UCF Preview
October 29, 2003 02:54 PM | General
October 29, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez believes Central Florida quarterback Ryan Schneider is the key to their team.
And for good reason, Schneider is one of the most prolific passers in NCAA history. The 6-foot-2, 230-pound senior from Plantation, Fla., is tied for 14th place with Drew Brees (Purdue) and Joe Adams (Tennessee State) in NCAA history with 81 career touchdown passes and is 16th in career yards with 10,723. He has a chance of becoming one of just seven players to throw for more than 12,000 career yards when his career is finished.
Schneider is also the most prolific passer in Central Florida history, surpassing a pretty good UCF quarterback in Daunte Culpepper.
Last year as a junior Schneider set the school single-season passing mark with 3,770 yards in leading the Golden Knights to a 7-5 record.
This year, Schneider has picked up where he left off despite battling a nagging shoulder injury. He topped his previous school record of 440 passing yards last year against Syracuse with a 497-yard, three-touchdown effort in a win earlier this year against Florida Atlantic. Schneider ended the day completing 37 of 52 passes. He began the year passing for 203 yards in a loss to Virginia Tech, and also threw for 284 yards against Syracuse and had 259 yards against Akron.
In his last outing Schneider completed 25 of 32 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-13 victory over Central Michigan in the Citrus Bowl. Schneider did not play in the Buffalo victory and was knocked out of the Kent State game with a shoulder injury.
So far, Schneider has posted 15 300-yard passing games and three 400-yard games.
“He’s a fifth-year guy; he’s been in big ballgames; he threw for 300-some against Syracuse; he threw for 300-some against Penn State,” said Rodriguez. “He’s been in big stadiums and he’s not a guy who is going to get flustered. The whole key to their offense has been centered on him and I’m sure when he wasn’t in there they had to do some adjusting.”
Complimenting the pass game against Central Michigan was a strong rushing attack led by 5-foot-11, 220-pound junior Alex Haynes, who carried 20 times for 103 yards and a touchdown against CMU. Haynes went over the 2,000-yard mark for his career against Kent State and now shows 2,301 yards heading into the West Virginia game.
Haynes’ backup, 5-foot-11, 205-pound Dontavius Wilcox, carried 17 times for a career-high 77 yards and a touchdown against Central Michigan and shows 133 yards and three touchdowns for the season.
“He really came around and I’m happy to see that,” said UCF coach Mike Kruczek. “We have been bragging about Dontavius and his talents, and I think our fans got a chance to see a little bit about him last Saturday.”
“I really like their tailbacks,” added Rodriguez. “They’re both talented guys who kind of look like Quincy (Wilson) and some of our backs with the way they are built – stronger-type guys.”
UCF’s top pass catcher is 5-foot-9, 165-pound Tavaris Capers of Miami. In eight games, Capers has caught 57 passes for 508 yards and seven touchdowns. Capers has caught nine passes in a game five times for his career and produced a career-high 89 yards against Florida Atlantic. Capers’ 57 receptions are just five less than the entire West Virginia team.
And while Capers is more of a possession-type receiver, Central Florida has two big-play threats in Brandon Marshall and Mike Walker. Both are averaging more than 14 yards per catch and have combined for almost 500 yards and a touchdown.
UCF tight end Darcy Johnson hasn’t been a major factor in the passing game, catching nine passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns, but he is still a capable weapon.
Central Florida (3-5) possess good size up front on the offensive line with three players weighing 300 pounds or more in left guard David Ashkinaz, right guard Dan Veenstra and right tackle Kyle Watkins. Three of UCF’s five offensive line starters are freshmen, including center Cedric Gagne-Marcoux.
“Offensively they’ve put a lot of points up on a lot of people,” said Rodriguez.
Defensively, Central Florida has had some difficulty stopping teams, ranking 104th in pass efficiency defense, 97th in rushing defense and 83rd in total defense. But the UCF defense played much better last Saturday against Central Michigan.
“Our defense played pretty well,” said Kruczek. “They bent but they didn’t break and only gave up seven points.”
Still, the Golden Knights have a couple of highly regarded down linemen in DeeMarcus Johnson and Larry Brown. Ends Paul Carrington and Brent Bolar make up 4-3 alignment.
“They’ve got a couple of guys on their defensive line that everybody in the country recruited,” said Rodriguez. “There were some SEC schools and some Top 10 schools trying to get them.”
Central Florida’s most active defender is junior strong safety Atari Bigby, a Nagurski Award candidate. Bigby leads the Golden Knights in tackles with 81 and also shows four tackles for losses and five pass breakups.
Junior outside linebacker Antoine Poe has recovered nicely from an injury that kept him out of last season and ranks second on UCF’s defense with 76 tackles, 10 tackles for losses and two sacks.
Free safety Peter Sands has also made his mark, recording 67 tackles, six pass breakups and a sack through eight games.
Central Florida is giving up 30.1 points per game, 397.5 yards of total offense including 189.0 yards per game on the ground.
“They felt they had some games they could have and should have won and it didn’t happen for them,” said Rodriguez. “We don’t want them hitting their stride against us this week.”
West Virginia (3-4), meanwhile, has finally settled on a starting offensive line and that helped the Mountaineers produce 264 yards on the ground against No. 3-rated Virginia Tech last Wednesday.
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| QB Rasheed Marshall has completed a pass of more than 80 yards in three straight games. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Senior Quincy Wilson rushed 33 times for 178 yards and a touchdown against the Hokies and has 355 yards in his last two games against Rutgers and Virginia Tech. Wilson comes into Saturday’s game ranked 12th in the nation in rushing averaging 115.7 yards per game.
Quarterback Rasheed Marshall completed seven of 14 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown against Virginia Tech, and has hit a pass of more than 80 yards in three straight games dating back to the loss at Miami. Marshall is 56 of 119 for 991 yards and nine touchdowns this year.
Sophomore Chris Henry continues to lead the Mountaineers in receiving with 13 catches for 347 yards and four touchdowns. Senior Travis Garvin has 11 catches for 262 yards and two scores. Both are averaging more than 23 yards per catch.
Senior linebacker Grant Wiley, recently invited to the Senior Bowl, leads the WVU defense with 93 tackles. He also shows seven tackles for losses, six forced fumbles, four pass breakups and an interception.
The Mountaineer defense has also been able to generate a pass rush producing 10 sacks for the season including five against Virginia Tech. WVU did not register its first sack until the fourth game of the season.
Plenty of good tickets still remain for Saturday’s Homecoming battle with Central Florida and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to www.WVUGAME.com.
Briefly ...
West Virginia is still looking for its first defensive or special teams touchdown this season.
