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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2007

Like USF, UCF's Goal Is Getting Into Top 25

It might be difficult to differentiate between the long-range goals for Central Florida coach George O'Leary and South Florida coach Jim Leavitt.

In fact, they're bottom-line goals look to be identical.

'We want to be in the Top 25 initially, and then grow from there,' O'Leary said. 'I think all the pieces are in place to get that done.'

UCF has never been ranked in the Top 25.

The Knights, who were in the also-receiving-votes category last week, might have gotten there had they beaten 2-3 East Carolina last Saturday.

Instead, they turned it over five straight times in the third quarter to turn a 28-14 advantage into a 52-38 loss.

'We are playing much better football than we played the first three years as far as I am concerned,' O'Leary said. 'We are sort of shooting ourselves in the foot with turnovers, but as far as moving the ball and doing things that we need to do to get points on the board, I think we are doing that.'
FAMU Trying To Adjust Against The Run

A familiar weakness in the Florida A&M defense reared its head for the second consecutive week.

The Rattlers, who gave up 250 yards rushing a game last year but had cut that average to 130 in their first three games this season, yielded 297 rushing yards to Winston-Salem State last weekend.

The weekend before, FAMU gave up 238 yards to Southern University.
FAMU coach Rubin Carter has changed some of his starters on defense.

'We had been doing pretty well defending the run, but we played a couple of new guys and you don't have the continuity you want there,' Carter said. 'We're trying to get them to learn to play off each other. We can't let our opponents have long drives and possess the ball so much.'

Winston-Salem State had an eight-minute advantage over FAMU in time of possession.

The Rattlers play South Carolina State this week, the MEAC's worst offensive team.

Off Week Timely For Bethune-Cookman

Bethune-Cookman University is off this weekend and it couldn't come at a better time.

The Wildcats have lost all four Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference games and sit in the league's basement with only three more chances to climb out this season.

In MEAC games, the Wildcats are last in the league in scoring, pass offense and turnover margin (forcing only four turnovers, committing 11), and that last stat really irks Coach Alvin Wyatt.

His team outgained conference leader Delaware State 278-255 last week, but committed two turnovers and didn't force any.

'We've been putting the ball on the ground too much,' Wyatt said. 'When we don't have turnovers, we have success. We look at what we've done offensively and we could easily be on the other side of many of these games. I know we're going to be a different ballclub when we come back from the off week.'

Bill Fay

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