I wanted to see the UCF and Tulane games last night because we play them later on this year and get some kind of idea of what we will face. Here is a brief observation of those teams after game one.

UCF - 14
FIU - 15

1. UCF looks suspect in the secondary which should help us because we can probably get a few mismatches with our very good receivers.
2. The UCF QB looks average and we may have a slight advantage.
3. The UCF offensive line looks a bit soft, but this IS the first game. Most of the time that is the case early on.
4. One of the things about O'Leary's teams I've always noticed is that he runs a very vanilla offense - very much like BB did here. There are times when everyone in the stands knows what he'll call and even where the play will end up.
5. The defense is solid up front.

Tulane - 7
Duke - 37

It wasn't so much that Tulane was overwhelmed as it was that they just couldn't make plays when they needed to. But this was a competitive game that got out of hand later on.
1. Tulane has an average offensive line and we should at times dominate them with our DL.
2. The secondary is athletic but at times overaggressive.
3. The QB - Tanner Lee is not very mobile, but has a decent arm and can be a factor because the WRs are the strength of the Tulane offense. I also noticed that the QB tends to rush his passes when under pressure.
4. Tulane made a lot of mental mistakes.
5. Defensive line is average and the LBers are slightly above average. We can score on Tulane if we mix up runs and passes.

In conclusion, neither of these teams scare me. Both are winnable games. Now if we play like I think we can, we "can" beat either of these teams IMO. Neither team will overwhelm our secondary IMO. Thats the key to the season.

Tonite is SMU v Baylor.

Play well. Good luck Mustangs!