Rapid-fire starts are Knights’ calling card
East Carolina coach Mike Houston is hoping his Pirates can pull off a monumental upset this weekend against UCF.
“I think it’s critical to stay in the fight,” the second-year coach said of the challenge his team faces against the No. 13 Knights’ rapid-fire offense.
“We’ve been kind of equating it to Mike Tyson in the early ’90s, late ’80s. He knocked out so many opponents early in the match. It was really until Buster Douglas took him into the later rounds that he finally lost.
“It’s kind of that mentality that you’ve got to compete and go at them from the get-go, not get behind like we did last year, which you’ve seen so much.”
Last season, UCF jumped out to a 35-6 halftime lead before cruising to a 41-28 win over East Carolina.
The Knights (1-0, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) will look to take control early when they face Pirates (0-0) on Saturday in North Carolina. The game kicks off at noon and will air nationally on ABC (WFTV-9).
Tempo has always been key for the Knights, who often score quickly and leave their
opponents flat on the canvas. During coach Josh Heupel’s tenure, 80% of the Knights’ scoring drives have been completed in less than three minutes.
Six of UCF’s seven scoring drives against Georgia Tech on Saturday spanned less than three minutes.
“I think managing the tempo of their offense is something we’re going to have to do a great job with this week,” Houston said.
UCF coaches are focused on setting a quick pace every game.
“Our thing is we’re going to make people try to match our intensity, our tempo, our physicality and things like that,” UCF cooffensive coordinator Anthony Tucker said. “That first year we went up there [2018], I don’t know if we played a defense that played as hard as them.
“They slowed us down in the second half [last season] and I think they came out feeling pretty good about how they finished that game.”
Heupel wants to control the tempo, but he also wants his players to feel comfortable if it takes a bit of time to start scoring.
“Everybody in America wants to start fast and finish strong,” he said. “If it doesn’t happen early in the game, that’s OK too.
“We talk a lot about that as an offense the rock isn’t going to bust wide open right away. It’s OK if it’s not going perfect.”
ECU has lost four consecutive games at home by an average of 16 points per contest dating to last season. The four wins the Pirates earned in 2019 were the most in a season since 2015.
ECU is 5-27 against AAC teams since 2016, with four of those wins
coming against UConn.
Much of success centered on quarterback Holton Ahlers, who finished last season ranked ninth in the FBS in total offense after earning 3,746 yards in 12 games.
The 6 -foot-3, 228-pound passer is a different style and physical build than Georgia Tech quarterback Jeff Sims (6-3, 215), but he is still expected to challenge the Knights defense.
“He’s a bigger kid and he’s just as athletic,” UCF secondary coach Willie Martinez said. “He can run, he has good awareness and he plays off schedule, which is tough on defenses. He makes good decisions.
“We’ve got our hands full because it’s his third year. He knows us and we know him.”
Ahlers combined for 360 yards against the Knights last season, leading his team to 24 secondhalf points.
“We have something to prove because we didn’t play very well in the second half when we played them,” Martinez said. “He’s made a lot of good plays against us in the last two years against us.”
Added senior linebacker Eric Mitchell: “ECU is a great team. We treat them like any other team we want to play. We don’t treat them lightly.”