Half measures sink Cougars
UH led 23-21 at halftime before Knights scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter
ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida wore space-themed jerseys for Saturday’s game against the University of Houston.
Then it was blast off in the third quarter.
The Knights scored 21 straight points after halftime, turning a rare deficit into a 44-29 win at Spectrum Stadium.
UH (3-6, 1-4 American Athletic Conference) lost for the fifth time in the last 13 seven games and is on the verge of just the program’s third losing season in the 14 last 15 years.
“We ran out of gas,” UH coach Dana Holgorsen said. “We’re running out of people. We’re running out of bodies. We’re running out excuses. We’re running out of everything.”
As part of the special game day attire, UCF’s helmet designed featured the light and dark side of the moon, a nod to the region’s role in space exploration with Cape Canaveral just 50 miles from campus.
The design could aptly describe the Cougars’ tale of two halves.
Holgorsen called the Cougars’ first-half performance “perfectly executed,” and few could argue as they marched 75 yards on the opening drive and led by as many as 10 points. UH scored on five of seven possessions, including three field goals from 45, 37 and 41 yards by Dalton Witherspoon. Mulbah Car ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns as part of 357 total yards. The Cougars led 23-21, only the second time all season the Knights have trailed at halftime.
“To beat a team like this, when you have opportunities to jump on them you better get up when you can get up,” Holgorsen said. “(UCF) came out and played their tail off in the second half.”
Out of the break, UH managed just six yards in the third quarter, as the Knights turned the small deficit into a 42-23 lead.
“We sucked,” Holgorsen said of the third quarter. We didn’t block and tackle.”
The rest of the second half was no better. The Cougars finished with 62 yards after halftime and kept from going scoreless when Jeremy Singleton got a foot in bounds in the back of the end zone with 2:52 left. Five UH drives in the second half resulted in punts and another after a failed fourth-down try.
“They threw some blitzes at us, stuff we hadn’t seen, and we just didn’t adjust to it as well as we needed to,” said quarterback Clayton Tune, who was 18-of-30 for 179 yards and a touchdown. “We’re waiting for it to turn.”
One second-quarter possession could foreshadow what was to come for UH, as Tune was intercepted by UCF cornerback Nevelle Clarke at the goal line with 10:16 left.
“Just a bad read,” Tune said. “I tried to force it. I didn’t want to take a sack on third down.”
UCF’s hyper-drive offense needed just 70 seconds to cover 98 yards, with one big play after another. A 36-yard catch by Gabriel Davis. A 32-yard run by Brandon Wimbush. A 22-yard touchdown run by Dillon Gabriel.
“If they are backed up on the (2yard line) the defense has to go out there and stop them,” Holgorsen said.
UCF (7-2, 4-1 AAC) took the lead for good on Bentavioius Thompson’s 43-yard run up the middle early in the third quarter and padded the lead on a 34-yard strike from Dillon Gabriel to Tre Nixon. A 42-yard, over-the-shoulder catch by Jacob Harris set up a 2yard run by Thompson to wrap up the Knights’ third-quarter dominance. Gabriel finished 21of-30 for 298 yards and three touchdowns for UCF, which has not lost at home in nearly three years. Nixon was Gabriel’s favorite target with six catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns.
UCF has outscored its last two opponents, East Carolina and UH, by a combined 56-7 in the second half and allowed 81 total yards.
“For some reason we kind of come out a little sluggish and not feeling it and we’ll step up in the second half against top-notch teams,” UCF weakside linebacker Nate Evans said. “Houston is not a top-notch team.”
In a fitting ending, Tune’s fifth sack resulted in a safety with 1:34 left in the game. UCF’s defense also produced 17 tackles for loss.
With Patrick Carr still recovering from a second knee procedure, Mulbah Car got his first career start. He scored on a 37-yard romp on the game’s opening drive and added a 2-yard score to put the Cougars ahead 17-7 late in the first quarter. It will likely be the last time Car is used this season; he’s played in four games, the cutoff for a player to preserve a year of eligibility. And what an impression he left: 268 rushing yards in the last two games against SMU and UCF.
UH has an open date before a closing stretch that includes Memphis, Tulsa and 90 Navy. At this point, the necessary six wins for bowl eligibility seems like in a “Galaxy far, far away.”
“We just keep on going,” safety Deontay Anderson said. “One thing I know: we’re racking up Ls, but we are playing hard. Like the coaches say it’s going to turn around one day.”