UCF head coach George O’ Leary publicly criticized the inconsistent play from quarterback Justin Holman before the Knights’ matchup against Tulsa Friday night, heading into the game with a short leash.
However, after a convincing 31-7 route, he finished with even the Golden Hurricanes’ respect.
“Justin does a really nice job of throwing when he’s supposed to and taking off when he gets those opportunities, but he’s athletic enough where he really is a playmaker with the ball in his hands,” said Tulsa head coach Bill Blankenship. “He threw a nice deep ball today, several of them.”
The sophomore signal-caller posted his best performance of the season, throwing for 291 yards, including a 77-yard bomb to wide out Josh Reese midway through the second quarter. Holman might have silenced O’Leary’s doubt by, indeed, showing signs of consistency, powering the offense to win the time of possession battle by more than an entire quarter longer than Tulsa.
The box score might signify that Holman deserves the game ball honor.
But a true football eye could appreciate the game plan that offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe implemented against an underwhelming Tulsa defense, which surrenders 38.4 points per contest.
UCF used a ton of play-action early in on, making the Golden Hurricanes’ linebackers and secondary double guess their play calls. The Knights continued to push downfield in the first quarter using this formula, but as the offense mixed in a few under routes, the big plays began to roll. Holman averaged just over 18 yards per completion due to coach Taaffe’s theory, and the Knights became bowl eligible because if it.
Hopefully, Justin Holman’s performance against Tulsa has solidified his starting position for the remainder of the season; with hopes of a January bowl game.
“It’s pretty good to be bowl eligible again. At the same time we are not where we want to be in terms of what we want for the rest of the year,” said Holman. “We want to be in a big bowl game against a great opponent.
“That’s what we are going to work for.”
UCF is now 6-3 (4-1) on the season and interlocked with Cincinnati and Memphis for lead dog in the AAC standings. With neither of those two opponents on the remaining schedule, the Knights unfortunately doesn’t control their own destiny. However, if the Knights, Bearcats and Tigers win the remainder of their games, they would all be considered conference co-champions.
Next year the AAC will welcome Navy, bring the conference to 12 teams, breaking out into two divisions. Most importantly, there will be a conference championship game played – so this is the last time this problem will occur.
The remainder of Cincinnati and Memphis’ schedule matches them against opponents who hold a combined conference record of 9-12 this season. UCF can only hope for Connecticut, South Florida, Temple or Houston to give the other two conference leaders a loss.
Until then, coach O’ Leary will have to hope his young quarterback, Justin Holman, can continue to improve his consistency.
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