West Virginia coaches and players have a lot to do during the week. They have to correct the past and then quickly prepare for the future. There are only a couple of days to do so. This is similar for journalists. Sunday and Monday are for looking at what happened in the past, and then you quickly have to move on to the game ahead.

You can look at stats, box scores and watch some highlights, but you don’t get the nitty-gritty details that a full-time beat writer would.

So, we reached out to the UCF football beat writer for Daytona Beach News-Journal to get the finer details on the Golden Knights before their matchup with WVU. Here is what beat reporter Chris Boyle had to say about UCF:

The defensive strength

One of UCF’s strengths is definitely its pass defense. The Golden Knights’ pass defense has been one of the better units in the country. They are currently 14th in the country in pass yards allowed. They’ve only allowed five passing touchdowns in the country.

UCF’s corners have been primarily Jayden Bellamy and Antione Jackson. PFF has Bellamy only getting targeted four times last week, and he didn’t allow a reception, so he’s kind of emerged as its No. 1 corner. He had a couple of picks for Syracuse last year. Those guys have been reliable starters out there. Lewis Carter, at linebacker, has been impressive in all phases. He’s UCF’s leading tackler, and he’s also graded out well in coverage, too. I think top to bottom, this defense has proven that it can carry the Knights and keep them in games.

UCF’s defense had faced Kansas State’s Avery Johnson, Kansas’s Jalon Daniels, and Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby in three straight games, and it has allowed fewer points in every game.

Offensive struggles

The major struggle for UCF has been consistently running the football. Myles Montgomery last week had 13 carries for 56 yards. He had carried the ball for 22 yards on the last carry of the game. His longest carry before that was five yards. That was like the final play of the game when they were essentially draining the clock.

UCF has really struggled to get push on the interior and to consistently churn out 4,5,6 yards a clip. The Golden Knights had some big explosive runs.

They have 16 runs this year of over 15 yards, but they’ve been kind of in spurts, and several of them came against lesser competition.

Until UCF finds a way to consistently make it easier for the quarterbacks, so teams aren’t able to load the box and take away the run, that’s going to be an issue that’s going to prevent them from becoming a good team this year, a team that can contend this year.

Takeaways from

Cincinnati loss

The takeaways were that UCF can step up and play with the better teams in this league, but it’s yet to really master making the winning play or avoiding the drive-stalling penalties.

The Golden Knights had five false starts against Cincinnati. They had a killer illegal chop block that set them way behind the chains that was on the fringe of the red zone, driving in to make it a one-score game. That was really the play that derailed them, because Cincinnati came right back and hit a big pass play and kicked a field goal to make it a three-score game on the ensuing drive.

It’s been those fine margins where the more experienced and more talented teams thrive, and where, so far, right now, UCF is struggling.