By Jacob Seliga
Lead Writer
In 2019, just five years after his college coaching career began, Kenny Dillingham accepted an offer by Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn to become the offensive coordinator of the Tigers. Malzahn had been the mastermind to some of college football’s most successful offenses and was giving the young protege Dillingham his first major job opportunity.
Now, five years later, the student has an opportunity to usurp his teacher, as Malzahn leads the UCF Knights into Tempe to face Dillingham and the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Last week, the Knights snapped a five-game losing streak in a dominating performance against the Arizona Wildcats. With a healthy and suddenly thriving UCF team coming to town, the Knights pose multiple challenges on both sides of the ball that makes their 4-5 record all the more puzzling.
For the Knights offensively, the passing game for the first time since the early portion of the season has started to get into a rhythm, which has been a struggle at times. Through nine games, UCF has started four different quarterbacks which if one was to be told that was the case preseason, a shocking look likely would’ve been given.Â
To start the season, former Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson held the job for the first four games before losing his spot to freshman EJ Colson, who only started in one contest before being benched. Jacurri Brown took over after Colson and lost his job before the Arizona game to Dylan Rizk, who appears to be comfortably in control to finish the season.
Rizk, in the first start of his college career, gave the Knights their best passing performance of the year, as he completed 86-percent of his passes for 294 yards and three touchdowns that included a 48-yard hail mary before halftime.Â
But for as great as the passing game was UCF, what will be the bread and butter for the Knights will be the rushing attack with potential All-American running back RJ Harvey leading the way.
Harvey, through nine games, has been one of the best performers in the country having rushed for 1,201 yards at 7.1 yards per carry and 16 touchdowns. He leads the Big 12 Conference in rushing yards per game and ranks No. 3 in the country, averaging 133.4 yards per contest. His 16 rushing touchdowns places him inside the top-five in the nation.Â
Defensively, UCF and Arizona State are very similar in their strengths are and what they’re built to do. For the Knights, everything starts up front with their four man defensive line.Â
Defensive ends Malachi Lawrence and Nyjalik Kelly lead the pass rush, combining for seven of the team’s 15 total sacks, 46 tackles and two forced fumbles. They’re joined by the interior duo of tackles Ricky Barber and Lee Hunter, who have done most of their damage in the run game and containing opposing rushers from getting going. Both players have combined for 10.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks and have contributed to a rushing defense that ranks inside the top 35 nationally.Â
For how strong the front line of the Knights has been, the back half of the UCF defense has been shaky for most of the year. Entering Week 11, the Knights are near the bottom of the country for passing yards allowed, where they rank No. 104. They rank No. 122 in red zone defense.
Prediction: Arizona State 34 UCF 24
The Sun Devils are officially playing with house money. With the six-win threshold officially reached, Arizona State is going bowling and is still very much in position to make a run for the conference championship.
However, there’s a strong chance that the Sun Devils will have to play this game without their heart and soul in running back Cam Skattebo. During last week’s contest against Oklahoma State, Skattebo suffered an undisclosed injury that put his status for the game in doubt at the beginning of the week. Therefore, in this game, the Sun Devils will have to likely rely more on quarterback Sam Leavitt, who is coming off the best start of his college career.
Last week, Leavitt threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns in an offensive explosion that saw Arizona State eclipse 500 yards of offense. To help ease the load off of Leavitt will have to be the likely starter at running back, Kyson Brown, who is also coming off a career day last week. Brown rushed for 63 yards and two touchdowns, the first two rushing scores of his career.
He’s an explosive runner whose style is similar to Skattebo in the sense that he likes to run between the tackles and can go through contact with his size. Although the rushing game may take a hit against a strong UCF defensive line, the Sun Devil offense should be able to out pace the Knights behind Leavitt and his connection with Jordyn Tyson. Last week, Tyson led all receivers with eight receptions and has been the most reliable pass catcher in the offense leading in all three receiving categories so far. With a vulnerable secondary and overall passing defense as a whole, Tyson should be able to showcase his skills and the offense shouldn’t see much of a drop off even if Skattebo is out.
The Sun Devils will win this contest comfortably and will get ready for a big road trip to Kansas State next week.Â
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