ORLANDO, Fla. – As the Knights prepare to fight for a redemptive win in South Florida – against the team who sparked the powder keg in last year’s implosion – many questions about their identity still remain.
For this week however, naming a starting quarterback isn’t one of them. McKenzie Milton will get his second career start against the FIU Panthers (0-3).
“We’re going to play whatever player gives us the best chance to win, sometimes that has to do with health, sometimes performance, whatever it is. We’re excited to have all of our quarterbacks back up and completely healthy; but I think McKenzie gives us the best chance to win this week,” offered Frost when asked about what might determine who is going to start this week.
Even with a stable of healthy quarterbacks Coach Frost is going to put his faith in the true freshman dual-threat over the senior leadership of Justin Holman.
Last week Milton was forced into action stemming from Justin Holman’s injury at The Big House, marking the first time UCF has started a true freshman at quarterback since Jeff Godfrey in 2010. His second start stems from the performance in that game, one that was impressive if a bit unpolished.
In his one-game audition he completed 21-of-36 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns; he accounted for 19 attempts that moved forward for 62 yards and a rushing touchdown; but he fumbled the ball six times (turning over three of those loose balls), tossed an interception and netted only seven total rushing yards with the accountancy of yards lost from sacks and busted quarterback runs.
“It’s hard to grade a guy on his first start, [but] he did some phenomenal things,” Frost said after checking the tape this weekend. “Moved the team, thought he was really calm and handled the pressure of the whole thing really well. Made some big plays, we’ve got to eliminate the bad plays. We shot ourselves in the foot so many times in that game. Winning teams don’t do that.”
Don’t be fooled into thinking Coach Frost is starting the dark-horse candidate to lead this team just to get his own recruit experience in what many have labeled as a rebuilding year with many “moral victories” ahead. McKenzie Milton has impressed enough to earn the starting job this week, but in this system the depth chart is a living document; one that will be re-evaluated on a constant basis.
“I think we’ve got a lot of young guys playing on offense, I think it will help us in the future to get our young quarterback some experience, but it’s not fair to the whole team to play young guys just because they are young guys. Every single game we’re going to decide who gives our team the best chance to win.”
“I want to do them the best service I can by playing the best players.”
