Official UCF Sports Thread - Basketball: NIT Bid? Football: Spring Practice Underway

[nymets1]

This is my 1st year that I need mobile entry ticket to get into a football game. The 2 games I went to so far this year (USF vs Wisconsin and Chiefs at Jaguars) was through the ticketmaster APP on my phone. But now coming up UCF vs Stanford game on Saturday that ticket is through vivid seats APP. I just added the vivid seats APP and its showing lower level section 124 and row 12 but there's no seat number or barcode showing on my cell phone. So I told vivid seats that I have my section 124 and row 12 but there's no seat number or barcode. Whatever the game isn't til Saturday so plenty of time to get this fixed.

I prefer doing it the way I used with printing out the ticket or getting the tickets mailed to my home but all football tickets are about to mobile entry tickets only.

[Knightro]

Gabriel is going to be a great player for us in the long run.

I very much agree. I like his arm talent a lot.

The only thing that worries me about Gabriel is that he seems to lack a level of mobility that we’ve become accustomed to having at the quarterback position at UCF.

Doesn’t mean DG can’t be a huge success still. Heupel coordinated an extremely successful offense at Missouri with Drew Lock as his QB and Lock is less mobile than DG.

It was just noticeable to me against FAU the times they got pressure. There were many plays on Saturday that Milton, Mack and Wimbush likely would have been able to avoid the rush and escape the pocket. From there, we know all three of them could make plays with their legs and Milton especially was as good as it gets at the college level of find opening receiver on the run.

Gabriel just doesn’t really have that in his arsenal right now.

[UCFJayBird]

Gabriel is going to be a great player for us in the long run.

I very much agree. I like his arm talent a lot.

The only thing that worries me about Gabriel is that he seems to lack a level of mobility that we’ve become accustomed to having at the quarterback position at UCF.

Doesn’t mean DG can’t be a huge success still. Heupel coordinated an extremely successful offense at Missouri with Drew Lock as his QB and Lock is less mobile than DG.

It was just noticeable to me against FAU the times they got pressure. There were many plays on Saturday that Milton, Mack and Wimbush likely would have been able to avoid the rush and escape the pocket. From there, we know all three of them could make plays with their legs and Milton especially was as good as it gets at the college level of find opening receiver on the run.

Gabriel just doesn’t really have that in his arsenal right now.

I think he's mobile, his instincts are just a little different. I think Wimbush immediately wants to run where as DG wants to make the throw. I think DG just needs more time to figure out when is the right time to pull it down and take off. That's what made KZ so special was he had that instinct of when to flee the pocket and start running, but he also kept his eyes downfield in case a pass was still possible (which is really rare IMO). Hopefully DG with time leans more towards the KZ model.

Either way I think he's going to be a great QB.

It kind of sounds like Wimbush just isn't in the right space mentally. Someone else was wondering if Wimbush was burnt out at ND, came here hoping that the change would reignite his fire and it just didn't happen. Sounds like he hasn't really been "happy to be here" like he thought he would and maybe that's why. Rumor is he's switching to WR or TE, not sure how true that is but would make sense at this point.

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FAU game: Went to the game, had a good time. A lot of FAU fans/students were extremely rude though. Got a lot of middle fingers, a lot of **** UCFs. Their version of memory mall is basically in a parking lot, there were almost no trash cans so the ground was just littered with cans. Thankfully I had heard about the issues getting into the stadium in the past so I made my group go in at 6, and we walked straight in from the north. I had friends tell me they got to campus at 5:20 and didn't get to their seats until 7:20, and they may have been the lucky ones. FAU simply wasn't prepared for this level of gameday traffic.

Also on 3rd down's their PA system plays a sound of an owl hooting. I couldn't stop shaking my head in laughter at it. It was the least intimidating/get the crowd rowdy effect i've ever heard.

