Analyzing Dillon Gabriel and Bentavious Thompson, Based on PFF's Preseason Selections
The UCF football season is right around the corner. Reading various company’s preseason All-Conference selections can be fun, and it’s certainly worth debating. Pro Football Focus (PFF) does a really good job of evaluating film and grading players. That’s a major part of their weekly in-season business. As for preseason, PFF completed it’s All AAC teams. Here’s a look at two of their picks, with some commentary regarding those selections.
First Team All-AAC: Dillon Gabriel, Quarterback
“The backbone of Gabriel’s success in college has been his downfield touch in a UCF offense chock-full of go balls.”
That statement should be one that UCF fans pay heed to because the offense will change under the direction of UCF Head Coach Gus Malzahn. With that in mind, much of the UCF offense will stay intact from a schematic standpoint. Deep passes, in particular, should be a staple of the UCF offense with the speed UCF has compared to many other college football programs.
As for PFF’s decision to rank Gabriel No. 1 in the AAC, it should not come as a surprise. Further, anyone that believes he should not be the preseason No. 1 pick, who’s going to supplant Gabriel from the top overall position?
No offense to Houston’s signal caller, Clayton Tune, but he only averaged 7.2 yards per pass attempt last season. He also only threw 15 touchdown passes. Hard not to like Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder, as he’s a capable runner and seems to make big plays. Still, he’s not close to Gabriel as a passer when it comes to accuracy and timing.
In short, Gabriel makes sense. No reason to over analyze this selection. Gabriel will likely pace the AAC in passing yards and touchdowns this fall, and he should also be one of college football’s most impressive quarterbacks overall.
Second Team All-AAC: Bentavious Thompson, Running Back
This particular pick comes with some interesting sidebars. To begin, PFF does not provide commentary about its second team picks. What it did do, however, would be line up running backs from a category standpoint (or at least it appears that way).
The running back that earned the top spot in what appears to be running back designed for quickness would be SMU’s Ulysses Bentley IV. He is a very talented running back when it comes to breaking big plays, similar to Thompson when he was provided a chance last season.
Bentley rushed for 913 yards and 11 touchdowns last year. That’s a good season, no question. What’s more important to note would be his big-play capabilities. PFF explained this well.
“Bentley boasts game-wrecking potential. He proved as much in his 2020 redshirt freshman campaign when he earned an 82.1 rushing grade and racked up more breakaway runs of 15-plus yards than anyone else in the conference (15).”
Bentley is a big play waiting to happen. Given more opportunities this fall, that could be Thompson as well. For anyone that needs a reminder, Thompson played behind two very good UCF running backs last fall in Greg McCrae and Otis Anderson. With those two running backs departed from the UCF roster, there’s an enormous amount of carries leaving with them. They combined for 274 carries.
Thompson was still productive, rushing for 382 yards and five touchdowns for a mere 73 rushing attempts. His 5.23 yards per carry average, as well as his game film showing the ability to make defenders miss, lead to the following question.
Could Thompson be the AAC’s breakout running back this fall?
He will certainly be in a run-friendly offense with Coach Malzahn bringing the power-spread offense to Orlando. Thompson will be playing in a zone concept scheme, and it will also be an uptempo offense. Those are the two things he was accustomed to playing in during his first three seasons playing for the Knights.
Finally, Thompson possesses the opportunity to consistently get into a rhythm. He will likely see considerably more action earlier in the season as his experience and talent will be given a chance to at least be a co-starter for the Knights. If Thompson does indeed earn the starting nod, he could be in for a big season.
Most running backs tend to do better as a game moves forward and they wear down a defense, play by play. Thompson is a solidly built player and he’s probably a little over 200-pounds by now, based on the positive reports from the new strength and conditioning program UCF implemented. So maybe, just maybe, Thompson could be this year’s breakout AAC running back.
Final Thoughts
It’s fun to read the preseason publications. Like or hate the picks, there’s reason for debate. More importantly, take those points and formulate one’s own opinion. There’s reason to utilize at least the statistics provided, and of course it helps to relive moments from prior seasons because of the information provided by the various publications like PFF.
Gabriel and Thompson are two of the players that will likely lead the UCF offense this fall. Both players are in line for good if not great seasons, and the preseason publications are an indicator that college football is right around the corner.
