Thoughts and Questions: UCF at Tulane
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After the emotional 46-39 War on I-4 win for the UCF Knights, how ready will they be to go into game mode and play at the Tulane Green Wave?
Everyone will find out soon enough. UCF’s 9-3 regular season leads it to a chance to earn a New Year’s Six Bowl. Here are the opening thoughts about the contest.
Chance to prove UCF will be ready for prime time.
Yes, this is a game to help finish off the 2022 season strong. It’s also a chance for UCF to show its capable of rising to the occasion not only in 2022, but beyond.
The Big 12 will be far more difficult than the American Athletic Conference. There will be three, four and even five-game stretches of playing teams that go to bowl games; some of those teams will be competing to reach the College Football Playoff.
To go on winning streaks against that type of talent, it takes mental toughness in conjunction with physical talent. That starts right now with the ability to go from War on I-4 celebration mode and back to the grind of preparing for the team that won the regular season AAC title.
Most notably, will UCF come out fast? The Knights sure did the last time they faced off with the Green Wave. Let’s see if they can do that again, and do so with the added burden of coming off the emotional win against USF.
Speaking of emotion, Tulane head coach Willie Fritz to Georgia Tech?
By the time this article has hit the internet, it may already be a done deal. History has shown a wide array of outcomes when a head coach or coordinator is leaving for another job.
How will the Tulane players react to Fritz leaving for Georgia Tech, if it does indeed happen? Further, would Fritz stay and coach through the AAC title game? UCF needs to be ready for any type of emotion that Tulane displays.
The UCF quarterback situation needs answers, and there's good news as well.
With John Rhys Plumlee’s hamstring injury to Mikey Keene coming off the bench, there’s much to digest from the USF game. Now, which quarterback takes the first snap for the UCF offense against Tulane?
There’s really nothing more that the media or the general public know at this point about Plumlee’s injury. Plumlee may need a day or two to figure it out.
With that, consider the following as a point to ponder. UCF has won with Plumlee as well as Keene throughout an entire game. Now, UCF has shown for a second time with the War on I-4 – with the Cincinnati game as the second piece of evidence – that it can go from Plumlee to Keene and come out with a win. That’s a positive.
Rush defense must improve.
Missed tackles, poor angles to the ball carrier, not getting off blocks, and allowing runners to plow forward after contact were all a part of what USF did to UCF. The Bulls rushed for 298 yards and 6.9 yards per carry.
Now imagine what Tulane and future NFL running back Tyjae Spears will do.
Here are the statistics for Spears through 12 games: 1,177 yards, 6.2 yards per carry, and 14 touchdowns. He’s also on a six-game streak of at least 121 yards rushing, including 130 yards against the Knights (Nov. 12) from only eight carries, a whopping 16.3 yards per carry average.
Add in the fact that Tulane has a quality passing attack that UCF must respect, and it’s going to be a tall order for the Knights to slow down Spears.
Which players step up?
Not many people likely picked Alec Holler to make the game-winning catch against USF. That’s been a part of UCF’s history though. Players come up big out of the blue.
Which players come up big versus Tulane?
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