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UCF coach waits until second half to switch QBs

DUBLIN – Coaches can help their team win a game with good decisions, but they also can cause their team lose with bad calls, and Central Florida’s George O’Leary might have done the latter Saturday.

O’Leary started redshirt freshman quarterback Pete DiNovo, who looked like a deer in headlights most of the time he was in the game. The Knights, of course, have to replace top-five NFL draft pick Blake Bortles, and while no one expected DiNovo to fill those big shoes, he at least was expected to give some semblance of a good effort.

He didn’t.

But O’Leary stuck with DiNovo a long time, playing him the entire first half until finally going to backup Justin Holman on the final play of the half (a sack). Down just 10-3, O’Leary also gave DiNovo one more series in the third quarter, and he continued to look confused with a three-and-out.

“We’ll look at tape and see what happened with Pete in the first half,” O’Leary said. “I have a pretty good idea what happened.”

He went on to say that DiNovo held the ball too long on some throws. DiNovo, who was 3-of-8 for 18 yards, finally was pulled in favor of Holman with 6:50 left in the third quarter.

Penn State is lucky it took that long.

The Knights trailed 13-3 when Holman took over, and he immediately led the team on a 70-yard TD drive, highlighted by a 50-yard pass to Breshad Perriman.

That made it 13-10, and what had appeared to be an easy day for Penn State’s defense suddenly got much more difficult.

The Lions scored to make it 20-10, and Holman came right back with another TD drive. Penn State kicked a field goal for a 23-17 lead, and Holman answered with a perfect fourth-down throw that Josh Reese hauled in to set up a go-ahead touchdown for the Knights with 1:13 to play.

Holman finished 9-of-14 for 204 yards, and one can only wonder how much more he could have done had he played earlier.

“He throws quick, he’s not afraid to zip the ball in there if someone’s even within 3 or 4 yards coverage,” O’Leary said. “I thought he handled the game well. He made plays when he had the opportunity. That was the difference between the first half and the second.”

Central Florida’s offense was at a big disadvantage playing without two of its best players in receiver Rannell Hall (elbow injury) and running back William Stanback (turf toe). The Knights never fully overcame the loss of those two big playmakers, and they were entirely one-dimensional as they rushed for only 24 yards on 29 carries.

Their defense also had no answers for stopping PSU’s Christian Hackenberg, who threw for a school-record 454 yards.

“(Number) 14, I think everybody in the country would like to have him,” O’Leary said.

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