Following the first week of spring practices, the UCF football team is set to have a scrimmage in the Bounce House on Saturday and it’s open to the public.
This is the first time UCF has allowed spectators at a spring practice since the O’Leary Era in 2015.
The scrimmage session will give fans a much-awaited glimpse of how UCF will look early under Gus Malzhan and the new coaching staff.
After the first day of spring practice on Monday, UCF sophomore quarterback Dillon Gabriel said Malzahn is organized in his approach with his new team and it shows in his methods.
“Coach Gus just basically told us how it’s going to go from beginning to end,” Gabriel said Monday. “We were able to talk about it and know exactly what reps we were going to do — he walked us through.”
UCF sophomore quarterback Dillion Gabriel (11) lofts a deep pass to a receiver on the second day of UCF’s Spring Practice. Photo courtesy of UCF Athletics.
“The future of college football is here,” Gabriel said. “We’re really excited to go with it.”
A few players made mention of the changes they’ve observed throughout the first week of practice.
UCF redshirt junior defensive lineman Anthony Montalvo said the coaching staff is distinctly different than the previous stafff.
He said that Malzahn and the new crew will tell you what you need to hear rather than telling you what you want to hear.
“New guys coming in and you can see that they’re all love,” Montalvo said. “They’re definitely different from the old coaching staff. They seem down to earth.”
Coaches experimented with the pass catchers by rotating a variation of players at the receiver position over the course of practice.
The Knights’ receiver room is a bit crowded as the team currently holds 13 players at the position, but Malzahn had nothing but good things to say about the quarterback room and mentioned that Gabriel’s leadership was apparent during Monday’s practice.
“There were a lot of different receivers that rotated in. That was by design,” Malzahn said after the first day on the field. “We’ll start getting the timing down and all the little things once we get the big picture. Overall, I thought the quarterbacks were desperate to learn.”
UCF redshirt junior runningback Bentavious Thompson, who rushed for five scores last season, said on Friday the team is ready to get to work this spring season.
“New coaches, new staff coming, so everyone is just ready to roll,” Thompson said. “We’re just ready to learn, beat the expectations that we were challenged to reach. Everybody is just fired up, ready to rock and roll.”
Malzahn seems to be happy with the progress his team made adjusting to his new philosophy this past week.
When asked about the Knights’ chances to compete in 2021 behind Gabriel, Malzahn had nothing but very high praise for the third-year signal-caller and said the team is in a “good spot.”
“To have a chance to win a championship, you have to have a big-time quarterback. What he’s done before, I think he’s in a really good spot,” Malzahn said about Gabriel. “I think he’s got a good understanding of the big picture of what we want to accomplish this spring too.”
Click to the next page to watch press conferences from the first week of spring practices.
