After Dismantling Temple, UCF's Defense Now Holds New Expectations

The UCF Football team’s defense played really good football for the second game in a row, and it established new expectations in the process.

Brian Smith | Oct 31, 2021

ORLANDO - Raise your hand if you expected UCF’s defense to throttle Temple’s offense the way it did. Go ahead. If you did, good for you. Expecting the Knights to play solid defense, okay. To absolutely take away Temple’s will and hold them scoreless until the final moments of the contest, however, that’s darn right impressive and unexpected.

UCF’s defense raised the bar against Temple. It’s the second game in which the Knights were the aggressor, and it’s the second game that they found ways to create big plays during big moments.

The result, only seven points for Temple, the second game in a row UCF held its opponent to seven total points.

Passing The Eye Test

Temple could not consistently generate a traditional running game during any significant stretch of the contest, as well as not being able to gain a consistent rhythm passing the football. In sum, UCF’s defense played at a high level for most of the game.

That’s not to say there are no areas to clean up. There certainly are, but that’s something to discuss further below. Overall, the way UCF’s defense ran to the football, played it’s gaps, and covered during passing plays, deserves a pat on the back.

When it was a critical moment, the UCF defense won far more of the battles than lost. That’s the biggest takeaway from this contest. To keep an opponent out of the endzone until the final moments of the game is fantastic!

As the game progressed, there was another type of eye test coming from the playing field, and it’s one that was not good for the Owls but showed just how impressive the UCF defense played.

Did You Notice The Owls’ Starting Quarterback?

Watching the body language of Temple quarterback D’Wan Mathis told the tale. He was gesturing to teammates, likely upset with himself regarding a few missed passes as well, but overall, the young signal caller looked defeated.

Head down, moping along towards the sideline after failed drives. The deficit for Temple kept increasing, and his posture sunk lower and lower. Beyond the scoreboard, that’s the scene of victory. UCF’s defense took away hope, and did so by the middle of the second quarter quite frankly, from the Temple offense.

A major reason for his defeated look stemmed from pass rush.

Knights Get Their Sacks

With a total of six sacks for the game, UCF consistently made Mathis move off his spot and not look at this receivers. Further, the big quarterback took quite a bit of punishment, as UCF hit him all game long.

Leading the way would be Big Kat Bryant with 1.5 sacks. This was a group effort, however, with Bryant being the catalyst. Make no mistake, the defensive line and the linebackers played well together to punish Mathis and contribute to the overall effort of being a really good pass defense.

Big Kat Bryant now has 4.5 sacks and eight tackles for loss this season / UCF Athletics

UCF took away escape lanes and forced Mathis to either quickly throw the football away or be hammered behind the line of scrimmage. This game represented a defensive front that played fast and played smart, leading to a dominant overall performance for rushing the passer.

Technique, effort, speed, and getting the quarterback to the ground, all of it was impressive by the UCF front seven. Additionally, cornerback Justin Hodges even sacked the quarterback, too. As it relates to getting after the quarterback, it was a great collective effort.

Rush Defense Played Solid, With a Little More Work to Do

Except for a few runs where there were missed tackles or a run fit that was not properly covered by a UCF defender, Temple struggled to run the football. With that said, Temple’s running backs ran for 119 yards from 24 carries, which translates to about 5.0 yards a carry. Again, for the most part, UCF did a nice job. Against a better opponent, however, the UCF defense would have seen far greater rushing totals put up against them.

Part of this stemmed from the defensive design -- attempting to take away big passing plays -- so that the Owls could hit big strikes down the field. That concept did very well and UCF’s defensive coaching staff deserves credit.

With that, UCF also played some aggressive defensive looks with cornerbacks up tight to the line of scrimmage. Sometimes that allowed Temple to gain a few too many yards from basic running plays. It’s not a huge concern. It’s just that UCF still has to continue to improve to be a great defense. Right now, it’s playing at a high level, but not yet great.

Make the proper adjustments to the run defense, and then the UCF defense can be mentioned with the word great. Considering where UCF’s defense was just two weeks ago, the Knights already improved exponentially.

Pass Defense Has Arrived

Short and sweet. Whatever it is, bottle it and sell it. It’s worth a fortune. UCF’s defensive backs play with a swagger now. There’s belief in what they are doing. It could have been cornerback Brandon Adams making a break with the receiver to take away a throw, or safety Quadric Bullard swooping in for a stop to mitigate a larger gain, but the bottom line is that UCF’s secondary did a little bit of everything against Temple.

The Owls could not find consistent or big passing plays against UCF. That’s not common in today’s college football. More specifically, the receivers for the Owls could not consistently separate from UCF defensive backs. There’s no better way to congratulate a group of defensive backs than making that statement.

During the run-pass option era, playing cornerback and safety is quite difficult. With all the eye candy from jet motions, mobile quarterbacks, and just sheer talent most teams possess at wide receiver, tight end and running back, how the UCF secondary played was fantastic.

The comments above regarding Mathis were largely based on the UCF secondary taking away his primary receivers. It’s that simple. No place to throw the football without high risk of being picked off.

Mathis smartly tucked the football and ran and/or threw the football away several times during the contest.

Special note: cornerback Davonte Brown has improved tremendously during the course of this season. It will be interesting to see if teams begin to stay away from him.

Davonte Brown, Cornerback, UCF / UCF Athletics

By the Numbers

The statistics show a really impressive performance, much like the eye test. Consider the fact that UCF held Temple to 297 yards of total offense, with just 121 of those yards coming from Mathis, the starting signal caller for Temple.

Edward Saydee was Temple’s leading rusher coming into the game. He was held to six carries for 18 yards. No Temple running back surpassed 35 yards rushing. The receiving core was not very successful either.

Jose Barbon and Randle Jones were the Owls’ two leading receivers coming into the contest, but they were held to a combined six receptions for 71 yards. That’s fantastic defensive football.

Final Thoughts

The UCF defense made huge strides during the past two weeks. Better tackling, adhering to assignments better, and certainly an uptick with pass coverage. Part of this revival stems from just now becoming comfortable with the new defensive system, but it’s also about young players believing in themselves and joining some of the leaders on the defensive side of the football as players that can be counted upon to make plays.

The UCF defense created new expectations moving forward, and that’s something to look forward to as the Knights now prepare to take on Tulane this next Saturday at the Bounce House.

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