UCF football’s playoff push continues in Week 4 with East Carolina

UCF football is looking to maintain some momentum heading into a favorable battle with East Carolina. The playoff push continues.

After some would consider to be a down year for UCF in 2019, it showed no signs of slowing down in 2020. The Knights went on the road to an ACC school and controlled the entire game against an improved Georgia Tech.

To the tune of 417 yards and four touchdowns, quarterback Dillon Gabriel put himself on the map with one of the best performances of the young season.

UCF ran the ball for 243 yards and gave up seven points in the entire second half. To say the least, UCF is looking like one of the best Group of Five teams once again.

The Knights are led by Gabriel, with loaded skill position players. Those include running back Otis Anderson and receivers Trey Nixon and Marlon Williams.

UCF has a first-round projection in the secondary in cornerback Richie Grant and returns seven starters in total from 2019, including 4-of-5 from the defensive backfield.

Similar to Baylor, East Carolina will be attempting to play their fourth regular season opener with the Knights as they have had trouble getting on the field. With cancellations to Marshall, South Carolina and Norfolk State, it’s been a struggle, but Saturday looks promising.

East Carolina was one of the more underwhelming teams in 2019, that could not put up enough points and was in the bottom tier of college football in defense (111th out of 130).

The Pirates return junior quarterback Holton Ahlers, who was one of the better gunslingers in the AAC, throwing for 3,387 yards and 21 touchdowns. He also has a running element to him, as he had 359 rushing yards and added on six touchdowns.

East Carolina could not consistently run the football whatsoever in 2019 and will be a huge issue, when facing UCF.

On the positive side, the leading rusher and receiver from last season were just freshmen in running back Demetrius Mauney and wide out CJ Johnson and have a lot of room to grow. Even the second-leading receiver, Tyler Snead, is coming off a good redshirt freshman campaign.

Defensively, East Carolina does not get much help with the graduation of captain defensive end Kendall Futrell and dismissal of second leading pass rusher Chance Purvis. Secondary is one of the stronger units on the team with the return of duo Davondre Robinson and Ja’Quan McMillian. Where the Pirates will generate rush on an offensive line that gashed an ACC defense will be a tough question to answer.

This is how you can watch the game between the Knights and Pirates:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 26
Time: 12 p.m. ET
Location: Greenville, N.C.
Venue: Ficklen Memorial Stadium
TV: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN

Keys to Victory

Establishing a solid run game for the Knights is going to important. With the inexperience at pass rush, getting Otis Anderson and Greg McCrae involved can help UCF be balanced.

With the Pirates having a  solid secondary, making sure UCF doesn’t stay one-dimensional will be crucial

For East Carolina, sustaining drives is going to be so crucial. Keeping the ball out of UCF’s hands for as long as possible is one of the few ways the Pirates can stay in this game.

UCF’s offense can score in a hurry and the more East Carolina controls the clock and the tempo of this game, the less they have to worry about the Knights driving down the field at a rapid pace more often.

Even if it was a weakness, ECU has to create some push up front and win in the trenches. Do that and this game will be closer than a 26-point difference, like the spread indicates.

Betting Odds

Odds courtesy of The Action Network

Point Spread: UCF -26.5
Over/Under: 77

Prediction

Gabriel stepped up in a big way against Georgia Tech and lead the Knights to over 600 yards of total offense.

East Carolina will take a step up offensively, considering how much the Pirates are returning. Even with all of that being said, I think UCF controls this one throughout.

With the returning fire power on offense and Grant captaining the defense, the Knights will be too much and prevail over an improved ECU squad.

Final Score: UCF 45, East Carolina 23