UCF, BYU should put up plenty of points
Two of college football’s top offenses will meet in South Florida on Tuesday to close their respective seasons.
The 6-3 UCF Knights and the 10-1 BYU Cougars face off at FAU Stadium in the 2020 Boca Bowl.
Expect plenty of scoring in this one when the game kicks off at 7 p.m. on ESPN. Up to 6,000 people will be in the stands at the 30,000-seat stadium.
As has been the case for the past four years, UCF boasts one of the most productive offenses in college football. The Knights enter Tuesday ranked second nationally in yards per game (585.6), 12th in yards per play (6.84) and fifth in scoring offense (44.3 points per game). They have scored no fewer than 26 points in any game and topped the 50-point mark three times this year.
But UCF, which went undefeated in 2017 and
12-1 in 2018, lost three games for a second consecutive season under coach Josh Heupel. The defeats this year, by a combined 12 points: 34-26 at home against Tulsa on Oct. 3, 50-49 at Memphis on Oct. 17 and 36-33 to eventual
American Athletic Conference champion Cincinnati on Nov. 21.
Sophomore quarterback Dillon Gabriel paces the UCF offense, throwing for 3,353 yards on a 61.7 percent completion rate with 30 touchdowns against four interceptions. Senior Marlon Williams and sophomore Jaylon Robinson have been Gabriel’s primary targets, combining for 122 catches, 1,974 yards and 15 touchdowns.
BYU, meanwhile, has been solid offensively in its own right. The Cougars, who checked in at No. 16 in the final College Football Playoff rankings and whose only loss was a 22-17 defeat to Coastal Carolina on Dec. 5, rank eighth nationally in total offense (510.1 yards
per game) and tied for sixth in scoring offense (43 points per game). Their
7.73 yards-per-play average ranks fourth in the country.
Junior quarterback Zach Wilson, a potential firstround pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, headlines the Cougars’ offense. He’s completed 73.2 percent of his
passes — the second-best rate in the nation behind Alabama’s Mac Jones among quarterbacks who played at least six games — for 3,261 yards and 30 touchdowns against just three interceptions. Running back Tyler Allgeier also has 951 rushing yards on 131 carries (a 7.3 yards
per-carry average) and 12 rushing touchdowns.
But unlike UCF, which is giving up an average of 473.7 yards and 31.4 points per game, BYU has held its own defensively this season. The Cougars are third nationally in points allowed per game (14.6) and ninth in yards allowed per game
(309.5). UCF, however, has the edge when it comes to forcing turnovers, posting a plus-12 turnover margin in nine games compared to BYU’s plus-six mark in 11 games.