UCF vs. Georgia Tech Preview + Insider Notes
Coming off a win over FAU, Can UCF Keep Up the Momentum Against GT?
UCF got back on track with a much needed win over FAU last weekend.
The Knights overcame a slow start and ultimately cruised to a 40-14 victory where the defense absolutely dominated and the offense showed signs of life.
While the win was an improvement, some of the same issues that we’ve seen over the first couple weeks of the season were still there.
Either way, it was a positive sign as the Knights are set to host the Yellow Jackets, who are certainly a step up in competition from the Owls.
The Knights will get the opportunity to get their first Power 5 win of the season and head into Conference play with some momentum.
Key Details:
Date: Saturday, September 24
Game Time: 4:00 ET
Venue: FBS Mortgage Stadium, Orlando, FL
How To Watch: ESPNU
Records: UCF (2-1); Georgia Tech (1-2)
Spread: -20.5 (UCF)
Previewing Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech is off to a 1-2 start, including two massive blowouts at the hands of better opponents. They hung tough with Clemson for 3 quarters in Week 1, but ultimately lost 41-10. Last week, Ole Miss completely ran over them in a 42-0 shutout.
Yellow Jackets head coach Geoff Collins is on the hot seat and has his back against the wall.
GT Offense
The GT offense has been pretty bad to start the season. When playing FBS opponents, they are averaging just 5 points per game so far this season.
Their passing game has been pretty bad with veteran QB Jeff Sims averaging just 5 yards per pass. Sims has thrown for less than 170 yards in all 3 games and has just 1 passing touchdown. He has been inaccurate, completing just 57% of his passes and throwing 2 picks so far. The offensive line can’t run block. There’s nobody getting consistent separation on the outside for the Jackets.
This is good news for a UCF defense that has been quite lockdown through 3 weeks. UCF has six different defenders with a sack so far and is facing a GT offense that allowed Sims to get sacked 7 times last week against Ole Miss!
If you look at UCF’s advanced defensive stats, it’s easy to see why a strong Knights defense should do really well against an inefficient and poor GT offense.
Maybe the only concern is the mobility of Sims. We saw Malik Cunningham rush for 121 yards in the Louisville loss, but Cunningham is better than Sims and Georgia Tech’s OLine is a lot worse. Sims season high for rushing is 48 yards.
I expect the Knights to limit GT’s offense, prevent big plays and put a lot of pressure on them to make mistakes.
GT Defense
Tech’s defense hasn’t been much better than their offense, allowing two 40-point games so far.
GT is especially bad against the run, where they have allowed over 184 yards per game. Ole Miss just rushed for over 300 against them.
The Knights strength has obviously been their rushing attack. UCF has ran for 819 yards and 9 TD’s through 3 games, while averaging 273 yards per game and 5.7 yards per carry.
The 273 yards per contest is good enough for 4th best in the nation.
UCF will look to exploit GT’s soft run defense by using a steady stream of John Rhys Plumlee QB keepers, Isaiah Bowser bruising runs and the explosiveness of Johnny Richardson.
GT allowed Ole Miss to have 3 separate players with 2 touchdowns each last weekend!
Between Plumlee, Bowser, Richardson and possibly RJ Harvey, the Knights should be able to establish the run.
Tech has had some moderate success against the pass, which is clearly where UCF has struggled so far.
We saw what happened when Louisville forced Plumlee to make quick decisions and pass under pressure and the result wasn’t good.
Hopefully, Plumlee can be accurate and efficient like he was last week when he completed nearly 70% of his passes.
If we get that type of John Rhys and have our typical ground game, this should be a win for UCF.
3 Keys to Victory
Establish the run and don’t stop jamming it down Georgia Tech’s throat
Keep forcing Georgia Tech to make mistakes on offense and apply heavy pressure to Jeff Sims
Get Plumlee comfortable again like we did in the 2nd half vs. FAU when he really came alive and had his best game of the season.
Prediction
I think UCF’s rushing attack is too good, GT’s offense is too weak and the Knights just have an advantage in almost every area.
Georgia Tech is in disarray right now with a potential change at coaching looming, coming off a beat down loss and a team that is just making too many mistakes right now.
UCF should be able to establish its run game, wear down the GT defense and get a healthy lead. Then, the Knights defense will do the rest, forcing Jeff Sims into mistakes and keeping the GT offense at bay.
Prediction: UCF 38-GT 13