After the UCF Knights dominated the UConn Huskies 56-17 to start their 2018 campaign, one can imagine it’s hard for them to expect nail-biting competition from South Carolina State. The Bulldogs only attempted 10 passes total and recorded 31 yards on two completions. They carried the ball 42 times on the ground for 121 yards for that offense to post a pedestrian 151 yards.

When asked how he would motivate his team to improve between week one and week two of the season, UCF head coach Josh Heupel said, “We need to make a big jump . . . [We] need to have a lot of importance this week on focusing on us. And that’s what I stress to the players”. He continued on remarking, “It’s always a race against yourself to become the best that you possibly can as fast as you can”.

“We love playing in the Bounce House.” – Wyatt Miller More from Wyatt, Coach, KZ, EMitch and BAM at today’s presser 👇 pic.twitter.com/prEFswYQb0 — UCF Football (@UCF_Football) September 3, 2018

SCSU’s quarterback Tyrece Nick led his team in rushing while also scoring his squads only points last week. He poses a similar threat as UConn last weekend. Since he was fresh off of facing UConn’s David Pindell who posted more yards rushing than anyone else in the American Athletic Conference to open their season, I asked defensive back Brandon Moore about the unique task the Knights face stopping a mobile man from under center.

“It challenges us”, he said. “Every time you play a scrambling quarterback you have to stay on your guy. Coach always preaches, ‘Plaster, Plaster, Plaster!’ Plaster means you got to stay on your guy because if you have a mobile quarterback, he can run and if you come off your guy, then he could throw the ball. So it’s always tricky playing a mobile quarterback”.

Coach Heupel also commented that the Bulldogs were thick on both sides of the line, starting left tackle Wyatt Miller spoke on what he is preparing to face on Saturday. “. . . They play with good pad level. We got a look at them [on film] and they have a good front seven. They have a couple of guys that can play at ‘backer that are athletic. That just means that we have to come in and play with better pad level than they do”.

Kickoff is set for 6 pm EST as UCF hosts their first game of 2018 in the “Bounce House” that is Spectrum Stadium located in Orlando, FL.

Kyle Nash, known as The Student of the Game, covers UCF Football for SportsMediaPass.com and is a special contributor for Break the Fourth. He’s a also a writer for the DolphinsWire of USA Today and co-host of the DinnerTime and Default Assault podcasts.