{"id":822072,"date":"2026-08-27T20:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/822072\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T20:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:48:15","slug":"ucf-has-plenty-of-options-to-back-up-alonza-barnett-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/822072\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF has plenty of options to back up Alonza Barnett III"},"content":{"rendered":"

With preseason camp winding down and the start of the college football season quickly approaching, UCF<\/a> coaches continue to make final decisions on position battles before announcing a depth chart next week.<\/p>\n

For the first time since the 2023 season, the Knights won\u2019t have to worry about who will start the season at quarterback. That falls squarely on the shoulders of transfer Alonza Barnett III<\/a>, a two-year starter at James Madison, who led the Dukes to a Sun Belt conference title and a spot in the College Football Playoff last season.<\/p>\n

But who backs up Barnett remains somewhat of a mystery with the season\u2019s opening game Thursday night against Bethune-Cookman.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s been good competition<\/a> between senior Keyone Jenkins, redshirt sophomore Kaleb Annett and true freshmen Rocco Marriott and Dante Carr throughout the spring and into the fall, coach Scott Frost<\/a> isn\u2019t ready to make a final decision until next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaleb had a great spring and a really good fall camp. I\u2019m comfortable with his abilities right now,\u201d said Frost. \u201cThat being said, Rocco\u2019s done great. Lights (Jenkins) has done great. Dante has done great when he\u2019s got the reps. There are a lot of guys that are there that I trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 6-foot, 200-pound Jenkins, a three-year starter at Florida International, was the most likely frontrunner when the team entered spring camp. The 21-year-old has passed for 6,713 yards with 42 touchdowns and 25 interceptions during his time with the Panthers.<\/p>\n

Annett, 21, spent two seasons at Boise State before arriving at UCF in January.<\/p>\n

Offensive coordinator Steve Cooper<\/a>, who knew Annett from his time with the Broncos, sees a much different quarterback than when they first met.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest difference is he got bigger, faster, stronger and he\u2019s got experience now,\u201d said Cooper, who spent the 2024 season as an offensive analyst at Boise State. \u201cHe\u2019s still the same dude that I remember. A great teammate and a guy that\u2019s got a lot of good leadership traits. If you know Kaleb, he\u2019s never had a bad day and those are the guys you want to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Annett, Marriott (6-4, 220) has also impressed throughout the camp, but both face challenges in competing for the backup job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are younger and they have to get it right the first time,\u201d Cooper explained. \u201cThat\u2019s the challenge of being a backup quarterback. You\u2019re never going to get enough reps to be perfect unless you get it right the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re processing a heck of a lot more information than maybe they had to 10 or 15 years ago, and they\u2019re taking it all in stride.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a veteran such as Barnett leading the room, it\u2019s only natural that the other quarterbacks might turn to him with questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I\u2019ll get questions and it\u2019s my job, in general, just as a believer of faith, to try to be a servant as much as possible,\u201d said Barnett. \u201cThat\u2019s something that KZ (quarterbacks coach McKenzie Milton<\/a>) harps on: the cohesiveness of the room. We\u2019re all mentors to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frost, who led Nebraska to two national titles as a quarterback, likes the way his quarterback room has shaped up over the past eight months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the professional nature that they approach things with and the talent we have in that room. I feel great about that room,\u201d he said. \u201cIt helps that we have a clear-cut number one, and I think that takes pressure off other guys to just take their time and improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram at @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With preseason camp winding down and the start of the college football season quickly approaching, UCF coaches continue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,325,420,165,48,6,1725,47,76,3883,80939,66,8858],"class_list":["post-822072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando-magic","tag-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-magic","tag-nba","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlandomagic","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117169442239304735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}