In our next opponent preview, we take a look at a sneaky-good team, the UCF Knights.
Oklahoma and UCF have never faced each other on the gridiron. This year in Norman, they’ll break the ice in the Sooners’ final year in the Big 12 and the Knights’ inaugural season as a Power Five team.
UCF is an interesting team. They bring back a lot of their team that just went 9-5 and played for a conference championship.
They were also ranked the last five weeks of the season before ending the year on a two-game losing streak, which included their Military Bowl loss to Drake May and the Duke Blue Devils.
According to ESPN (ESPN+), UCF returns 66 percent of its production, which ranks 51st in the nation. They return 62 percent of their offense which ranks 78th in the nation, and 69 percent of their defense, which ranks 43rd.
Their offense finished 16th in the country last season. Gus Malzahn knows how to coach offense, so it should be good again. Defensively they finished 69th in the country, but, as we said, they return a lot which should help them as they make the transition to the Big 12.
Starting quarterback John Rhys Plumlee returns after throwing for 2,586 yards, 14 touchdowns, and eight interceptions last season while completing 63 percent of his passes. He also ran for 862 yards, which led the team, and 11 touchdowns.
They lost their second-leading rusher Isaiah Bowser, but he only finished with three yards more than R.J. Harvey, who does return. Harvey averaged more yards per carry as well, but Bowser had more touchdowns.
They lost wide receiver Ryan O’Keefe, who was second in receiving yards last year. However, they bring back leading receiver Javon Baker, who caught 56 passes for 796 yards and five touchdowns. Wide receiver Kobe Hudson, who led the Knights with seven touchdown receptions, also returns.
If you watched any games of a Malzahn offense, you know how much they love the read option. If you watched Oklahoma play last year, you know how much the Sooners struggled with a running quarterback.
This is a matchup nightmare for the Sooners. It’s why you better hope this defense is much improved, or this is a game they could lose.
The one thing they have going for them is the Sooners will be coming off a bye week. So, they’ll have two weeks to prepare.
Defensively, the Knights return leading tackler Jason Johnson, who had 126 tackles last season. They also bring back four of the top five players in tackles from a year ago.
The Knights also lost only one of the players in the top five in sacks as well. Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste now playing for the Ole Miss Rebels.
UCF returns a lot of production and experience, but they are entering a new conference. The Knights will be one of the most intriguing teams to watch this season. They are a team that could make a lot of noise in the conference. They are also a team that the new conference could be too much for them.
Because of everything Malzahn and that offense brings, this one is going to be a shootout, in my opinion. It’s also one of those games the Sooners would not have won last year.
Score Prediction: 38-35 Oklahoma
Predicted Record: 6-1
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