Coaches love to drop the quote, \u201cLuck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
For UCF<\/a>, nothing could have prepared the Knights for the bad luck that would befall them and their quarterback room over the past two seasons. Injuries and poor performances led to eight different players taking snaps over the past 24 games.<\/p>\n When Scott Frost<\/a> returned last season, he retooled the quarterback unit, bringing in a trio of transfers in Tayven Jackson<\/a>, Cam Fancher and Davi Belfort<\/a>, coupling them with returner Jacurri Brown.<\/p>\n Fancher earned the starting nod to open the season, only to suffer a broken collarbone early in the first half of the opener against Jacksonville State. Jackson would start 10 games, but would also be injured, as would Brown.<\/p>\n Heading into the season finale at No. 11 BYU, UCF had two healthy quarterbacks available in Jackson and Belfort.<\/p>\n UCF would finish 10th in the Big 12 in passing offense, averaging 220.8 yards per game.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just a messy year for quarterbacks and I liked the kids we had a year ago,\u201d Frost recently told the Orlando Sentinel. \u201cCam won the job out of camp and then got hurt in the first game. Tay played well for a while and then maybe not so well. Cam came back and then he got hurt again. Even a couple of our backups were in and out with injuries. It was just hard to get really good on offense with that kind of inconsistency.<\/p>\n \u201cEverywhere you go in football, if something goes wrong, it\u2019s the quarterback\u2019s fault and the head coach\u2019s fault. A lot of times, things get put on the quarterback that are out of their control, but the fingers always seem to point in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Fancher, Jackson, Brown and Belfort all exited through the transfer portal in the offseason, giving Frost and his coaching staff a chance to rebuild the unit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt like we needed to just hit reset,\u201d said Frost.<\/p>\n UCF went back to the transfer market in the offseason, signing former James Madison quarterback Alonza Barnett III<\/a>. Barnett, a multi-year starter, was the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year last season after leading the Dukes to the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re evaluating somebody in the portal, it\u2019s really easy to just get lost on the measurables, the height, speed and talent, but quarterback \u2014 more than any other position \u2014 is about the intangibles and that\u2019s what sold me on Alonza,\u201d Frost said. \u201cWatching him and getting to know him and talking to people about him, his approach and his professionalism are elite.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were missing some leadership from the quarterback position last year and some of that competitive fire and the ability to find a way to win regardless of the situation or defense. Those are things Alonzo will make us a lot better at.\u201d<\/p>\n As UCF battles for NCAA tourney berth, 2018-19 team recalls magical run<\/a><\/p>\n The 5-foot-11 Barnett appeared in 30 games (27 starts) during his four seasons at JMU, leading the Dukes to a 21-6 mark. The redshirt senior has thrown for 5,433 yards with 49 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He\u2019s also rushed for 1,075 yards and 23 touchdowns.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not all about the quarterback, but typically, when you\u2019ve got a good one, there are a lot of things that work, even when you don\u2019t call the perfect play, the right quarterbacks find a way to make it happen,\u201d said Frost.<\/p>\n Frost believes the Knights have surrounded Barnett with enough experienced and talented players to be successful. That includes a quarterback unit with several transfers, including Keyone Jackson (FIU) and Kaleb Annett (Boise State), along with a pair of freshmen in Rocco Marriott and Dante Carr.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Alonza will be really good for our young quarterbacks to see how somebody that\u2019s done it at a high level just operates day to day, and hope that makes them better,\u201d said Frost.<\/p>\n With spring camp around the corner, Frost is excited about the potential of his quarterbacks.<\/p>\n \u201cI love our quarterback room right now. Right now, these guys are ahead of the game,\u201d he said.<\/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":"Coaches love to drop the quote, \u201cLuck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.\u201d For UCF, nothing could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,76046,110,3865],"class_list":["post-191325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}