[Knightro]

I think he's mobile, his instincts are just a little different. I think Wimbush immediately wants to run where as DG wants to make the throw. I think DG just needs more time to figure out when is the right time to pull it down and take off. That's what made KZ so special was he had that instinct of when to flee the pocket and start running, but he also kept his eyes downfield in case a pass was still possible (which is really rare IMO). Hopefully DG with time leans more towards the KZ model.

Either way I think he's going to be a great QB.

I think he's going to be great as well. From a pure arm talent perspective, I think he's quite clearly ahead of Milton at the same age and I think overall he has more passing talent than Mack already.

But I definitely disagree on the mobility part. I know there's some freshman jitters and overall a lack of experience which causes hesitation in the pocket, but Gabriel looked like BBQ chicken against the pass rush.

To my eyes, he appeared to simply lack the foot speed on numerous occasions to escape effectively and still make a play. He would run as hard and as fast as he could just to get a sliver of day light to throw the ball away. Now perhaps with more experience he'll recognize the pressure is breaking through sooner and be able to react earlier accordingly, but it was really jarring to go from watching Milton (and to a lesser extent Mack and Wimbush) be able to avoid all kinds of sacks with mobility to that.

Even on his designed QB keeper touchdown, Milton, Mack and Wimbush would have been so far away from the defenders that they'd have been able to cartwheel into the endzone. Gabriel got hit and had to dive to barely make it in on what should have been an untouched laugher given how hard the D crashed down on the RB.

[UCFJayBird]

I think he's mobile, his instincts are just a little different. I think Wimbush immediately wants to run where as DG wants to make the throw. I think DG just needs more time to figure out when is the right time to pull it down and take off. That's what made KZ so special was he had that instinct of when to flee the pocket and start running, but he also kept his eyes downfield in case a pass was still possible (which is really rare IMO). Hopefully DG with time leans more towards the KZ model.

Either way I think he's going to be a great QB.

I think he's going to be great as well. From a pure arm talent perspective, I think he's quite clearly ahead of Milton at the same age and I think overall he has more passing talent than Mack already.

But I definitely disagree on the mobility part. I know there's some freshman jitters and overall a lack of experience which causes hesitation in the pocket, but Gabriel looked like BBQ chicken against the pass rush.

To my eyes, he appeared to simply lack the foot speed on numerous occasions to escape effectively and still make a play. He would run as hard and as fast as he could just to get a sliver of day light to throw the ball away. Now perhaps with more experience he'll recognize the pressure is breaking through sooner and be able to react earlier accordingly, but it was really jarring to go from watching Milton (and to a lesser extent Mack and Wimbush) be able to avoid all kinds of sacks with mobility to that.

Even on his designed QB keeper touchdown, Milton, Mack and Wimbush would have been so far away from the defenders that they'd have been able to cartwheel into the endzone. Gabriel got hit and had to dive to barely make it in on what should have been an untouched laugher given how hard the D crashed down on the RB.

Fair enough. Watching the highlight of his TD run it did seem a bit slower than you would expect and he should've reached the edge quicker. I'll caveat and say I definitely don't think he'll be as good a runner as KZ was and probably not as good as Mack or even Wimbush, but I don't think he's unable to run or non-mobile.

It is strange though as I recall hearing he was fairly mobile, at least moreso than we've seen so far.

[nymets1]

Mack is now cleared to play. He had his issues in the conference championship game and the bowl game vs LSU so I think he's the #3 QB.

[Knightro]

Mack is now cleared to play. He had his issues in the conference championship game and the bowl game vs LSU so I think he's the #3 QB.

My guess for the foreseeable future and this would only change if Gabriel totally flops...

Gabriel is the starter and plays 80-90% of the snaps, but the team is more liberal about taking him out of the game when the score is lopsided.

Mack becomes the backup QB. He’ll get the snaps in blowouts and also be used as a Wildcat QB during normal game action playing 10-20% of the snaps.

Jones is the No. 3. Only used in injury situations.

Wimbush switches positions or he ends up not playing again.

