2022 Statistics, Thoughts and Questions: UCF Defense
Now that UCF has finished the 2022 regular season, including the 45-28 loss in the American Athletic Championship game, it’s time to begin digging into the units and see what went right and what did not.
First up, it’s the defense that needs to be looked at. The UCF statistics have been laid out below. There’s also plenty of subjective material to be discussed. Keep in mind, this was brought together from a team perspective; individual awards will be coming soon.
Defensive Statistics
(national ranking)
Scoring Defense: 23.2 (39).
Total Defense: 382.6 (71).
Rushing Defense: 156.5 (76).
Passing Defense: 226.1 (73).
Red Zone Defense: 68.5% (5).
Fumbles recovered: 17 (17).
Interceptions: six (109).
Sacks: 22 (95).
Third Down Defense: 37.2% (57).
Plays of 20 or more yards: 62 (98).
Passing Defense
Obviously, UCF’s passing defense underachieved. Considering the experience that came back in the secondary, as well as along the defensive line, UCF’s passing defense failed to accomplish the goals it needed to reach with interceptions or sacks.
Six interceptions? That’s a glaring failure that cannot happen again. Only 22 sacks proved to be shocking. Again, there was ample experience. No excuses.
There were also too many times where opposing wide receivers ran basic routes and were just wide open. It's hard grasp why that happened. Other times, however, UCF's defensive backs looked really good. Again, hard to comprehend what happened.
Rushing Defense
Before going too far into this category, know that UCF's linebacker corps was short on numbers coming into 2022. Defensive coordinator Travis Williams had a tough task there. That hurt the overall results. That stated, there were questions that needed to be asked despite the lack of depth.
UCF had an incredible rushing defensive performance versus Cincinnati, allowing only 35 yards on the ground. The Bearcats could not move the football consistently. Now, why was that a one-time deal?
In particular, UCF has been awful at containing mobile quarterbacks (in 2021 as well). Part of that blame must be laid at the feet of the players. They know that mobile signal callers, like Louisville’s Malik Cunningham, want to be outside the pocket, yet too many times UCF defenders took poor angles and allowed quarterbacks to get to the edge of the defense.
It’s also a coaching issue that must be corrected. There’s plenty of blame to go around, once a person looked back at the quarterbacks that ran for big plays against the Knights. Now, onto more about the overall rushing defense.
UCF also sits with games that allowed the following rushing totals: Louisville (226) and Florida Atlantic (188) from early in the season, and then the last five games are also concerning with the following rushing totals allowed: Memphis (149), Tulane (155), Navy (248), USF (298), and Tulane again (254) showed a pattern of decline.
If a person wants to throw out the Navy game because of the triple-option attack, go ahead. That still does excuse UCF’s awful run defense for much of the other four games to conclude the 2022 season, especially USF and Tulane in the AAC title game.
Point blank, the Knights were flat out run over for much of the last two games. It was hard to watch. Now, here’s the reality.
UCF does not have enough top-shelf defensive line talent to consistently rotate in the bodies that can be difference-makers by Power 5 standards. That’s where UCF stands today. More about that once the 2023 commitments sign and there’s more regarding the Transfer Portal as well. Both categories will be huge for UCF, so stay tuned for more about both during the next few weeks.
More Defensive Notes
The third down defense, and especially the red zone defense, were good. It’s hard to understand how those mix in with the low interception total and sack total, but it sure did. Hats off for jobs well done.
The one category where UCF really improved throughout the season was fumble recoveries. The Knights pounced on the football well, the more the season moved forward. That’s important because it showed the UCF defenders were hustling.
Final Thoughts
Moving forward, UCF needs more talent. That’s blatantly obvious with UCF heading to the Big 12 Conference and playing better competition. It also needs to address issues that took place in 2021 and 2022, i.e. defending dual-threat signal callers being at the top of the list.
The good news stemmed from how UCF did add more talent for 2022, and there’s a bigger influx of talent coming from recruiting and the Transfer Portal for 2023. UCF’s defense will look much, much different come next fall.
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