UCF football: 3 takeaways from season-opening win over Georgia Tech

A much anticipated duel in Atlanta saw UCF football struggle at times, but prove to be to much for Georgia Tech. What’d we learn?

The 14th-ranked UCF Knights traveled to Atlanta for their season opener to take on Georgia Tech. With UCF only being favored by a touchdown, there was a reasonable amount of excitement towards this game.

On the opening kickoff, the Yellow Jackets would strike early with a huge return. This would lead to a quick Jeff Sims rushing touchdown to give the Jackets an early lead. However, it wouldn’t take UCF long to respond, posting a touchdown of their own on their first drive. Despite a quick start, things would slow down for the rest of the first quarter, as there would be no scoring after each team’s initial drive.

The second quarter was all UCF, as the Knights would assault the Georgia Tech defense, putting up three touchdowns. The Yellow Jackets’ offense couldn’t do the same, and would go into the half down 28-14.

The third quarter would see both teams combine for a total of zero points. However, Georgia Tech would make things interesting, getting within seven of UCF’s shrinking lead. Things would quickly fall apart as the Knights had a quick response, going back up by 14. Following this, quarterback Dillon Gabriel would lead the Knights to two more scoring drives, resulting in an impressive 49-21 win.

While Georgia Tech showed promise, UCF proved to be just too much for Geoff Collins’ squad.  Across the field, things appear to be back on the upswing for Josh Huepel’s Knights. We definitely learned quite a bit about both of these squads, let’s look at three takeaways from Saturday’s matchup.