Big win offers plenty to be happy about

UCF began the 2022 season with a 56-10 win over South Carolina State on Thursday night inside FBC Mortgage Stadium.

The Knights and coach Gus Malzahn have plenty to be happy about following the blowout win, but the performance was far from perfect. Here’s what we learned:

1. John Rhys Plumlee is as advertised

The Ole Miss transfer’s ability to run the ball was never in question. It was his passing that faced scrutiny leading up to the season opener.

While there are certainly areas to improve, such as going through more progressions and learning when to throw the ball away, Plumlee showed that he’s more than capable of making passes.

In his first start for the Knights, he finished with 4 passing touchdowns and more than 300 yards through the air. At Ole Miss, Plumlee never came close to 200 passing yards or threw for more than 2 scores once.

The passing yardage came in chunks, too. Plumlee made 7 passes that accounted for 219 of his 308 yards through the air.

As he became more comfortable in the pocket, he was able to extend plays with his feet when it collapsed and during designed quarterback runs.

UCF recorded nine rushing plays of 10 yards or more and Plumlee was responsible for four of them, including a 17-yard gain up the middle in which he broke three tackles to find the end zone.

2. Defense dominant from the jump

While the real test will come next Friday night vs. ACC foe Louisville, the performance from Travis Williams’ side of the ball against S.C. State is noteworthy.

After not recording a sack until the third game last year, the Knights came up with 2 sacks vs. the Bulldogs — one from defensive back Justin Hodges and the other by freshman Nikai Martinez.

And it wasn’t just the sacks that impressed. UCF recorded 50 total tackles, including 9 tackles for loss. In addition, the secondary broke up 5 passes while safety Divaad Wilson recorded the first interception of the season.

By the end of the game, S.C. State had converted just 2 of 18 third-down attempts, only reached the red zone twice and didn’t record 100 yards of total offense.

3. Special teams still needs work

As the offense and defense shined, special teams was lacking. It’s a trend that goes back to last season.

Senior kicker Daniel Obarski missed a 43-yard field goal, punter Andrew Osteen had a kick blocked and Xavier Townsend’s punt return for a touchdown was called back due to holding.

Of course, there was one bright spot on special teams and that came in early in the fourth quarter when defensive back Quadric Bullard blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown.

It was UCF’s first since 2016.