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Five UCF Football Players You Need To Know

Part of UCF Week.

UCF is one of those under the radar teams -- in a largely unrecognized conference -- that does not get the attention you'd expect given their recent success. Last season the Knights won 11 games, including an upset over Georgia in the Liberty Bowl. Most of the key players from 2010 will be returning to the Knights this season, which should give them a solid foundation for this season. For many BC fans, the names and faces of UCF players are unfamiliar, so leave it to BCI to help educate you. Let's look at some of the key players that made last year so successful for UCF:

1.  Jeff Godfrey -- Quarterback. Godfrey came in as a highly touted recruit, breaking all high school records in the state of Florida, and last year as a freshman he lived up to the billing. He threw for 2,159 yards and 13 TDs last season, while amassing 555 yards and 9 TDs rushing. Godfrey will be the second mobile QB Boston College will face in as many weeks. His numbers may be misleading though as he only threw for 316 yards with no touchdowns and 4 INTs in his three games against schools in BCS Conferences. Will BC be able to keep the pressure on him and keep Godfrey from having the kind of numbers he had consistently against the other Conference USA schools?

2. Josh Robinson -- Cornerback. Arguably UCF's best defender and possibly their best NFL prospect. Last season he tied for the team lead in interceptions with two. Only a sophomore, Robinson is built to cause hell on Kevin Rogers and the Eagles' offense. He's fast, great in coverage, and physical, and also the teams primary punt returner (averaging 15 yards a return last season). He's definitely someone that Chase Rettig is going to need to locate at all times, or he could make life difficult for the Eagles.

3. Latavius Murray -- Running Back. Last year UCF went with a trio of running backs, but this year it appears that Murray will be getting the bulk of the carries. BC's stingy run defense will make life difficult for the bulky Murray (225 lbs), but if UCF wants to stay in this game they are going to have to figure out a way to get him going. UCF held it's own against N.C. State last season, but 5 turnovers killed them. With good ball control through Murray this could help alleviate that problem.

4. Troy Davis -- Linebacker / Defensive End. Last year's leading pass rusher Bruce Miller is gone, and Davis is going to have to be THE guy on the pass rush. Compound that with the departure of DC Dave Huxtable to Wisconsin and with him goes a scheme that helped UCF allow the eighth fewest points in the nation last season. A relative unknown, Davis had a monster spring recording five sacks in the Spring Game. There are a lot of questions on the offensive line for BC this year, and someone is going to have to step up and contain Davis, or Rettig will running for his life for most of the game.

5. Nick Pieschel -- Right Tackle. Last year Godfrey was sacked only 18 times, which was due in part to his quick feet, but also because he had a great offensive line. BC showed last season that they can contain scrambling QB's, so it will be up to Pieschel to open holes for Godfrey and Murray.

Just missing the cut:

6. Knightro -- The Mascot. Nightmare fuel at its extreme. If I were Baldwin I would get nowhere near this thing. It looks like a bad villain from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that could shoot lasers out of its eyes and would just love to eat an Eagle for a snack.

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Defense

Godfrey looks good. Very Dominique Davis-esque with a bunch of zone reads.

Though looks like he hasn’t faced a defense as good as BC’s yet.

BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog

by Brian Favat on Jun 15, 2011 8:00 PM EDT reply actions  

Appreciate the coverage, but many wrong facts.

1) Godfrey rushed for 10 TDs. And 13 of the 14 games he played were against FBS schools. Do you mean BCS schools? And even so, we only played 3 of those, 1 of which he did not start but ran for a TD in it.

3) Last year our #1 RB got hurt during spring and got a medical redshirt so our 2rd RB coming into the fall got the start for games 1-2, but ran into academic problems so he was removed. Our 4th RB got the start from games 3-9. Then our 3rd RB (Latavious Murray) took over for games 10-14. Sure all got touches throughout, but 80% went to the starters at the time. This year the plan is to use the trio of RBs with our old #1 returning.

4) Davis isnt a LB, however he is a bit small for DE if he makes it to the NFL. And Yes our D Coordinator left for Wisconsin, but our DC from 3 years came back to take the position, of which our old DC was a positions coach under.

Great comment about Knightro and again thanks for the coverage.

by MarKnt on Jun 15, 2011 8:16 PM EDT reply actions  

Thanks for the corrections. Appreciate it.

Though I’m beginning to wonder whether all UCF fans are either actuaries, accountants or statisticians professionally.

BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog

by Brian Favat on Jun 15, 2011 8:45 PM EDT up reply actions  

Heh funny you say that. Huge UCF fan here. Actuary by day. Though there will be less actuaries coming out of UCF now. This year was the last year of the Actuarial Science program at UCF :(

Article was a nice read. I thought it was interesting which players were your “top 5 to know”. Don’t forget about Quincy McDuffie, Kemal Ishmael, Darius Nall, among MANY others. Looking forward to playing you guys :)

by braineater2448 on Jun 15, 2011 11:17 PM EDT up reply actions  

I got 5-6 Tweets from UCF fans with corrections to some of these stats. It’s like you were living and dying on every Jeff Godfrey passing TD :)

BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog

by Brian Favat on Jun 16, 2011 8:22 AM EDT up reply actions  

I think that’s a fair assessment of our fanaticism.

by KnightLine on Jun 16, 2011 8:48 AM EDT up reply actions  

I actually am an accountant…

But no, were just use to getting a lot of crap from teams like Georgia who think that since were not a BCS team were not worth playing so they try to skew the numbers and what not. Because of this we all know our real stats about our team to tell people like that off.

by MarKnt on Jun 15, 2011 10:09 PM EDT reply actions  

Article

Facts wrong or right it doesn’t really matter. We are used to seeing articles from BE teams complaining about why we shouldn’t be in the BE and why we don’t deserve the attention. So it’s nice to see an informative article from someone else about UCF. Looking forward to a good weekend of football on Sept 10th. Hope you guys can make the trip down to see why we (UCF Fans) are so hyped on our future in BCS football and what makes UCF such a great school. Good luck.

by PhilipUCFKnight on Jun 16, 2011 8:44 AM EDT reply actions  

Sounds like we have something in common. A healthy dislike of Big East programs.

BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog

by Brian Favat on Jun 16, 2011 9:27 AM EDT up reply actions  

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