Defense is only bright spot in Knights' 20-14 loss to Hurricanes

Oct. 12--MIAMI

UCF Coach George O'Leary made a big pledge to his frustrated and disappointed team.

"As I told the players, I promise I'll get this right for them on offense," O'Leary said.

UCF's 20-14 loss to Miami at Dolphin Stadium Saturday before an announced crowd of 40,011 exposed everything that is wrong with the Knights' anemic offense.

The team did its best Jekyll and Hyde impression, with the UCF offense turning in a horrific performance while the UCF defense pulled off one of its best performances of the season.

"I'm real proud of the defense," O'Leary said. "I think we put them in some awful tough situations today. . . . It seems like I'm always apologizing to the defense, but we continually work on offense and we've got some youth in those positions and it shows. We just gotta continue playing solid defense and good special teams and hope the offense catches up."

The Knights fell to 2-4 overall, while Miami improved to 3-3.

UCF true freshman quarterback Rob Calabrese played all but one series for the Knights, going 11-of-35 passing for 74 yards. He was sacked four times and scrambled for 25 yards on 13 carries.

O'Leary said junior quarterback Michael Greco continues to have flareups from a knee injury he suffered at Boston College. The coach said Greco was only at 60 percent strength this week, prompting O'Leary to rely on Calabrese.

"I think a lot of what Rob did today was typical freshman stuff," O'Leary said. "We had some open receivers, and he either underthrew them or overthrew them. You know, that's part of growing up."

Sophomore wide receiver Brian Watters was among a parade of UCF offensive and defensive players who took personal responsibility for the loss and promised to find ways to improve.

"Of course Rob is young, and he has a lot more experience to gain out there," Watters said. "I'm not faulting him in any way because he's so young. As a receiver, I think that we need to lock in a little more and make tougher catches for him to build his confidence up. My hat's still off to him, win or lose."