What We Learned Against Tulsa

Analysis of the five important things and what to watch, as compared with our final preview.

Five most important things for UCF:

1. Win time of possession. UCF dominated TOP in the first half, which was a great sign. They kept the TOP battle close in the second half, but Tulsa felt no need to mess around, and elected to have quick scoring drives.

2. Torrell Troup needs to have a big day. Troup played well, but not nearly as dominate in previous games, he was held quite a bit, but a few missed holding calls didn't effect the outcome much.

3. Win field position battle. Again, they did this well in the first half. The second half was another story, ten yard punts didn't help with winning field position.

4. Win the turnover battle. They tied this one, which is more than we can say for most other statistics.

5. Keep the crowd out of the game. UCF successfully did just that for the first half, as several Tulsa fans even left at half; too bad they didn't know how many opportunities they would have to stand and cheer after intermission.

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What to look for:

1. Look for Knights to stay balanced on offense. 48 rushes to 16 passes, about as balanced as me after Cinco de Mayo.

2. Look for the stable of RB’s to play. Harvey, Weaver, and Davis all saw playing time. Harvey showed off his potential with a big day on the ground.

3. Look for special teams to make a big difference. Blake Clingan had by far his worst performance, and Tulsa refused to kick to Joe Burnett, essentially keeping the ball out the Knights biggest offensive threat.

4. Look for the Knights to beat the spread. They somehow managed to turn a 5 point lead at half into a 30 point loss, losing to the 24 point spread. That is a special achievement, it is not easy to give up 35 unanswered points in a half.

5. Look for Michael Greco to have a big game. He may have been involved in the play call of Watters first TD catch, and motivated the team thoroughly from the sideline. His -2.5 ypc average and 0-1 passing did not effect the game quite as much as one would think, but he had some great handoffs to Brandon Davis as the Knights ran out the clock.