Central Florida 11/21 3:30 ESPN

[Lobot]

Really good breakdown of UC at UCF plus some mailbag questions about CFP and NY6 ($).

How Cincinnati’s defense, UCF’s offense are viewed by opposing coaches: G5 Drive
https://theathletic.com/2204181/2020...shared_article

[UC4me]

I will probably change my mind about this 6 more times before game time (and at least twice DURING the game), but I am going with a near repeat 28-24 UC victory.

[swilsonsp4]

The line right now is UC (-5.5), wtth an OU of 63. There will be about 11K fans in attendance, so there will be some noise, but not to the extent that the Cats had to endure in 2018.

Both teams are going to be pumped. But defense (UC advantage) and a strong running game (UC advantage) travel.

Cats, 31-21

[Lobot]

As usual, Fickell did not really speak about injuries. He suggested Ponder, Labelle and co. would most likely give it a go in this game.

[red_n_black_attack]

There has been a lot of member activity on the board recently. I think it's a good time to solicit weekly game predictions.

UC - 45
Knights - 24

Our defense is good and their offense is good. I expect our defense to limit effectiveness, lots of short drives or 3 and outs. They will score a couple of times on broken long plays, but will have trouble sustaining drives. Conversely, Ridder has our offense operating in high gear and I don't see UCF stopping us much. This game won't be as close as the score I predicted because they will still be trying very hard in the closing minutes not to be completely embarrassed at home.

[richard k.]

Time to put or shut up. We've faced the leading offensive team in the country once already this season and now we get to do it again.

UCF is the leading offense in the country by a decent margin. Dillon Gabriel has thrown for 2774 yards, which is 7 yards behind Shane Buechele. Gabriel also has 28 Totals TDs to his name. UCF also has Marlon WiIlliams who is second in the country in receiving yards. Tre Nixon is actually the number one receiver on the team but he's been out with an injury for weeks now. He dressed for Temple but didn't play. I fully expect him to be available for this weekend barring some kind of practice set back. This makes the offense more dangerous than ever with both Nixon and Williams on the field together. I suspect UCF is just going to lob it up against our DBs and draw flags all game if they can't get completions. I think this is a better offensive team than what we faced against SMU even if Tre Nixon doesn't play. UCF is also 18th in the country in rushing average. Their defense however, is suspect and ranked 60th in total defense.

UC is # 3 in the country in total defense currently. If the D wants to continue their streak of no passing TDs in this game, they're really going to have to stay healthy and play well. Having Elijah Ponder for this game will be big. I'm not sure what his status is for Saturday. We've played two of the top passing offenses in the country this year in SMU and Memphis, and one of the top rushing offenses in Army and shut them all down.

The offense is going to have to generate yards on the ground and keep UCF's offense off the field. UC is ranked 14th in rushing average.

This is the one that concerns me - I know Temple historically plays us tough, but they really aren't all that good this year and Tulsa had troubles on their own field against teams we've destroyed. Without some sort of let up, which is hard to foresee, we should win those 2 comfortably. Get by UCF and the prospect of an undefeated league championship becomes very real indeed.