UCF football: 3 takeaways from War on I-4 victory over USF in Week 13

1. UCF Needs to fix itself mentally

At UCF, a three-loss season isn’t acceptable. This is a program that has proven it can be so much more than that, and hasn’t the past two seasons under Josh Heupel. That means it’s time to diagnose the issues, of which there are a few.

For one, UCF is not hitting its potential recruiting under Heupel. More importantly, UCF plays mistake filled football under Heupel. Those mistakes rarely come down to scheme or talent, but mental weakness.

To start this season, UCF had a massive penalty issue. Holding calls, false starts, and personal foul calls cost them the Tulsa game and put them in a bad position for several other games. In all three losses this season, UCF blew multiple score leads. In large part this is because they hit the breaks in the second half, and try to escape without losing, rather than bury an opponent.

All of these issues reared their ugly heads against USF. UCF, particularly on defense, got down on themselves and seemed to stop trying. UCF’s Landon Woodson would go on to blame their issues on communication, which in an empty stadium screams that they have issues focusing. Offensive lineman, Lokahi Pauole was ejected early in the second half for fighting. There was even another rash of pre-snap injuries that hurt the Knights.

Above all else, was the issue that they just assumed the game was over. And why shouldn’t they? Their coach always assumes the game is over by the second half and just tries to escape with a win, slowly blowing lead after lead.

These issues have always existed under Heupel. UCF had the lead and momentum against LSU in the Fiesta Bowl, but a series of immature penalties turned the tide of that game. Losing the Fiesta Bowl should have made them fix this, but it hasn’t for three years. Now, Heupel needs to take a long look in the mirror and figure out how to fix this issue, because it starts with him.