What UCF teaches us about South Dakota
by rencito on Sep 5, 2010 1:21 PM CDT
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GN Note: I moved to front page to at least get USD on our radar. Here is their box score from Saturday.
Not sure if anyone noticed, but our next opponent was in action against another FBS team this past weekend. The Knights of Central Florida (when introduced that way sounds like a fraternal organization--but I digress) hosted the Coyotes of South Dakota. That is right. The Coyotes--not the Jackrabbits who we have gotten used to seeing on the football and basketball schedules and usually put up more of a fight than we expect.
For those who are not fans of Conference USA, the UCF Knights are a decent program coached by George O'Leary who have been to the C-USA conference championship a few times (2005 & 2007) winning it once. They finished second in their division last year with an 8-5 overall record. So how did they do against the Coyotes?
Well, they treated them the way any FBS team with even mild success should treat a FCS (D-1AA) team. They destroyed them. They more than doubled their yards and first downs en route to a comfortable 38-7 win. South Dakota was able to run the ball with some success, totaling 116 yards on the ground at a 4.5 average. They didn't have as much success through the air as they only got to 104 yards on 10/19 passing.
There were no turnovers in the game, so it isn't like UCF just capitalized on mistakes all day. Instead, they just ran the ball down their throats--to the tune of 231 yards and a 5.0 average--and were very efficient passing at 18/22 for 241 yards; a very balanced attack.
This should be another good opponent for the Gophers to execute and impose their will to run the ball. Unfortunately, Brewster has not instilled any sort of killer instinct in his tenure with the team--when have we beat anyone comfortably? Our record against FCS teams is 2-1, with the total score in those three contests just 72-63.
I would like to predict a Gophers blowout, but I don't have the confidence in this team to do so. It will probably end up being much closer than it needs to be, but it won't come down to the final moments. I'm thinking 34-17 with the Gophers getting a late TD to put the game away for good. We will see some more rushing yards amassed, reminiscent of the Barber/Maroney days, along with us continuing to give up yards on the defensive side of the ball. I expect to see some more passing from the offense as a tune up for USC, and thus more of a balanced attack than we saw against MTSU; similar to what UCF was able to do against the Coyotes, but probably not as dominating.
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Sagarin ratings
Non-updated:
Minnesota – 67
UCF – 82
MTSU – 87
USD – 175
I know it doesn’t mean much until the game is played, but the Gophers should be able to handle them pretty easy. Personally, I’d like to see an offensive gameplan similar to MTSU, and a dominating performance on defense.
Rencito asks
when have we beat anyone comfortably? Without going back and looking at schedules, I cannot recall. Thanks for getting us thinking about SD.
FAU in 2008
The closest they got was within 7 at the beginning of the 2nd quarter. We pulled ahead by 13 at the half and pulled away in the 2nd half for a 37-3 victory.
Bowling Green in 2008?
42-17 on the road. It’s the Gophs largest margin of victory to date in the Brewster era.
Keep in mind
That score wasn’t really indicative of how the game went. The lopsided score came from some late BGSU fumbles. The game was close up until then. The original poster was looking for “comfortable” wins, which I define as the game no longer being in doubt going into the last quarter, if not earlier.
Still a great win though! That Bowling Green team was coming off an upset of Pittsburgh and we played them in their house. Pretty decent win IMHO.
by MinnMarchDTF on Sep 7, 2010 11:23 AM CDT up reply actions
Correct
That game was 21-17 going into the 4th quarter and then Bowling Green forgot that hanging onto the ball is important if you don’t want the other team to win. There were 2 fumbles and an interception in the final quarter that led to 21 points for the Gophers—otherwise that was a battle.
Purdue @ Purdue
in 2008 I never felt Purdue had a chance in that game.
"they're calling insane hogs???"
Really?
It was 10-6 entering the 4th quarter. We scored a TD with 6:22 to play to make it a two score game. Theret intercepted a pass in our own end zone to finally end the threat. I would say any game where the outcome is in doubt heading into the 4th quarter is not winning comfortably.
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