute and turned the ball over on downs following four consecutive runs between the tackles inside the 10-yard line.

Photo-Jordan Raiff

UCF turned around and went 97 yards to open the scoring just before the end of the first quarter when UCF WR Gabriel Davis brought in a 14-yard score from Milton and the Knights took a lead that they would never surrender. K Matthew Wright would add a field goal in the second quarter before a 40-yard rushing touchdown for Greg McCrae – his first of three total scores on the evening – allowed the Knights to open the scoring up a little bit, now leading 17-0.

McCrae ended the night with 181 of UCF’s 391 total rushing yards on 16 carries.

USF finally got on the board with a late-in-the-half field goal from Coby Weiss, bringing the game to 17-3 and on their next drive, with the clock winding down – to the dismay of many fans in attendance – would take a knee and settle for a 14-point deficit entering the locker room for halftime.

USF would punt their two first drives of the second half and the score remained 17-3 until Oladokun was put back into the game and led a touchdown drive that lasted just 2:48.

Photo-Jordan Raiff

Kean finished the game 8 for 17 with just 36 passing yards.

That would be the last drive of the game that didn’t end in a punt for USF as they were able to cut the UCF lead to seven, but just momentarily as the Knights responded with a lightning fast drive of their own, retaking a two score lead at 24-10.

Photo-Jordan Raiff

Much has been said about the offensive struggles that have plagued the Bulls, averaging just 20.2 points over their five-game losing streak, and much of the blame has fallen on offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert.

“There’s too many fingers being pointed, too many things being said,” RB Johnny Ford said. “It’s not the coaches at all, it’s the players. It’s not the coaches at all. You can call a play eight times and if you execute that play it’s going to work all eight times. You’ve just really got to go out there being focused on executing the plays.

Notable issues with the Bulls’ offense goes back to last season, but it’s hard to argue at this point that there is a significant issue with both game-planning and execution, in addition to a slew of young players on the offensive line. For the good of the USF football program – in both the short and long term – there will have to be significant changes to this team, whether that be staff changes, game-planning to put players in the best position to succeed, or a complete mental overhaul of their preparation and execution, but only time will tell as USF prepares for their eventual bowl game.

UCF added two final rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter and would leave Tampa back-to-back War on I4 winners, but also with arguably the most devastating injury in their program’s history.

Here is where CBS Sports predicts the two teams ending up in post-season play:

USF is projected to play Appalachian State in the Cure Bowl in Orlando.

UCF will play Memphis on December 1st in the American Athletic Conference Championship and is projected to play the University of Florida in the Fiesta Bowl.

