The Central Florida offense draws quite a bit of attention. The Knights’ offense is averaging over 600 yards and 50 points per game. It’s the calling card for this season and it has been the calling card for the program during its recent run of brilliance.
Since the beginning of the 2017 season, UCF is 28-1 with two AAC championships, a Peach Bowl victory, and two consecutive AP top-12 finishes. The Knights are for real, and they don’t appear to be a fluke, either.
Still, all you hear about is that offense. People might forget that their defense can play too. The Knights have the 13th-ranked defense in the nation heading into Saturday's 3:30 kickoff with Pitt at Heinz Field. UCF actually leads the country in tackles for loss with 34 stops behind the line of scrimmage. This unit plays fast and aggressive, and they have experience at all three levels.
Senior defensive linemen Brendon Hayes is a disruptive force up front with a team-high two sacks. Senior linebacker Nate Evans has 18 tackles, and leads UCF with four of those coming for loss. Nevelle Clarke (4 PBU's) and Richie Grant (15 tackles) are two veteran standouts in the secondary as well.
So when Pitt offensive coordinator Mark Whipple was asked about trying to keep pace with the well-regarded Knights’ fast-paced offense, he showed more concern with the defense.
"Honestly I haven’t had time to look at them,” Whipple said of the UCF offense. "I watch a lot of offense in the summer, but they’re so good defensively and they create turnovers. They lead the country in tackles for loss, so we’re just trying to get our plan tight.”
Pitt has had trouble establishing the running game this year, so facing a team that leads the country in tackles for loss is obviously a major concern for a coordinator trying to put up points and get consistency from his offensive line.
“They’re good at one-on-one’s, they’ve recruited really well, they got speed and Coach (Randy) Shannon and I coached together for two years and he’s got a really great defensive mind,” Whipple said of the UCF defense.
UCF might not rank up their year after year in the recruiting rankings, but make no mistake about it - this is a very talented team. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi thinks there is a pretty simple explanation for the easy amount of success this program has seen of late.
“It's called of state of Florida, okay, and it's one of the reasons we go down there and recruit,” Narduzzi explained. “You look at a Vince Davis you can pull out of there, they've got a bunch of Vince Davis’ down there. They're in the backyard, they're all coming to camp. It's population. It's playing the sport year-round. It's an advantage down there. They can get guys to walk on that a lot of people are scholarship-ing. They're just laying there.”
Pitt senior wide receiver Maurice Ffrench went up against UCF last year and the Knights beat Pitt rather handily 45-14. He saw the speed and athleticism up close and personal.
“One thing about UCF is that they keep their home-kids in and they’re all fast and aggressive as well,” Ffrench said. “And just going at them we have to be smart and make sure we hold our details in and do our job and we’ll be fine.”
UCF’s offense may catch a lot of the headlines, but for a Pitt offense that has had its fair share of struggles this season - it could be the UCF defense that proves to be an equally as difficult of challenge on Saturday.
