2018 College Football Team Previews: UCF Knights
UCF Knights
Location: Orlando, FL
Coach: Josh Heupel (0-0) 1st Season
Stadium:Spectrum Stadium (Capacity: 45,301)
CSJ Projections:
1st: AAC (1st East Division)
2nd: Florida
22nd: FBS
22nd: Division I
2017 In A Sentence: UCF finished as the only undefeated team (13-0) in all of Division I football last year and while it did not get invited to the College Football Playoff, it did win the Peach Bowl over Auburn but all the success cost them their coach as Scott Frost left for Nebraska.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: LB Shaquem Griffin as named the 2018 Peach Bowl Defensive MVP and was the 2016 AAC Defensive Player of the Year. He was drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft this past spring by the Seattle Seahawks.
Key Player: QB McKenzie Milton threw 4,037 yards with 37 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. The now-junior was named the AAC offensive player of the year and placed 8th in the Heisman vote. He will look to duplicate the same kind of offense that he had under Coach Frost now under Coach Heupel.
Fearless Prediction: The Knights did loss not just their coach but several key contributors but still have a lot of pieces left to make a run at another AAC crown and very well could still be the best team in the Group of Five. While going undefeated seems a stretch as it might take some adjustments under the new coaching staff but still expect UCF to be playing in a New Year’s Day Bowl game.
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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