Bortles had lots of late game heroics, but the defense was what allowed those heroics to take place. We held Houston, SMU, Memphis, and USF to 14, 14, 17, and 20 points respectively despite having horrible offensive showings. Most notably, USF beat us in the TO battle 5-2 but only hit 20 pts.

Our defense should be better this year. And after last year's defensive recruits, I think it'll be staying at a high level for a long time.

You will always need good talent on defense. You can't really pull smoke and mirrors on defense like you can offense with a good coordinator/system controlling the point of attack.

Well we were also 17th in total defense (including games vs Baylor's #1 scoring offense, Louisville and S. Carolina). All I was saying is that UCF's defense will be (and will have to be) the shining star this year. Guys like Glenn and Plummer will have to be the best players every week.

I don't think my comment was disingenuous at all, it was/is a very fair assessment. You have to either beat S. Carolina or Va. Tech & UNC back to back or it is possible that you won't be over .500 till Nov 1. I didn't make your schedule. UCF is the same way being front loaded and could suffer a similar fate if the defense doesn't play like a top 15-20 total defense this year