UCF @ Tulane preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 18, 2014 ) Tulane 13, Central Florida 20

Tulane suffered a pair of embarrassing defeats to begin the season before bouncing back to knock off Maine in Week 3. UCF, which visits the Green Wave on Saturday, is still looking for that first win and has yet to score more than 15 points.

The Knights have already lost to the likes of Furman and Florida International, and one more setback will match their total from the previous two seasons – both of which ended with them at or tied for the top of the American Athletic Conference. “Right now you go into conference play and this is conference week,” UCF head coach George O’Leary told reporters. “And that’s something I preach all the time and that’s been the only goal we’ve ever had since I’ve been here is to win the conference.” Tulane went 2-6 in the AAC last season and is hoping to get off to a better start in 2015. “All of these games really are must win games for us,” Green Wave head coach Curtis Johnson told reporters. “We haven’t had that much success in the conference so we need to win as many games as we can.”

TV: Noon, ET, ESPNews. LINE: Off

ABOUT UCF (0-4): The Knights are a distant last among FBS teams with an average of 244 yards on offense and freshman quarterback Bo Schneider is learning on the job after taking over under center full time at South Carolina last week. Schneider threw his first touchdown pass in the contest and a recorded a pair of interceptions, though some of those struggles could be placed on the receivers. “One of the biggest issues I have is really with the receivers,” O’Leary told reporters. “I mean, we completed balls but really when you look at hidden yards after the catch or after the first hit, there’s only about 11 yards. ... they’ve got to be able to run through things and make people miss.”

ABOUT TULANE (1-2): Quarterback Tanner Lee was forced to put the ball in the air more than the team wanted while getting blown out by a combined 102-17 against Duke and Georgia Tech to start the season, and the results weren’t pretty. Lee completed under 53 percent of his passes and threw a pair of interceptions in the first two games but threw for a season-high 277 yards and a touchdown without a pick in the 38-7 win over Maine on Sep. 19. “(Lee) looked like he wasn’t on edge as much, just much, much calmer,” Johnson told reporters. “I thought he threw the ball extremely well and made great decisions. If he continues to do that, I think he’ll be successful.”

EXTRA POINTS

1. Tulane LB Nico Marley is second among AAC players with 23 solo tackles.

2. UCF is 15-1 in AAC play since the conference began in 2013.

3. The Knights claimed a 20-13 win in the 2014 meeting and are 5-1 all-time against the Green Wave.

PREDICTION: Tulane 24, UCF 21