South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Early mistakes overcome as Knights rout Pirates
It wasn’t the kind of start UCF coach Josh Heupel and the Knights envisioned when they took the field against East Carolina on Saturday.
Trailing by a touchdown, the Knights began their first offensive possession on their 25-yard line. But a false-start penalty pushed the offense back five yards. And another false-start penalty set them back five more yards. And then another and another.
Four false-start penalties in a row pushed UCF to its 5-yard line before the team managed its first play.
“I’ve never been a part of a first drive like we had right there,” Heupel said.
His team shook off the inauspicious start, with the offense earning 632 yards and the defense generating four takeaways as No. 13 UCF (2-0, 1-0 AAC) ran away from East Carolina (0-1, 0-1 AAC) for a 51-28 road victory in front of mostly empty DowdyFicklen Stadium. The venue was closed to the public due to COVID-19 safety concerns.
“We did some great things throughout this ballgame,” Heupel said of the message he delivered to his team following the win. “You look at the yards offensively that we had, you look at the points that we put up and the ability of our defense to physically dominate the middle part of the football game.
“Enjoy that and we’ll get back on Monday and correct [the other] … things.”
Penalties were a concern for UCF last season and once again the team struggled with those mistakes. The Knights set a school record with 19 penalties for a loss of 139 yards, with eight of the miscues false starts.
The two teams had 30 penalties for a loss of 244 and then we get the first down and drive down and get seven points. That just shows resilience for us. We bounced back and that was the main thing.”
After falling behind 7-0 early, UCF scored 41 consecutive points, including four straight touchdown passes from Gabriel to Jaylon Robinson (2), Jake Hescock (1) and Jacob Harris (1). One of the scores came on a 64-yard play to Robinson, who found himself wide open after a busted coverage.
“[Receivers] Coach [Darrell] Wyatt preaches to play fast and run vertically until somebody stops you and I didn’t see anyone stopping me, so I took it,” said Robinson, who finished with a career-high in catches (9), receiving yards (150) and touchdowns (2). “Speed kills and it scares a lot of people. yards. complete passes. “I thought I was going to
UCF quarterback Dillon “To be honest, man, redrop the ball and I was a Gabriel followed up a caspectfully, I don’t care about little nervous because I was reer-best performance in that,” Gabriel said. “The too wide open, and I didn’t the opener against Georgia main goal was to get a win want to drop it.”
Tech with another strong and that’s all we can do. I’m Robinson wasn’t the only showing. The sophomore proud of the guys and everyreceiver to have a record was 32-of-47 passing (68%) day.oneplayedwell.” for 408 yards and four He said despite the early For the second consecutouchdowns. It was the mistakes, he was impressed tive week, Marlon Williams Hawaii native’s second with how the Knights reled the team in receptions straight game with at least sponded during the first (13) and receiving yards 400 passing yards and four possession. (136). touchdowns. “I think it’s beautiful,” “I thought Marlon did a
At one point in the third Gabriel said. “We started lot of really good things quarter, Gabriel set a school way back — I don’t know when the ball came to him,” record with 18 consecutive how long it was, too long — Heupel said. “I thought he played pretty strong. I thought he played well without the ball in his hands as well and I think that speaks to his maturity.”
While the offense continued its torrid pace, the defense picked up where it left off last week by forcing turnovers. The Knights recovered three fumbles in the first half, giving them six fumble recoveries during their two games this season.
Safety Richie Grant added an interception — his eighth career pick — in the third quarter.
“It was just us playing hard and getting to the ball,” said Grant. “Just practicing our technique and fundamentals like we’ve been doing every week, getting the ball out and covering it up.”
East Carolina quarterback Holton Ahlers was 14-of-29 passing (48%) for 215 yards and three touchdowns, but he threw an interception and gave up a fumble. The Pirates have now lost five consecutive games to the Knights.
UCF returns home this week to host Tulsa at the Bounce House. Kickoff for the Knights’ home opener in front a limited crowd is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The contest is scheduled to air on ESPN2.
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com.