The UCF Knights held their first official scrimmage of spring practice on Saturday in the Bounce House. The 11-on-11 scrimmage served as UCF’s eighth spring practice and the first of which to include live tackling.
This was the second time the football team allowed spectators to view spring practice this season.
“It’s been a pretty solid first two weeks but there’s nothing like a scrimmage, that’s when you as a coach are able to evaluate everything, everything is clear,” said head coach Gus Malzahn. “We went 97 plays. Our quarterbacks were live, all but Dillon, which I think is good to evaluate these guys.”
Malzahn said it is especially good for the Knights’ defense.
“We started out the practice with four live field goals, field goal blocks which was very good,” he said. “During the course of the scrimmage, we had three punt returns. We were thud on the ball carrier. Everything else was live.”
When coach Malzahn was asked about the squad’s conditioning and the importance of being fundamentally sound, he admitted the team will improve through more live practice reps.
“It was the first day we tackled, so obviously we missed some tackles. For the most part, I think the ball carriers, I think there two or three balls on the ground,” he said. “That’s to be expected, but one was a really good hit. It was a good overall base evaluation. There wasn’t a whole lot of fancy offensive or defensive plays. It was more of put the ball down and play.”
Malzhan made the point that the first scrimmage session was not perfect, but he appreciates the players’ effort and desire to be coached.
“It needs to be better. I told them afterward, for the first time, I’ve been a lot of places for the first scrimmage and it’s usually pretty ugly. I didn’t see a whole lot of people that were showing bad body language. Just acting like they were down and out. We didn’t see any of that,” Malzahn said. “Guys were trying to push through and trying to finish. That’s what stood out to me. That’s what I told them. We’ll get all the little things.”
Malzahn said there were drops, missed alignments, missed assignments, but said it all comes down to coaching.
“We’ll get that taken care of,” he said. “If they continue to buy in and play extremely hard and push through and have that winner come out of them, we’ll have a chance.”
Malzahn also spoke about the importance of Saturday’s scrimmage for the quarterbacks and stated it was a great opportunity for the coaching staff to evaluate what they have at the position.
Freshman quarterback Parker Navarro displayed his athleticism by picking up a first down on a read-option play and later broke a few tackles en route for a long touchdown run on a separate series.
Mikey Keene, a member of the Knights 2021 recruiting class, also made a few plays with his legs toward the latter part of the scrimmage.
Sophomore quarterback Dillion Gabriel called his own number a few times during first-team reps but was not contacted after escaping the pocket.
“It was good for them to see how they reacted. There were a couple of good runs. When you’re back there practicing and wearing a gold [no-contact] jersey and we’re blowing the whistle and telling the defense to stay away from the quarterback, but there’s nothing like getting out there and really playing,” Malzahn said about his signal-callers. “Now we can evaluate them.”
Malzahn said overall, the quarterbacks did well and it was “good for them to play regular football.”
Brandon Johnson and Jaylon Griffin — both incoming transfers for UCF — each scored a touchdown in Saturday’s scrimmage. When asked about the pair of pass catchers for the Knights, Malzahn appears to like what he sees early on.
“They’ve flashed and done some good things,” he said.
Malzahn pointed out that it doesn’t matter if a guy is new or returning — everyone is starting new with a new system.
“Offensively, defensively, and special teams — I think it’s a real positive for a guy who just got here,” he said. ” In a normal situation, you’d be behind quite a bit and they’re not.”
Redshirt freshman running back Damarius Good also stood out on Saturday by breaking off a few big runs and was also able to take a screen pass the distance for a score.
Good wasn’t the only member of the Black and Gold’s backfield to shine in Saturday’s scrimmage.
Redshirt freshman running back R.J. Harvey — a former quarterback at Edgewater high school in Orlando — made some plays out of the backfield in both the run and passing game.
“He’s a guy that’s impressed me at times. He’s learning to play the position. You can tell that. I think it’s important to him,” Malzahn said about Harvey. “It was good for him today for the first time get out there and play real football, playing the running back position and not playing quarterback.”
Divaad Wilson, last year’s redshirt sophomore transfer from the University of Georgia, impressed on the defensive side of the ball accounting for an interception and a few tackles throughout the course of his live reps.
Wilson also spent time on special teams rotating at the punt returner position with sophomore wide receiver Amari Johnson.
“He’s one of those guys that you can feel his presence, I can tell you that,” Malzahn said about Wilson. “He’s a confident guy, flies around. He did some good stuff today.”
A handful of former Knights were in attendance during the scrimmage to show support for the team.
The NFL Draft prospects are set to participate in UCF’s Pro Day, which will take place on April 1.
Despite a productive first two weeks of practice, Malzhan admits the team has shown plenty of flashes, but nothing has surprised yet up to this point in the spring season.
“I don’t know if there’s anything that really surprised me. It’s more our players. I think they’re trying to do what we’re asking them to do. That’s the good thing,” Malzhan said. “You’re coming in with a new team. You’ve got new personalities. Coming in with a different scheme, new coaches. Overall, I think our guys are trying to do what’s asked. That’s the No. 1 thing when you’re building a foundation is are the players coachable and doing what you asked. I think they’re trying to do that.”
Malzahn revealed the Knights will be more detail-oriented heading into next week and that next week’s scrimmage will be more situational, including two minute-drills.
“Fine-tuning the details. We talked about developing a foundation this spring. We didn’t get a lot of chances to walk-through and meet with our guys. We hit the ground running, so we’re playing catch-up,” Malzahn said. “We’re trying to lay the foundation, that way this summer when they’re working out on their own, they can actually improve and they’ll know exactly what’s expected. It’s more about the details.”
He said the team will be working to identify strengths through the rest of the spring.
“We’re going to build around our strengths. We’re starting to understand that a little bit better,” he said. “We probably learned more today than any of the other practices overall. So that’s good for us. We’ll have a personnel meeting today and tomorrow. That will be good for us as coaches.”
