{"id":259596,"date":"2026-05-05T19:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/259596\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T19:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:15:15","slug":"ucf-spends-spring-camp-focusing-on-correcting-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/259596\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF spends spring camp focusing on correcting penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCF<\/a> football often was its own worst enemy at times last season.<\/p>\n

The Knights struggled with penalties, with the team being flagged 91 times, the fourth-most in the Big 12 and the most by a UCF team since the 2020 season.<\/p>\n

Many of the issues stemmed from the challenges of integrating nearly 70 new players into the roster, alongside a coaching staff working together for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re asking guys to do a lot of things; to think before the snap and during the snap and when you\u2019re putting the offense in for the first time, that can be a little overwhelming for guys,\u201d said coach Scott Frost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just being able to stay locked in and focused. If you start thinking about who you have to block and what\u2019s going to happen and you\u2019re not mature enough or have played enough to remember the snap count, little things like that got us last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Particularly frustrating were the pre-snap penalties, for which the Knights were flagged 40 times among the 65 penalties called on the offense. Twenty-seven of those penalties were false starts on the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to cut down the penalties, especially the pre-step penalties,\u201d said guard Connor Meadows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose procedural issues seem to happen at the worst time,\u201d added offensive coordinator Steve Cooper. \u201cWhen we know our assignments and we have our feet firm, we\u2019re going to execute better.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an effort to eliminate those types of mistakes this upcoming season, the coaching staff began breaking down the changes needed and implementing them throughout spring camp. One of the things they\u2019ve focused on is a renewed emphasis on different cadences that seem to cause the offense to jump early.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on that with [strength and conditioning coach] Coach [Zach] Duvall,\u201d said starting right tackle Preston Cushman<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s out here on the field right behind you; he\u2019s got us on different cadences, making us all mad trying to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frost also credits his team\u2019s ability to get to the line of scrimmage faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur urgency to get out of the huddle has been a lot better,\u201d he said. \u201cNot hustling in and out of the huddle and taking a little too long, being in a hurry and having something happen, everything feels a lot more under control now.\u201d<\/p>\n

When AJ Blazek arrived as the Knights\u2019 new offensive line coach earlier this year, he brought with him a reputation for being able to limit those types of mistakes.<\/p>\n

While serving as offensive line coach at Wisconsin, the Badgers were the second-least penalized team in the Big Ten in 2025 and the sixth-least in 2024. In his two seasons in the same role at Vanderbilt, the Commodores were the least-penalized team in the Southeastern Conference in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes to mindset. We have colors, we have numbers and we have code words,\u201d said Blazek. \u201cWhen I played [football], it was like on [the count of 2] we\u2019re not jumping. But all you hear is \u2018we\u2019re not jumping, jump, jump\u2019 and it can get into a kid\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

UCF throws support behind Big 12\u2019s private capital deal<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you just change the mindset, that helps your guys and it slows the rush down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blazek inherited an offensive line unit with one returning starter (Cushman) and several players who had taken significant snaps last season (Meadows, Owen Spell and Camp Lott). But the addition of transfers Cooper Terpstra, Brady Wayburn, Tyler Gibson and Henry Tabansi gives the group an experienced core to work with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not the most talented group anywhere I\u2019ve ever been, but if we can be a smarter group that plays a little harder, all that stuff neutralizes and you can take over,\u201d said Blazek.<\/p>\n

Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCF football often was its own worst enemy at times last season. The Knights struggled with penalties, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259597,"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-259596","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\/259596","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=259596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}