UCF Football: Saturday Spring Practice Notes

ORLANDO, FL—Like many schools, UCF is not having a spring football game this year. There have been a couple weeks of practice, however, so the competition is heating up. UCF had an open practice available to the public today, which I attended. Here are my initial notes on what I saw at the UCF spring football practice.

UCF Spring Football: Saturday Practice Notes

QB Competition Far From Over

Four quarterbacks are fighting for the starting role. Two of the quarterbacks are incoming transfers are Cam Fancher from FAU and Tayven Jackson from Indiana. The front-runner still looks to be Dylan Rizk, who was the Knights’ starter during the final stretch of 2024.

The offensive line is a work in progress, but the quarterbacks need to work on timing and getting rid of the ball faster. Some of the receivers were getting open during the practice session, but the quarterbacks were late throwing the ball, causing some interceptions.

All the quarterbacks made their fair share of mistakes, but Rizk seemed the best at throwing on the run. Jackson made some questionable throws that ended in interceptions.

All the quarterbacks are mobile and can run. Fancher seemed to leave the pocket early to run on passing plays.

There were only a couple deep balls that were completed by the unit today. This race may go all the way until the first game of the season.

Running Back Depth Chart is Loaded

Myles Montgomery looks to be leading the pack in the running back room. He looked decisive on runs and showed physicality.

Stacy Gage also had some explosive runs and was able to show off good vision during the whole practice.

Western Michigan transfer, Jaden Nixon saw both spectrums in back-to-back plays. A nice explosive run down the sideline, followed by a fumble in the backfield. However, Nixon looked explosive when given a chance.

Tight Ends are a Strength

I noticed that early in drills, transfer TE Dylan Wade was winning on deep corner and post routes. Unfortunately, the quarterbacks were overthrowing or underthrowing the ball to him. Wade was getting put out in the slot a good amount of snaps and will be a big body for the quarterbacks to look for.

Kylan Fox also showed great ability down the field with strong hands on short contested catches. Both Wade and Fox have big frames and should be used to exploit matchups all season.

Unproven, but WRs look Strong

There are questions about what receivers will step up this year for the Knights. Yet, couple newcomers were very impressive at the UCF spring football practice today.

Freshman Carl Jenkins Jr. was quick in and out of breaks, and had a couple of nice catches down the field. He was targeted the most amongst the wide receivers today.

In the slot, the transfer from West Virginia, Ric’Darious Farmer, looked quick. It’s likely he will be very involved in the offense especially on screen and jet sweeps.

There were not a lot of connections but freshman Waden Charles was consistently getting open and beating defenders off the line. He is a name to watch out for this coming fall.

Another intriguing transfer is DJ Black out of Limestone. He only had a couple catches on short out routes but he looks like he could work himself in the rotation this coming fall.

Defense Making Plays

When a defense plays well, there’s always the question of whether the defense playing is that great, or is the offense struggling? Today, it seemed like it is a little of both.

Quarterbacks did have some late throws, but the secondary was very tight in coverage. Philip Dunnam, another transfer from FAU, was a ball hawk all day. He had two big hits and had a nice interception playing center field.

Jayden Bellamy was also noticeable in the secondary with a couple of nice breakups in coverage. Even DT Keshaun Hudson intercepted a late pass, then ran it back. The whole defense ran onto the field and you could see that the unit brought the intensity all day.

Overall, the defense had four interceptions in the open practice and consistently was getting pressure on the quarterback.