Fiesta Bowl Open Thread

Submitted by gwkrlghl on

UCF already up 14-0 on Baylor just 9 minutes into the game.

This is well worth watching just because UCF's offense is awesome to watch. Their running back Storm Johnson is a horse and Blake Bortles is great himself. When I see them play, this is what I imagine Al Borges' perfect offense looking like. Power running and downfield passing. (The football analysts of the blog can feel free to disagree with that)

Seriously, Storm Johnson is beautiful to watch. Think Brandon Minor + 20 lbs

Ty Butterfield

January 1st, 2014 at 9:22 PM ^

I don't care if O'Leary lied on his resume. UCF doesn't look soft. Need that at Michigan.

gwkrlghl

January 1st, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^

One thing that makes me a bit more hopeful about the future of Michigan football is that 5-6 years ago, if you told me all these teams were in BCS bowl games (MSU, Stanford, UCF, Baylor) I would've slapped you. Things can change quickly in college football.

AeonBlue

January 1st, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^

I just moved to Cocoa (40 mins from Orlando) so I'm a UCF fan by location I guess. Storm Johnson is going to be special I think. He averaged 5.2 ypc this season. Wonder what that feels like. I'll bet it's nice.

LordGrantham

January 1st, 2014 at 9:36 PM ^

George O'Leary has had as many double-digit win seasons in the last two years at UCF as Michigan as had in the last ten. 

Tater

January 1st, 2014 at 9:54 PM ^

I have dismissed UCF as a team that is amassing wins in an inferior conference.  However, when stacked against Baylor, they actually look more like an elite football team than one that is a year removed from having to qualify as a "BCS-buster."

Uper73

January 1st, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^

There is no Borges perfect offense cause it's all in his head. He can't get talented athletes to execute his immense play book because it's too complex instead of simplifying his strategy and focusing on excellent execution.

MichiganStudent

January 2nd, 2014 at 12:08 AM ^

Wow, Baylors defense is putrid. If they aren't whiffing on tackles they are getting defensive holding or pass interference.

elhead

January 2nd, 2014 at 12:23 AM ^

Audio producers and engineers are great at keeping volume levels even and, well, audible. Why the hell is Spielman being so damned quiet? You can hardly hear him...

MJ14

January 2nd, 2014 at 1:57 AM ^

One can't seem to run a defense and the other can't run an offense. This can only mean one thing: Texas is hiring both Shaw and Briles for 10 million each a year for 10 years as co-head coaches. Why? Because according to Texas they can get whoever they want, so what better than these two together? 

CoachBP6

January 2nd, 2014 at 3:13 AM ^

I love UCF's offense. George O'leary is a hell of a coach and I hope he gets another shot at a big time school.

The pro style hybrid is my favorite offense to run as I believe it gives you the most variety to attack teams in a number of ways / formations / personnel packages. UCF lulled Baylor to sleep with the read option inside zone game and then took advantage of the over aggression to stop the run by calling some screens that went to the house. After that Baylor was forced to be very vanilla on offense and had no idea what was coming, which is when UCF stoked up the short / intermediate passing game that controlled time of possession.

Michigan could flourish in an offense like UCF's.

JamieH

January 2nd, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^

My only thought was how sad is it that the University of Central Florida would probably destroy Michigan on the football field?  Ok, maybe destroy is too strong--if Gardner played like he did against OSU we would put up enough points to be competitive.  But I can't see us beating them under any circumstances.  And that is just sad.