Navy at UCF: Xavier Arline or Maasai Maynor starts at QB?
Now that the UCF Knights have moved up in the AP Top 25 Poll after defeating the Tulane Green Wave, there's a totally different task ahead.
It’s hard enough to prepare for the Navy's triple-option attack when the UCF coaching staff knows which specific quarterback to prepare for. With Xavier Arline suffering what appeared to be an ankle injury versus Notre Dame and missing the latter half of the fourth quarter against the Fighting Irish, the Knights will be preparing for two different signal callers.
Worse, two different styles of signal callers.
That’s awkward. For years, many college coaches have commented about needing two weeks to truly prepare for the triple option. The Knights will get one week. Further, now they are prepping for Arline, a traditional option runner, as well as Maasai Maynor, more of a passer.
More specifically, Maynor has proven to be a player that Navy can be more conventional with by spreading out teams and throwing the football a little bit.
Now, Maynor has not been anything like Bryce Young from Alabama. He’s pedestrian in comparison. It’s just the point that Navy still runs option plays with Maynor behind center. It’s a conundrum for how to defend the Midshipmen if he’s the quarterback in the game.
In particular, UCF will need to still account for the fullback dive. Navy's fullback Daba Fofana produced 635 yards and six touchdowns on the ground this year. More on him later this week, but keep in mind that the Midshipmen will use his abilities regardless of which quarterback he's playing with. That brings up another interesting topic about how UCF lines up.
UCF will have some challenges with not only how to align its defensive players if Maynor comes into the contest, but which players will play in which spots. Against an option team, it’s common for safeties to play in different positions than usual. Same with linebackers. There’s less threat of the pass, so it’s like the UCF defense starting from scratch.
This wrinkle with Maynor being more of a passer, yet Navy still using the fullback dive and triple-option plays, will likely add to the difficulties. Again, that’s assuming he’s the quarterback.
Who knows? Maybe Navy plays both quarterbacks.
Here are the rushing and passing statistics for Arline followed by the same statistics for Maynor:
Arline rushing: 50 attempts, 250 yards, five yards an attempt, and two touchdowns.
Arline passing: three for nine, 30%, 60 yards, 20 yards per attempt, one touchdown and one interception.
Maynor rushing: 10 attempts, minus-two yards, for a -0.2 average, and one touchdown.
Maynor passing: seven of 12, 58.3%, 132 yards, 11-yard average, one touchdown and zero interceptions.
A couple points from those statistics that stuck out start with Arline. He’s played in seven games yet only thrown nine passes. Navy’s coaching staff obviously preferred for him to run the football. Just by watching him throw, it was obvious that he's not a natural passing quarterback.
Just the opposite, Maynor has played in only two games. Against the Irish, he led the Midshipmen during two drives, but looked much more comfortable throwing the football than Arline.
No matter what injury information comes out about Arline’s injury situation, defensive coordinator Travis Williams, the UCF coaching staff overall, and the players will need to be ready for two completely different signal callers and offenses from Navy on Nov. 19.
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