FULL TRAVIS FAILEY & JORDAN RAIFF PHOTO GALLERY

UCF Passing
C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT QBR
McKenzie Milton 5/10 86 8.6 1 1 48.3
Darriel Mack Jr. 5/14 81 5.8 0 0 33.8
TEAM 10/24 167 7.0 1 1
South Florida Passing
C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT QBR
Chris Oladokun 7/12 77 6.4 1 1 12.3
Brett Kean 8/17 36 2.1 0 0 14.7
TEAM 15/29 113 3.9 1 1
UCF Rushing
CAR YDS AVG TD LONG
Greg McCrae 16 181 11.3 3 40
Taj McGowan 11 72 6.5 1 20
Adrian Killins Jr. 14 65 4.6 0 21
Darriel Mack Jr. 10 51 5.1 0 13
McKenzie Milton 5 16 3.2 0 5
Bentavious Thompson 2 6 3.0 0 5
TEAM 58 391 6.7 4 40
South Florida Rushing
CAR YDS AVG TD LONG
Johnny Ford 16 120 7.5 0 38
Duran Bell Jr. 7 46 6.6 0 12
Jordan Cronkrite 10 30 3.0 0 10
Chris Oladokun 9 8 0.9 0 22
DeAngelo Antoine 1 5 5.0 0 5
Ryeshene Bronson 1 3 3.0 0 3
Team 1 -1 -1.0 0 0
Brett Kean 2 -15 -7.5 0 0
TEAM 47 196 4.2 0 38
UCF Receiving
REC YDS AVG TD LONG
Gabriel Davis 5 69 13.8 1 38
Dredrick Snelson 2 60 30.0 0 47
Adrian Killins Jr. 1 18 18.0 0 18
Michael Colubiale 1 11 11.0 0 11
Jake Hescock 1 9 9.0 0 9
TEAM 10 167 16.7 1 47
South Florida Receiving
REC YDS AVG TD LONG
Johnny Ford 2 39 19.5 1 34
Mitchell Wilcox 5 38 7.6 0 17
Ryeshene Bronson 2 15 7.5 0 11
Stanley Clerveaux 3 10 3.3 0 4
Tyre McCants 2 8 4.0 0 5
Duran Bell Jr. 1 3 3.0 0 3
TEAM 15 113 7.5 1 34
UCF Fumbles
FUM LOST REC
No UCF Fumbles
South Florida Fumbles
FUM LOST REC
Chris Oladokun 1 0 0
TEAM 1 0 0
UCF Defensive
TACKLES MISC
TOT SOLO SACKS TFL PD QB HUR TD
Nate Evans 10 9 0 1 1 0 0
Pat Jasinski 5 5 0 0 1 1 0
Richie Grant 5 5 0 0 0 0 0
Titus Davis 5 4 0 0 0 0 0
Nevelle Clarke 4 4 0 0 1 0 0
A.J. Wooten 3 3 1 1 0 0 0
Gabriel Luyanda 3 3 1 1 0 0 0
Rashard Causey 3 3 0 0 1 0 0
Joey Connors 3 2 0 0 0 0 0
Eric Mitchell 3 2 0 0 0 0 0
Kyle Gibson 2 2 0 0 2 0 0
Brandon Moore 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
Anthony Montalvo 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
Kenny Turnier 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
Caleb Perez 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Jake Brown 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Brendon Hayes 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Tristan Payton 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Jacob Harris 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Trysten Hill 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Elijah Spann 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Jon Powell 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Keenan Johnson 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Alex Swenson 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Randy Charlton 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Aaron Cochran 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 62 56 4 5 6 1 0
South Florida Defensive
TACKLES MISC
TOT SOLO SACKS TFL PD QB HUR TD
Khalid McGee 13 9 0 0 0 0 0
Greg Reaves 10 7 0 0.5 0 0 0
Naytron Culpepper 8 6 0 0 0 0 0
Mike Hampton 5 5 0 0 1 0 0
Ronnie Hoggins 4 4 0 0 0 0 0
Brandon Boyce 4 3 1 1 0 0 0
Vincent Jackson 4 3 0 1 0 0 0
Josh Black 3 3 0 0 0 1 0
Mazzi Wilkins 3 3 0 0 2 0 0
Kirk Livingstone 3 0 0 0.5 0 1 0
Juwuan Brown 2 2 0 1 0 1 0
Nick Roberts 2 2 0 0 1 0 0
Chris Barr 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
Keirston Johnson 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
Kevin Kegler 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
Dwayne Boyles 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 68 50 1 4 4 3 0
UCF Interceptions
INT YDS TD
Richie Grant 1 0 0
TEAM 1 0 0
South Florida Interceptions
INT YDS TD
Nick Roberts 1 30 0
TEAM 1 30 0
UCF Kick Returns
NO YDS AVG LONG TD
No UCF Kick Returns
South Florida Kick Returns
NO YDS AVG LONG TD
DeAngelo Antoine 2 39 19.5 22 0
Vincent Jackson 2 11 5.5 9 0
TEAM 4 50 12.5 22 0
UCF Punt Returns
NO YDS AVG LONG TD
Dredrick Snelson 2 4 2.0 5 0
TEAM 2 4 2.0 5 0
South Florida Punt Returns
NO YDS AVG LONG TD
Tyre McCants 2 2 1.0 2 0
TEAM 2 2 1.0 2 0
UCF Kicking
FG PCT LONG XP PTS
Matthew Wright 1/1 100.0 42 5/5 8
TEAM 1/1 100.0 42 5/5 8
South Florida Kicking
FG PCT LONG XP PTS
Coby Weiss 1/1 100.0 25 1/1 4
TEAM 1/1 100.0 25 1/1 4
UCF Punting
NO YDS AVG TB IN 20 LONG
Mac Loudermilk 6 282 47.0 1 4 66
TEAM 6 282 47.0 1 4 66
South Florida Punting
NO YDS AVG TB IN 20 LONG
Trent Schneider 9 441 49.0 1 2 57
TEAM 9 441 49.0 1 2 57

 

 

 

 

Categories: College Football, Featured, Football, Sports
Tags: , , , , , ,

0 Comments

You can be the first one to leave a comment.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.