UCF Preview
September 08, 2004 11:25 AM | General
September 8, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – George O’Leary knew it was going to be tough rebuilding a Central Florida football program that won just three games last year, but he has since had to overcome some added obstacles in the process.
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| Coach Rich Rodriguez is impressed with UCF's athleticism and strong fundamental play.
(All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
O’Leary inherited a schedule featuring its first three games against nationally ranked Wisconsin on the road, at home to No. 10 West Virginia, and then on the road at Penn State. That alone makes it tough developing a young team’s confidence.
Then right before the Wisconsin opener O’Leary’s mother died, forcing him to miss the game against the Badgers to attend the funeral in New York. Afterward he hopped on a private plane to rejoin the team in Madison only to discover that they couldn’t return to Orlando because the airport was closed due to Hurricane Frances.
The team spent Sunday and part of Monday in Wisconsin before eventually getting back to campus before dinner time on Monday. There were plans to practice Monday evening but those were scrapped when it was discovered that the practice fields were too wet to get a workout.
So goes the life of George O’Leary as UCF’s new football coach.
Central Florida raised eyebrows last December when it was able to attract a coach of O’Leary’s pedigree. The Central Islip, N.Y., native was the national coach of the year in 2000 at Georgia Tech and led the Yellow Jackets to a share of the ACC title in 1998. WVU fans may remember O’Leary’s Yellow Jacket team behind the play of quarterback Joe Hamilton and offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen topple the Mountaineers, 35-30 in the 1997 Carquest Bowl.
After the 2001 season O’Leary was hired by Notre Dame but during his first week on the job it was discovered that there were discrepancies in his resume, forcing the Irish to terminate his contract.
O’Leary wound up landing on Mike Tice’s staff with the Minnesota Vikings and spent two seasons there before assuming his current role.
He has assembled a veteran coaching staff at Central Florida with an accumulated 137 years worth of coaching experience. Dave Huxtable ventured to UCF from North Carolina, Peter McCarty came from Stanford, offensive coordinator Tim Salem spent time at Ohio State and Purdue, Brian Polian is the son of Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian, and Eric Green was an all-pro tight end with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“They’ve got an experienced staff with guys that have been in the pros and been in college football for a long time,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. “They’re going to be well coached and not make a whole lot of mistakes.”
O’Leary’s plan is to rebuild the UCF football program based on fundamentally sound play. And he is doing so with several young players.
Central Florida used seven true freshmen against Wisconsin last weekend in a 34-6 loss. The Golden Knights started two freshmen along the offensive line in left guard Dominic Ignelzi (6-4, 310, Fr.) and right guard Josh Sitton (6-5, 295, Fr.), and have five freshmen listed on their offensive line two-deep.
“We think Wisconsin has one of the best defensive lines in the country and those young kids from UCF held their own in a tough environment,” Rodriguez said. “They’re going to get better.”
UCF managed to run for 53 yards against Wisconsin’s solid front four and had just 11 first downs. But talented sophomore quarterback Steven Moffett (6-3, 200, So.) completed 13 of 24 passes for 177 yards including a long of 32 yards.
“They’re doing some various formations, motions and doing a lot of quick game,” said Rodriguez. “They check on the line and if they get some one-on-one coverage they’ll throw it out there to them. There are a lot of similar things to what I remember playing against Georgia Tech a few years ago.”
Moffett was considered one of the top prep quarterbacks in Florida as a senior at Winter Park High School, throwing 43 touchdown passes for his career. The plan was to redshirt him last season but he was thrown into the fire late in the year once Coach Mike Kruczek was fired. Moffett’s 2003 season consisted of just 41 pass attempts.
 Haynes |
 Moffett |
 Bigby |
 Rhule |
“Their quarterback was one of the most highly recruited players in the state of Florida,” said Rodriguez. “I think he’s going to be everything they want.”
UCF has several talented offensive weapons including senior running back Alex Haynes (5-10, 225, Sr.), a Doak Walker Award candidate. Haynes was bottled up against Wisconsin, gaining just 56 yards, but he comes into Saturday’s game with more than 2,500 career rushing yards.
“I’m very impressed with him,” says Rodriguez. “I think he runs hard and he reminds us of Erick Phillips a little bit but is maybe a little faster. He’s a solid player … he runs hard, catches the ball and is a really good blocker.”
UCF has two of the fastest wide outs in the Mid-American Conference in seniors Tavaris Capers (5-9, 165, Sr.) and Luther Huggins (5-9, 190, Sr.). Capers caught two passes for 27 yards against Wisconsin and is approaching 125 grabs for his career. He reportedly has sub-4.3 speed.
Huggins was the team leader with five catches for 85 yards against Wisconsin.
“I’m really impressed with their athleticism at receiver,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve got two guys who are really, really fast.”
Junior tight end Darcy Johnson (6-5, 245, Jr.) is also a weapon in the passing game, snaring two passes for 38 yards against the Badgers. Rodriguez is enamored with Johnson’s size and athletic ability.
“He made a one-handed catch for a big first down and caught another one over the middle against Wisconsin,” Rodriguez said. “He is an impressive athlete and I can see him causing a lot of match-up problems with different people.”
Defensively, the Golden Knights run a 4-3 system. Senior outside linebacker Stanford Rhule (5-9, 240, Sr.) is on the Butkus Award watch list after accumulating 189 tackles over the last two seasons. The UCF linebacker corps was bolstered by the off-season move of Josh Stephens (6-1, 255, Sr.) from defensive end to middle linebacker. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Stephens was praised by Wisconsin defensive line coach John Palermo after last Saturday’s game.
Well known strong safety Atari Bigby (5-11, 210, Sr.) returns for a fourth season to lead the UCF secondary. Bigby had 112 stops last year and has accumulated 254 stops heading into this season.
UCF lists five freshmen on its defensive two-deep, though one, freshman Jason Venson, was lost for the season after suffering a knee injury against Wisconsin.
“I think George is more involved on the defensive side than the offensive side but I’m sure he has his input,” said Rodriguez.
Last year West Virginia had all it could handle against a UCF team playing out its season. Leading 19-11 at the start of the fourth quarter, West Virginia used a blocked punt and touchdown to open up the game. A Charles Hales to Chris Henry 79-yard touchdown pass eventually put the game out of reach.
WVU starter Rasheed Marshall was knocked out of the game in the third quarter with a concussion and did not return.
Haynes led UCF with 63 yards rushing on just 11 attempts and scored on a 10-yard TD run in the third quarter.
“They’re in the state of Florida and they had some talented young men last year and some of those guys are back,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve got our full and undivided attention.”
West Virginia represents the marquee team on UCF’s five-game home schedule at the 65,000-seat Orlando Citrus Bowl. The Golden Knights drew an average of just about 25,000 fans last year and were hoping for a crowd in the vicinity of 45,000 for Saturday’s home opener before Hurricane Frances ravished the entire state. An expected large contingent of West Virginia fans traveling to the game should help them come close to that total.
There is no live television for Saturday’s game, set to kick off at 6 pm. MSN radio’s coverage begins at 5:30 pm and fans can access the broadcast on the Internet by subscribing to Yahoo! Sports.
