Justin Holman suffers injury as UCF fall to Michigan in The Big House

Justin+Holman+went+down+with+an+apparent+injury+in+the+third+quarter+and+did+not+return.

Bryce Brimhall / Valencia Voice

Justin Holman went down with an apparent injury in the third quarter and did not return.

ANN ARBOR, MI — Justin Holman went down with an apparent injury in the third quarter and special teams were a mess as the UCF Knights fell to the No. 5-ranked Michigan Wolverines 51-14 in front of an announced attendance of 109,295 at Michigan Stadium on Saturday.

Michigan opened up the game by scoring 31-unanswered points, with 10 of those points coming after UCF gave up good field position with poor special teams play. The Knights had two punts tipped and a field goal blocked, all of which left the Wolverines with good field position.

“We got behind on field position right away and gave them some short fields,” said UCF head coach Scott Frost. “This is a process, I think on all three phases of our team we have to learn how to play faster and harder, execute more precisely.

“Our team played hard today, there’s absolutely no doubt about it. The passion, the effort, the physicality was there, sometimes our execution isn’t where it needs to be. The team, we played executed really well.”

Holman went into the locker room after taking a hit during the final UCF drive of the opening half, he was replaced by Nick Patti for the remainder of the game. When Holman left the game he was 3-11 passing for 19 yards. Patti finished the game 3-11 for 37 yards.

Frost did say “we look forward to having him back,” when asked about Holman’s injury, but the first-year head coach would not give any details about the type of injury the quarterback sustained or how long he could be out.

The Knights’ passing game struggled as a whole, throwing for a combined 56 yards. For comparison Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight threw for 312 yards and four touchdowns, with one of his scores coming on a 45-yard pass to Amara Darboh.

UCF did run the ball well, as the Knights rushed for 275 yards against a tough Wolverines defense and scored both touchdowns on the ground. Between four running backs and two quarterbacks UCF rushed for over 200 yards for the first time since Oct. 31, 2015.

“It’s a major positive to take out of today,” said Patti of his team’s rushing offense. “Coming into games like this you always want to set some goals and in our game plan running was a big part of it.”

Adrian Killins 87-yard touchdown run put UCF on the scoreboard in the second half, but by then the Knights were already in a 31-point hole, cutting Michigan’s lead to 31-7 before the Wolverines rallied off another 12-straight points. Killins led the team in rushing, despite only having one carry.

Dontravious Wilson scored UCF’s second touchdown when he went 34 yards into the end zone for his second touchdown in as many games. Wilson finished the game with 17 carries and 83 yards to go along with his score.

Michigan outgunned UCF 447-331 in total offense, despite the Knights rushing for 156 more yards than the Wolverines. UCF lost the turnover battle to Michigan 2-0 after losing two fumbles, while the Knights also struggled on third down going 2-14.

“I give our defense a ton of credit,” said Frost following the game. “Now we need to fix some things in pass defense, we got to find ways to throw the ball on offense to open other things up. There’s a lot to fix but there is also a lot to really be exited about.”

The loss marked the first defeat as a head coach for Scott Frost and dropped UCF’s record to 1-1 for the season. The Knights next game will be against Maryland (2-0) on Saturday, Sept. 17 at Bright House Networks Stadium, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.