UCF @ Navy preview
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium
Central Florida's nationally-ranked defense will be put to the test on Saturday when the No. 20 Knights make their first ever visit to Navy to face the Midshipmen in an American Athletic Conference contest. Add in the fact that it's homecoming for Navy and UCF will face its biggest challenge of the season in order to keep its perfect record intact.
The Knights enter the weekend allowing 16.8 points per game, ranked 14th in the country, and 110.2 yards per game rushing - 19th best in the nation. But UCF has yet to face an offense like Navy, which features the triple-option attack and averages an FBS-most 397.5 yards rushing per game - led by junior quarterback Zach Abey, who has already run for 1,016 this season. To help the UCF defense prepare, head coach Scott Frost - who ran an option offense with Nebraska in the late 1990s - took snaps with the scout team this week. "I love option football. I lived it,” Frost said during his weekly press conference. “I feel like option quarterbacks now are kind of like giant pandas; they only exist in zoos and military academies. ... You’ve got to have a tough kid that’s smart under center, and I think Navy has that.''
TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network. LINE: UCF -7.5
ABOUT CENTRAL FLORIDA (5-0, 3-0 AAC): The offense continues to roll on for the Knights, who lead the nation in scoring at 50.6 points per game after averaging just 28.8 a season ago. The Knights have reached the 600-yard mark on offense twice in the last three weeks, having picked up 500 or more in three consecutive weeks for the first time since 1998. Quarterback McKenzie Milton leads the offensive charge, ranked second in the country in passing efficiency (203.6) and fourth in passing yards per completion (16.54).
ABOUT NAVY (5-1, 3-1): The Midshipmen hope to rebound from the first loss of the season after turning in an uncharacteristic performance in a 30-27 setback at Memphis - just the third defeat in 20 contests since joining the AAC. Navy turned the ball over five times, the most turnovers committed by the Midshipmen since 2002 against Boston College (six). "Super disappointed in the way we played,'' Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo told reporters. "Things that were highly uncharacteristic of us with that many turnovers, untimely penalties. But we have no time to wallow in our misery, we have to move on because ... we recognize what a tough challenge (UCF) is going to be. We are going to have our hands full stopping them.''
EXTRA POINTS
1. The Midshipmen have won five consecutive homecoming games, defeating Memphis, Tulane, San Jose State, Pitt and Indiana during the streak.
2. Navy has recorded at least one rushing touchdown in 68 consecutive games while having scored at least two touchdowns on the ground in 61 of those games.
3. UCF has never started a season with six consecutive victories and has not won six in a row at any point since 2013.
PREDICTION: UCF 45, Navy 35