UCF Football: What are the Goals for 2022?
Fall camp has concluded for the UCF Knights, which means the season is creeping closer by the minute. Each team has its own specific goals as a program.
Here's a look at three goals that the Knights would do well to achieve.
Better Quarterback Play
Mikey Keene was not going out and actually winning games for UCF last year. He was in more of a game manager role. As a freshman that was thrust into a starting job, Keene did well at accomplishing what he did.
In 2022, the Knights will need newly announced starter John Rhys Plumlee to be a playmaker. He may not be McKenzie Milton in terms of creating dynamic plays out of nowhere, but Plumlee’s athleticism and experience will help the UCF offense be more dynamic and score more points.
Luckily for Plumlee, the receiving corps looks to be stacked once again with Ryan O’Keefe, Kobe Hudson, Jaylon Griffin, Amari Johnson, Javon Baker, as well as tight ends Kemore Gamble and Alec Holler. Improved quarterback play is another goal that should come to fruition given the circumstances.
Play a Full Four Quarters
How do the best teams in the country dominate at such a high level? By playing their best brand of football from opening kickoff until the clock hits zeroes. This may seem obvious, but so many teams struggle with this concept. For the Knights in 2021, their performance on the field seemed to fluctuate based on what quarter it was.
The Knights fared much better in first and third quarters last year than they did in second and fourth quarters. They outscored opponents by 1.54 points per quarter in first quarters, and by 4.69 points per quarter in third quarters.
UCF still outscored their opponents in the other two quarters, but the offense struggled in the fourth quarter, with 6.92 points per quarter. They scored over eight points per quarter in the other three quarters. During second quarters, the Knights were only outscoring opponents by 0.54 points per quarter.
It seems nitpicky to point out that a team is “only outscoring teams by ‘x’ amount” in a given quarter, but a more consistent team effort throughout the entirety of each game is a huge key to maximizing the win total for the Knights.
Improve Win Total
This goal goes hand-in-hand with the overall goal for the season, but if the Knights win the same amount—or less—games than last year, the season will likely be viewed as a failure. The team won nine games last year including the 29-17 Gasparilla Bowl win over Florida.
Expecting a double-digit win season is not unreasonable, considering the circumstances surrounding the 2021 season. Gus Malzahn said after the first day of fall camp, “We should be light years ahead of where we were this time last year and I really think we are.”
A slew of injuries, a freshman quarterback, and a newly hired head coach initializing his systems are just a few of the difficulties the Knights had to work through last year. While injuries are unpredictable, it’s hard to envision two consecutive seasons where injuries force Head Coach Gus Malzahn to turn to a freshman quarterback, or the depth of the roster being gutted from injuries the way it was last season.
The Knights’ schedule also looks a little lighter than it was last season with key home games against Louisville, SMU, and Cincinnati, three teams that they had to play on the road last season. Combined with a better overall 2022 roster than what UCF possessed last season, UCF reaching ten wins is definitely a possibility.
Projected UCF Offensive Depth Chart
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