Scott Frost promised #UCFast and #UCFierce for his first season at the helm of the UCF Knights.
The school built a whole marketing program around this new look and this new attitude. They built an entire day — completely with motocross jumps, carnival rides, Vertical Horizon and food trucks — around the excitement of this new era and this new reality. The Knights want to build something exciting and fresh from the ground up.
A school-record 23,147 fans filed through Bright House Networks Stadium to get their first peek of UCF.
What they saw? That is still not entirely clear. The Knights, as they move to an Oregon-style, hurry-up, no-huddle offense are still very much a work in progress. The defense dominated in a 21-10 game won by the gold team that featured incumbent quarterback Justin Holman and expected starting running back Taj McGowan.
The defense was clearly much farther ahead than the much-talked about offense. Whether that means the defense has taken that step forward and can dominate games or was simply better than the offense nobody knows.
The defense was constantly in the backfield, flushing the quarterback — no matter who it was — in the one-touch tackling for the quarterbacks. And that is a problem for an offense all about rhythm and getting rid of the ball quickly.
The Knights had their moments. Holman found Tre’Quan Smith for a 42-yard pass on third down that set up a first-and-goal in the first quarter. Of course, the Knights went backward thanks to a sack and then the kicker slipped and missed the short field goal.
Both offenses started with three and outs. And the team would find its rhythm and then go backward with a penalty or negative play. The team was trying to get to a faster tempo, and there was a concerted effort to do that. But something always seemed to disrupt the rhythm and slow things down. That will be a continued and concerted effort.
At times, it felt like much the same as the winless season UCF was just departing.
Of course it is not though. This is a team still getting down the finer points of an offense that takes a lot of thinking, reading and reacting to what the defense presents. Its first live action in front of an actual defense was going to be a bit of a work in progress.
And with there being no contact, it was hard to tell who had the advantage between Holman and Nick Patti. Holman is still clearly the better thrower, but Patti has better speed to run the read option game. The running back position also still seems very unsettled with McGowan looking fine, but plenty of other options.
The Knights will likely rely heavily on their run game. And the team will be continuing to work on passing to the perimeter for extended hand offs to athletic receivers.
That is the Oregon offense Frost is bringing in a nutshell. The players on the field Saturday are still getting those basics down — both the timing and the reads.
The record crowd though got what it wanted to see. It saw a more aggressive and assertive defense and the beginning and flashes of what this high-powered, fast-paced offense can do when it gets things together. The final play of the game was a 46-yard strike from backup quarterback Garrett Kruczek to tight end Mac Loudermilk. He rumbled into the end zone, carrying a defender across the goal line.
A good taste for a fan base expecting a big offensive revival and anything positive after the winless disaster of 2015.
The Knights gave the fans that. There is definitely more excitement about this program and optimism for the future. Even if there is still a lot of work to do on the field.
