{"id":364945,"date":"2026-08-07T03:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364945\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T03:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:16:22","slug":"older-more-mature-knights-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364945\/","title":{"rendered":"Older, more mature Knights in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reasons for optimism at UCF\u2019s Football Media Day <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 As UCF enters year two of head coach Scott Frost\u2019s second run in Orlando, the Knights do so with newfound confidence in some older players. A more experienced roster, buoyed by James Madison transfer quarterback Alonza Barnett III, is expected to help UCF be more competitive in what has recently been a wide-open Big 12 conference. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The addition of Barnett III could be the ultimate game-changer. A year after the Knights went 5-7 with four different quarterbacks seeing playing time, Barnett III comes to Orlando with considerable success and confidence under his belt. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">He helped lead the Dukes to a spot in the College Football Playoff this past season, and brings immediate stability to the most critical position on the field. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Barnett\u2019s addition to a more mature roster was a major talking point of the Knights\u2019 media day on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 kfUEDb copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p>About the AuthorRyan Welch headshot<a class=\"Link-PukYsz7Y__LinkBase-sc-scvrjz-0 gQZqgJ\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/team\/4T523B3MIVC5JH2HWCPOJYWHDM\/\" title=\"View Ryan Welch&#039;s full profile\" itemprop=\"url\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Welch<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 duhyRF bxSMlJ\">Ryan Welch joined the News 6 Team as a sports anchor and reporter in July 2017. After nearly 15 years in the industry, Ryan gladly brings his passion for sports to Central Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reasons for optimism at UCF\u2019s Football Media Day ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 As UCF enters year two of head&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1335,139,141,140,110,7219],"class_list":["post-364945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sports","tag-ucf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364945","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=364945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}