Knights set to face Owls
Speedy UCF, FAU see similarities in each other
Fast and athletic are words commonly thrown around a lot while discussing the UCF football program.
But when the Knights take the field at Spectrum Stadium tonight, they’ll see a lot of themselves in their opponent: FAU.
“I think they're similar that they’re athletic and they fly around the football,” UCF coach Josh Heupel said when asked for any similarities between the two teams.
“That's certainly what we want to be known for and they certainly represent them.”
No. 16 UCF (2-0, 1-0 American Athletic Conference) is second in the nation in total offense (609) and 15th in scoring offense (47.0) while FAU (2-1, 0-0 Conference USA) ranks No. 32 in total offense (469.3).
Owls coach Lane Kiffin has been impressed by what he’s seen out of UCF, which owns the nation’s longest win streak at 15 games.
“I told the staff, after watching these guys, both sides, I feel like we are playing an SEC team, height, weight, speed, the size of the guys and stuff is like playing an SEC opponent,” he said earlier this week.
The Knights continue to live up to the UCFast motto this sea-
with 13 of the team’s 14 scoring drives spanning less than 2:39. It includes five touchdown drives that have lasted less than a minute. On the flip side, seven of FAU’s 15 scoring drives lasted less than 2:23, with two touchdown drives spanning less than a minute as well.
Speed, however, isn’t limited to just the offensive side of the football for both of these teams.
“They have the ability to make plays on the defense side of the ball,” Heupel said of the FAU defense, which ranks No. 108 in the Football Bowl Subdivision. “They're aggressive. They fly to the football.”
UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton is already aware of just how good the Owls’ defense can be.
“They're fast and they’ve got a lot of playmakers on defense,” said Milton, who has thrown six touchdown passes so far this season. “I'm very impressed with their middle linebacker, No. 2 Azeez [Al-Shaair]. He's flying to the ball on every snap I see on film, and that goes for the rest of the defense too.
“I think what we will be able to do some things to score points but you know it's not going to be easy.”
Al-Shaair, a senior, already holds the school record for career tackles (371), solo tackles (187) and is just four assisted tackles away from the FAU record.
Meanwhile, Milton, who was the American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year last season, has the Owls’ attention.
“They are second in the country in offense or something like that. They go up extremely fast and he is a really special player and they are really good all around him,” Kiffin said of the Knights playmaker, who has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 16 straight games. “[He’s got] really great touch and [he] makes a ton of plays out of rhythm, scrambling around. Really, really special player making so many plays down the stretch [in] some tight games where he made some huge plays.”
UCF’s defense must prepare for FAU running back Devin Singletary, who earned preseason Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year honors after leading the league in rushing with 1,920 yards and 32 touchdowns last season.
Singletary has rushed for just 210 yards this season, but he leads the country in rushing touchdowns (7). He’s currently riding his own streak: 16 consecutive games with at least one rushing touchdown.
Outside of Singletary, the FAU offense revolves around the play of quarterback Chris Robison, a redshirt freshman transfer from Oklahoma who is making his fourth career start this weekend.
“He is going to have to play great for us in this game because obviously, those guys are really good,” Kiffin said.
“There is a reason they having the longest winning streak in the country. They were a lot better on deson fense than they got credit for because the yards were up there because they play so many snaps. Outside of that last Memphis game, there were a lot of games where people weren't scoring a lot of points against them.”