{"id":39734,"date":"2025-05-10T19:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T19:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/39734\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T19:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T19:09:09","slug":"five-overreactions-for-ucf-football-heading-into-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/39734\/","title":{"rendered":"Five overreactions for UCF football heading into offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

While UCF<\/a> made significant strides during its spring football camp, the Knights provided limited glimpses into the makeup of their 2025 team. This subtle approach seems suited for new coach Scott Frost<\/a>, who is not aiming for immediate bold headlines or flashy announcements.<\/p>\n

Here are some potential overreactions that have emerged from the first four months, along with insights into what to anticipate for the coming season:<\/p>\n

Nobody panic: It\u2019s easy to get caught up in the fact that UCF\u2019s roster has undergone a massive retooling over the five months, with 37 players entering the transfer portal during the winter and spring transfer windows. Most of those moves were expected, especially with Gus Malzahn<\/a>\u2018s departure and Frost\u2019s hiring.<\/p>\n

Frost has revamped the roster by avoiding the pitfalls of focusing too much on star players and rankings. Instead, he is concentrating on addressing specific needs within the team. Many new players have multiple years of eligibility and come with lower NIL price tags. This approach mirrors Frost\u2019s strategy during his initial tenure at UCF, where he prioritized developing talent rather than simply acquiring it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The quarterback position will be better: Let\u2019s face it, it\u2019s hard to imagine that things could get worse than last season. The Knights experienced a chaotic situation, resembling a game of musical chairs, as four players started at quarterback without any of them being injured. This disruption impacted the offense, leaving the Knights near the bottom of the Big 12 in passing performance.<\/p>\n

Although no definitive starter has been established from spring camp, there is considerable potential within the group. Transfer Tayven Jackson<\/a> seems to be the leading candidate for the position while Jacurri Brown, Cam Fancher and Davi Belfort<\/a> bring distinctive skill sets that could make the competition in the fall camp quite intriguing.<\/p>\n

Keep an eye out for those receivers: Few positions offer as much uncertainty as wide receiver<\/a>, where the Knights have returned less than 5% of their production from last season. The roster spots feature nine underclassmen, most of whom haven\u2019t had a catch during their young careers. Yet the group features plenty of raw talent and athleticism.<\/p>\n

UCF quarterback commitment Kane Archer high on the Knights<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

While transfers such as DJ Black and Duane Thomas will most likely earn much of the early headlines, don\u2019t be shocked to see freshmen Carl Jenkins Jr. and Waden Charles occasionally steal some of the spotlight throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t look now, but the Knights will hang their hat on defense: To be fair, UCF has had four different defensive coordinators in the last five seasons, making it challenging to establish consistency when players are continually adapting to new systems. New defensive coordinator Alex Grinch<\/a> takes over a unit with considerable experience, especially in the front line. Malachi Lawrence and Nyjalik Kelly lead the pass rushers, and the unit is expected to improve with the addition of transfer Sincere Edwards. The tackles include John Walker, returning from injury, and transfers Horace Lockett Jr. and RJ Jackson.<\/p>\n

Although the linebackers are mainly new to the team, the secondary stands out as the most talented and experienced group. Transfer Phillip Dunnam made significant impact during spring camp, and the additions of Isaiah Reed and Jayden Williams in the fall are expected to strengthen this unit further.<\/p>\n

A bowl game isn\u2019t out of the question: When Frost spoke at his introductory media conference in December, he told fans to temper their expectations for this upcoming season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to go undefeated,\u201d he stated, referring to his last year at UCF when the team went 13-0.<\/p>\n

Frost spent much of spring camp underselling his team to reporters, hoping to avoid interest from schools looking to poach talent.<\/p>\n

Although the schedule isn\u2019t the most challenging in the Big 12, the Knights must contend with challenging road games against Kansas State, Texas Tech, Baylor, BYU and Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

They also have home games against North Carolina, Houston and Oklahoma State. Achieving six wins is realistic, but surpassing that total seems unlikely.<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @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":"While UCF made significant strides during its spring football camp, the Knights provided limited glimpses into the makeup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3722,7,49,48,11842,4708],"class_list":{"0":"post-39734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-big-12","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-scott-frost","13":"tag-ucf-knights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114485117985726676","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}