Arizona Wildcats Must Win These Three Huge Keys to Beat UCF Knights
Two desperate teams get together in Orlando on Saturday in an attempt to win their fourth game of the season and try to remain in position to reach a bowl game.
That's really the only goal for both the Arizona Wildcats and the UCF Knights going into their showdown at FBC Mortgage Stadium at 12:30 p.m. mountain time on FS1.
The Wildcats (3-5, 1-4 in Big 12) enter the game having lost their last four contests, the latest being a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of West Virginia in their first meeting with the Mountaineers in program history.
The Knights (3-5, 1-4) have one on Arizona there. They’ve lost five straight games since they won their Big 12 opener over TCU. It’s why UCF has fallen out of favor in the Big 12 race.
So how does Arizona win its first meeting in school history with UCF? Here are three places to start.
Stop the Run
We could write that every week in this space. But when it comes to playing the Knights, it's an absolute necessity. It also depends upon what you mean by “stop.”
The Knights have the third-best rushing offense in the nation behind only Army West Point and Boise State. The Knights are averaging 267.9 yards per game and have scored 21 rushing touchdowns.
Running back RJ Harvey is a huge part of it. But head coach Gus Malzahn has added young quarterback Jacurri Brown to the mix. The Knights are running two-thirds of the time in part because Brown is not a consistently accurate passer yet. UCF used Dylan Rizk on Saturday against BYU and he was a more accurate thrower and led two late scoring drives.
But Harvey is one of the best backs in the Big 12. So if Arizona wants to win this game the Wildcats will have to find a way to slow down the Knights’ run game.
Don’t Fall Behind Early
Because UCF runs the football so much, and because the Knights are good at it, they have the ability to dominate time of possession. The Knights just haven’t done it in their last two losses to Iowa State (22:32) and to BYU (less than 20 minutes). But, as challenged as the Wildcats have been in scoring points early in games, that would give the Knights an opportunity to take control of the game.
Arizona has scored 24 first-half points in their last four games, all losses. In three of those games, the Wildcats were down by double-digits at the break.
Give the Knights a lead and they can grind the game to a halt with their run game. Arizona can’t afford to allow that to happen.
Build on No Turnovers at Quarterback
Quarterback Noah Fifita did not look like this a year ago when he threw 25 touchdown passes and six interceptions. With four games left in the season, he’s thrown 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He’s thrown an interception in all but one game this season — and it just so happens that game was last week against West Virginia.
That’s a promising development. He also avoided a fumble. It was his first turnover-free game of the season.
It's not all on Fifita. The offensive line has been banged up most of the season and protection has been an issue. He's had some drops in the passing game. The running game hasn't developed the way the coaching staff had hoped.
But when you handle the football every single offensive snap it's incumbent upon you as the quarterback to do everything possible to avoid turnovers. Fifita did that for the first time last week and if the Wildcats want to beat UCF, he needs to build on that this week.