[UCFJayBird]

Yea i think Mack becomes QB #2. I wonder if he didn't get hurt how it would've shaken out though. Mack was great on the Conference Championship Game, but he struggled in the Bowl Game.

If they don't play Return of the Mack when he first enters the game i'll lose my mind, haha.

[dsg2003mach1]

Yea i think Mack becomes QB #2. I wonder if he didn't get hurt how it would've shaken out though. Mack was great on the Conference Championship Game, but he struggled in the Bowl Game.

If they don't play Return of the Mack when he first enters the game i'll lose my mind, haha.

Once he finally settled in and stopped bumbling snaps etc...I think we've forgotten how cringe worthy he was early on.

[nymets1]

I'm concerned about the weather tomorrow. It looks like there's a 60% chance of rain for Tomorrow. Hopefully if it does rain its before or after the game.

[basketballRob]

I'm concerned about the weather tomorrow. It looks like there's a 60% chance of rain for Tomorrow. Hopefully if it does rain its before or after the game.

It looks like it'll be a wet game.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

[craig01]

Turns out it was just a hot game.

Ucf totally dominated Stanford.

45-27.

I don’t expect any respect from the pundits or voters.

Ucf is well coached and also a damned good football team.

[UCF]

Should have only given up 10 points to Stanford. The end was a little sloppy and made this one look closer than it was for 3 quarters.

[tiderulz]

good game by UCF. DG looks like a stud

[Knightro]

This is the best offensive line in the history of program. Better than the last two years IMO.

Milton is the best player in UCF history, but incredibly enough Gabriel might actually be a better fit for Heupel's offense because of his incredible touch and accuracy on deep balls.

[UCF]

Milton was incredibly accurate on the deep ball so that’s a tall statement.

[UCF]

Read on Twitter

[Knightro]

Milton was incredibly accurate on the deep ball so that’s a tall statement.

I want to reiterate that I think Milton is the best player in the history of UCF so I don't want this to come off as a knock.

That said... I think Milton clearly took a step back in 2018 under Heupel compared to 2017 under Frost. His completion percentage dropped from 67% to 59%. His yards per attempt dropped from 10.2 to 9.2. His QB rating dropped from 179 to 161.

Milton was a *good* fit for Heupel's offense because he's a really freaking good college quarterback and would look good in any system, but he was the 2nd best QB in the entire country in 2017 under Frost. I genuinely believe that Milton is the absolute perfect fit for Scott Frost's offense.

UCF's offense in 2016 and 2017 featured a lot more read option, a lot more RPO's, a lot more designed QB runs, a lot more quick hitting horizontal passing than it does now under Heupel. There were still deep shots, but the offense was quite a bit more predicated on fakes and misdirections unlocking guys running wide open down the field.

Heupel's offense is actually a lot more simplistic than Frost's. It's MUCH more heavily predicated on extreme tempo. Frost's offense is no-huddle with a very quick tempo, but Heupel's offense is warp speed at all times.

But when you watch the actual plays, there's not a whole lot of fakes or misdirection in Heupel's offense. It's ton of dives and inside zone runs called at extreme tempo designed to tire out the DL, which in turn pulls the linebackers and safeties closer to the line of scrimmage. Once that happens, it's all about isolating 1 on 1 vertical deep shots.

Frost's offense *needs* a mobile QB, Heupel's does not.

Heupel's offense *needs* WR's capable of winning at the catch point in 1 on 1 scenarios down the field, Frost's does not.

I don't think Frost would have heavily recruited Gabriel. He's just does not appear to be mobile enough for his system. But I do think Gabriel throws a more pure deep ball than Milton does. He certainly does at the same age.

Assuming Gabriel continues to develop like I think he will, I think he's actually going to end up being a better fit for Heupel's system than Milton was.

[craig01]

Great post.

Can’t really argue on any point.

Milton’s comp percentage dropped because of the downfield throws.

Time will tell, but you may be right about DG being more a prototype for a JH offense.

[drsd]

I want to reiterate that I think Milton is the best player in the history of UCF ....