Justin Holman's Rebirth
Justin Holman is now entering his senior season and third season as UCF's starting quarterback. Well let's call it really his second season as last year he gets a mulligan, but more on that later. Holman heads the dubious honor of being the quarterback to succeed UCF legend Blake Bortles at the most high profiled position. It appears that Holman has those high standards to live up to. In many UCF fans minds, Holman will never be Bortles, never live up to the standards that Bortles had set. No matter how well Holman did or how many breathtaking plays he has made or the fact that he has sacrificed his body behind the worst offensive line in football, to some he will always be the quarterback that underachieved when Bortles left. But now this year, Justin Holman has a chance to silence all his critics. Under Scott Frost, Justin Holman will shine.
Justin Holman's tenure as quarterback has been unspectacular if one just looks at stats. His touchdown to interception rate is 31:28. He has thrown 14 interceptions in both of his seasons as starter. He has been sacked 37 times behind that porous offensive line. He has not been the most accurate having a 59 and 51 percent completion percentage as a starter. Holman has been nicknamed "Nolan Ryan" because he has gunned the ball into the hands of his wideouts. Yet, for all the negatives, the blame does not solely fall on Justin Holman. As mentioned before the offensive line has been dreadful. Just look at the Missouri, NC State, and Stanford games, Holman was battered and beaten. How he was able to keep coming back just shows his toughness and heart. This leads me to my next point: Holman should not have played after the Stanford game. Justin had a severe broken finger on his throwing hand. Grip is so important for a quarterback and Justin never could after his injury when he returned. UCF should have applied for a hardship waiver, but O'Leary made a lot of mistakes last year.
On top of the injury and poor offensive line, UCF's offense under Brent Key was one of the slowest in college football. The Knights ran 66.3 plays per game last year, which was good enough for 122 in the country. The Knights ran 61 plays per home game last year. So when Holman was able to play, the Knights were running a slow, simplistic "offense" that hindered his talents. Oh yeah and the running game was non existent when Holman has been quarterback. That means more pressure by the defenses and more coverage based defenses as they never had to truly concern themselves with the run. So before Knights fans go blaming Justin Holman for all of the ills that have befallen UCF.
For the negatives that one can point out about Holman, he has still been a good quarterback post Bortles. He has after all only gotten to work with an offensive coordinator for one season as a starter. The man has one of the strongest arms in college football, which has allowed him to make some throws that even Blake would be afraid to make. Holman has made some of the most spectacular plays in UCF history. Let us go back to the BYU game where UCF trailed 24-10 into the fourth quarter. It was Holman that had the guile and balls to draw the defense offside for a free play, which led to him hitting Josh Reese on a beautiful pass. Of course there is the Hail Perriman pass against ECU that will forever go down as the 2nd best o,any in modern UCF football history. Justin Holman has a NFL caliber arm. Holman also plays better when moving at a faster pace. Under Taffee, the Knights ran 76.2 plays per game with Holman as a starter. It is no coincidence that Holman made great strides when the Knights were playing at a faster pace in games. This meant that UCF receivers were running slants and short passes to get the ball out of Holman's hands faster. See ECU and BYU. He thrives in a fast pace offense.
Which is why he will excel under Scott Frost/Troy Walters. With Scott Frost as offensive coordinator Oregon ran 79.1 plays per games good enough for 20th in the country. Oregon actually ran more plays per game at a higher tempo without Marcus Marriotta than they did with him. So anyone worrying if Frost can bring the Oregon tempo over this should quash those concerns. Troy Walters was part of a Colorado staff that ran 79.7 plays per game, better than Oregon. Do not be surprised if UCF is top of the American in terms of plays per game/pace, which will benefit Holman. As noted in a previous article, Frost's offense is option based, which means that there will be several holes for an athletic quarterback. Holman fits that role. Of course Frost's offense has produced a Heisman trophy winner and it helps that Frost held was a quarterback while Troy Walters played in the NFL. Scott Frost/Troy Walters could not have come at a better time for Justin Holman.
Of course someone will comment that I was the same person that wrote a few months ago that McKenzie Milton should be the starter this season. There were two reasons for that: I firmly believe that if a team can upgrade a position at they should do that regardless of the player's class. Second I had not seen the spring game. After that Spring game, Holman made me a believer again. His passes were clean, efficient, and he showed off his arm. He was 10-15 for 127 yards. Holman looked like a completely different quarterback. Of course this was only a Spring game, but the point remains the same. It appears that finally Justin Holman will be the quarterback that we all hoped he would be.
