UCF’s second halves this season have been disastrous on both ends. The struggles on both ends to finish have led to the 0-4 record.
UCF’s non-conference season was full of frustration and disappointment. Losses at home to FIU and Furman felts like sure wins and the team failed to come together. The games against Stanford and South Carolina also followed a similar trend.
The Knights have not been able to close the deal and finish things off. Not in the least.
The second half has been their Achilles heel. In reality, as bad as the Knights have played, they have had the lead at halftime in three of the four games they have played this year. Something has gone seriously wrong in the second half.
As UCF prepares for conference season to start, they are trying to figure out what is happening in second halves. George O’Leary told Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel he has some idea:
“What it really comes down to the second half with this team is turnovers, missed tackles and MAs [missed assignments]. There is almost two-and-a-half times as many in the second half than the first half. That’s what’s causing the problems.”
That seems pretty simple to figure. It is like saying they scored more than us. The Knighs have simply not executed in the second halves.
The numbers bear that out too.
| Game | 1st Half Yds. For | 1st Half Yds. Against | 2nd Half Yds. For | 2nd Half Yds. Against | Turnovers 1st/2nd |
| vs. FIU | 141 | 175 | 154 | 191 | 0/0 |
| @ Stanford | 105 | 180 | 135 | 277 | 1/1 |
| vs. Furman | 152 | 102 | 117 | 138 | 1/3 |
| @ South Carolina | 128 | 169 | 107 | 228 | 0/2 |
| Averages | 131.5 | 156.5 | 128.3 | 208.5 | 0.5/1.5 |
UCF is giving up more than one-third more yards in the second half than in the first half so far and have turned the ball over three times more in the second half than the first.
That is not a recipe to keeping leads.
The offense is already painfully and obviously deficient already. The Knights have been simply unable to get yards consistently in either half. The second half things just look a whole lot worse with the defense wearing down and having to carry a load it is not capable of carrying. Especially when the Knights add on turnovers on top of it.
The Tulane game does represent a new season for UCF. The Knights can still compete in the conference and put this terrible non-conference season behind them.
To do that, UCF will have to figure out a way to finish games. And that does mean doing all the seemingly simple and straightforward things George O’Leary prescribed earlier this week.
