It was just like old times.<\/p>\n
Cole Kozlowski<\/a> stood side by side with UCF<\/a> linebackers coach Mark D\u2019Onofrio<\/a> on Monday. His white helmet was propped up on the familiar golden locks of hair with the familiar No. 43 white defensive jersey draped on his 6-foot-2, 230-pound frame.<\/p>\n Nine months since he last stepped on a football field for the Knights, Kozlowski was back on the practice field after a U.S. District Court judge\u2019s ruling two weeks ago allowed the Class of 2022 athletes an additional year of eligibility.<\/p>\n While Kozlowski is officially on UCF\u2019s roster and back practicing with the team, his eligibility status remains uncertain.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know his official status. The rules are changing faster than Mario Brothers when you go through warp zones.\u201d UCF coach Scott Frost<\/a> said, referencing the popular video game Super Mario Bros. \u201c It looks different every week. He was cleared to be back and is enrolled in classes, but we\u2019re waiting on a final decision.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had spots on the roster and it was worth the shot for us to bring him back in the hopes that everything goes his way and he can play. He\u2019s a no-brainer to bring back because of the type of kid that he is.\u201d<\/p>\n The NCAA is appealing the injunction by Judge Charlotte Sweeney, leaving his future murky, to say the least.<\/p>\n Kozlowski was second on the team in tackles (82) last season behind fellow linebacker Lewis Carter, who had 92. His one season with the Knights followed three seasons at Colgate, a Football Championship Subdivision school.<\/p>\n After going undrafted in April and not signing with an NFL team, Kozlowski\u2019s hopes of continuing his football career seemed slim. The injunction, however, opened the door for another year of eligibility and a return to the Knights.<\/p>\n \u201cHe seems like he\u2019s in pretty decent shape. I feel really good about the other guys we have at that position. So nothing\u2019s going to be handed to him,\u201d said Frost.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great thing for the linebacker room. You want as much depth and competition as you can have and I feel really good about the room right now. Obviously, we have no control over what happens, but if he were to come back, it would make our room better,\u201d D\u2019Onofrio said during media day last Thursday.<\/p>\n The New Jersey native has been limited in his brief return, participating in early team workouts and some drills.<\/p>\n D\u2019Onofrio indicated that the biggest hurdle for Kozlowski would be conditioning.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge would be working through it and figuring out when he\u2019s ready and not trying to push him too early. He\u2019s basically been out eight months. He\u2019s played his last game with us in November and here we are,\u201d said D\u2019Onofrio. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t treat him any different than a guy coming back from a long-term injury. If you brought him back to camp, you would bring him back really, really slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside of the physical limitations, perhaps the biggest question is integrating Kozlowski into a linebackers unit that features several newcomers, including transfers Tackett Curtis, Jahleel Culbreath and Rashad Henry along with Arthur Kingdom and freshmen Preston Hall and Matthew Occhipinti.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not want to bring anybody into this program right now that\u2019s going to upset the apple cart with what we got going on from a culture and just level of character and integrity we have in the locker room; Koz certainly fits that mold,\u201d said Frost.<\/p>\n Added D\u2019Onofrio: \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of guys on our team that were teammates of Cole\u2019s last year, so he was a guy that went to battle with them. He was a guy that played well. He\u2019s a guy that they liked.\u201d<\/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":"It was just like old times. Cole Kozlowski stood side by side with UCF linebackers coach Mark D\u2019Onofrio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368008,"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-368007","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\/368007","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=368007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}