The Knights have
suffered from remarkably bad injury luck en route to their 0-4 start
this season. Fortunately, things should start getting a little better
this week when Dontravious Wilson returns.
Things are pretty dire for the winless UCF Knights right now. The best thing that can be said about this team is that its poor performance on the field will result in lots of fans getting free beer on Saturday (though hopefully, not beyond that).
The Knights have been cursed
with terrible injury luck. UCF leads the nation in most games missed by
injured players on offense. Starting QB Justin Holman, WR Taylor Oldham,
WR Jordan Franks, C Joey Grant, OL Chavis Dickey, WR Jordan Akins, HB Joseph Puopolo, and RB Dontravious Wilson have missed a combined twenty-three games.
But there is - at least a little - good news in advance of the game against Tulane.
Junior running back Dontravious Wilson is back, having recovered from a
PCL injury he suffered in the first game of the season (a miserable
15-14 loss to FIU). In his limited time this year, Wilson has twelve
carries for 34 yards. But he was productive in his (mostly off the
bench) opportunities last year, when he rushed for 347 yards and 3 TDs.
It's welcome news for the Knights. UCF's options at running back began depleting before the season started, when Micah Reed transferred
(he had slipped down the depth chart to fourth string over the course
of spring). Then Wilson suffered the injury against FIU, and Will
Stanback performed terribly (0.6 yards per carry!) in relief for the
remainder of that game. Freshman Taj McGowan got the start against
Stanford, and by last week, Stanback was off the team. The Knights were down to McGowan and C.J. Jones primarily carrying the rock against Furman and South Carolina (plus some Nick Patti from the wildcat, especially against Furman).
Wilson's return should help
boost an offense that continues to be awful on the whole. And it
certainly restores a semblance of depth at running back moving into
conference play. Wilson is not a panacea however: a good deal of blame
for lack of success in the running game should be laid at the feet of
the offensive line.
Which is nice, because today's
game is one of the more winnable ones remaining on UCF's slate. At least
for now, the Knights still can lay claim to a track record of
dominating AAC play (the Knights are 15-1 in conference since the AAC's
inception, won the inaugural league title outright, and tied with
Memphis and Cincinnati last year as co-champions). That conference
record is certainly going to get sullied this year, but hopefully it
doesn't start against Tulane (against whom UCF has a 5-1 record)
The biggest boost of course
will come when starting QB Justin Holman is ready to play. And that's
apparently not quite yet. Holman is now being considered "day-to-day,"
but there's no specific word on when he will be sufficiently recovered
from the fracture to his right index finger to play. Which means that we
can expect to endure more of Bo Schneider's often cringe-worthy play at
quarterback.
And hope it all looks a bit better when Holman joins Wilson back on the field.
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