UCF offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw goes in-depth regarding the quarterback competition, noting the significant improvement from John Rhys Plumlee and Timmy McClain and also how impressed he's been with freshman Dylan Rizk. Hinshaw also addresses several other topics, including the program's recent recruiting successes.
Here's a recap of the 18-minute interview:
Hinshaw was asked about the quarterback competition behind John Rhys Plumlee. He first noted Plumlee is playing at a "high level" and then heaped praise on Timmy McClain for his vast improvement since the spring.
"(McClain) has improved incredible from the spring and where he was, which was more of a freelance artist, kind of doing his own thing, to now he's playing quarterback," Hinshaw said. "The install now has gotten where he's got to chop it up and dissect it and really define, but he is doing what I want him to do at quarterback.
"We can trust (McClain) with the keys to the offense and go out there and go win for us. And Timmy is doing that. He's very explosive running the football. He's got to improve on his ball security. He wants to be like Michael Vick and hold the ball out to the side and we don't do that. But I really like where he is in his progression from where he was in January through the spring and now into fall camp where we can go win with him."
"So I'm very excited about that. Now, he's got a long way to go. He's got to detail the position. And again, it's a constant daily deal. It's a mental toughness with him, but he can give a lot of defenses nightmares with what he does when he does scramble. And again, when he's running that offense correctly, it's pretty darn good."
True freshman Dylan Rizk has caught his eye.
"The next guy that's really stepping up is Dylan Rizk," Hinshaw said. "He is a true freshman. He is working constantly on the game, the offense. I'm very, very proud of where he's at. He's making freshman mistakes, what you expect. We've only had him for two months, but the strides he's taken is incredible and he's really pressing Timmy right now."
Xavier Williams is a transfer from Charlotte who arrived during the summer.
"Xavier Williams is in a situation where he's just swimming a little bit as far as the offense," Hinshaw said. "And again, he came in and he works extremely hard and I love him, but we got to go execute the offense. There's a learning curve that's different for every quarterback, but I'm working with him constantly in getting him to get to a level where he can go compete because right now he's making some mistakes in delivering the ball from point A to point B and his lead shoulder to his target and all the fundamentals that he needs to do. When you got guys that are coming to, you know, kill you at quarterback, you got to be able to react and not just do it on air. So, there's a learning curve that happens here. He's gotten better and better every day."
Hinshaw then complimented Rizk again, saying he's been a nice surprise.
"He's a player and he can play," Hinshaw said. "I'm very excited about his future and where he's going."
In regards to starter John Rhys Plumlee, where has he made the most strides since Hinshaw's arrival in January?
"Just with his confidence in the offense and playing quarterback," Hinshaw said. "He's not looking to run around and go take on the whole defense and go fight them to the death. He's not doing that anymore. He's playing quarterback and it's fun. It's exciting. He's making great decisions, quick decisions. He's got his eyes on his progressions. He's understanding where everybody is supposed to be. He's trusting the receivers, he's trusting the offense where he's not worried about where they're going to be or what's going to happen. And he's looking at defenses and he's reading defenses quicker and he's getting the ball where it needs to be.
"Again his progression these next 10 days of practice because install is just about done. And now really start to really fine tune, fine tune. You know, the old TVs when we had the top channel, I know nobody probably remembers that, and then you had the fine tune deal at the bottom. You get it on the channel and then you turn that knob. We're there with John Rhys, but we're fine tuning. We're fine tuning and getting ready to go so that we can go be perfect in everything that we do."
What did he think about Sunday's scrimmage?
"The thing that was that I liked the most is the long drives because that's what we've got to get used to," Hinshaw said. "Our tempo was very good. Our tempo was good. Can it be better? Yes, but our tempo was good. Our alignments, assignment wise, we know what we're doing. That's half the battle right there is knowing what you're doing.
"Then the next step is we got to sustain and we got to get tougher. We have to get tougher on offense. It's been summer and you're going against air or you're going against trash cans because we can't go against each other. Now you got to actually go press up against another human being that's really pressing you and to understand pad level and all the fundamentals of everything that we do.
"We have to go do that and we've got to get tougher. We got to be physical and that was the weakness that I thought in the scrimmage that we weren't tough. That's what UCF is, that's what Knights are. Not just running plays and knowing what to do, but now fine tune what we're doing.
"And it's a toughness. It's a mentality that we bring every single day and it got better today. It got better today at practice. You saw leadership on the sideline. We saw guys getting after it. We had our longest team period that we've had so far since we've had fall camp and they had to grind. That's what Coach (Gus) Malzahn is doing to them right now. We went through it and we actually were better at the end than we were in the beginning, which is a good sign.
"The throwing and catching part, John Rhys missed three throws. There were explosive plays down the field, but what you didn't see in John Rhys is the knucklehead play. The play where you're like, what is he doing? Those things didn't happen. And I was very proud of that, where he is really playing quarterback and just a couple of targets to Kobe (Hudson) and one to Javon (Baker) and one to Alec Holler. We complete those and he had an unbelievable scrimmage.
"So again, in those situations, I want to see us run the ball better. We are a great running team. We didn't run the ball with passion. I want to see our running backs getting after it, but we also have to create seams for them and we got to be able to do that and that starts with the o-line. The big men lead the way.
"So in that process, we got to do it all together as an offense, but I think our defense is very, very good. Addison Williams is doing an incredible job with our defense. I think we're going to be a complete team. I really believe that. We're going against good guys. Our d-line, our linebackers, our secondary. It's a good situation where we really get to go at it every day with them."
Tuesday was a banner day for recruiting, landing two four-star prospects that propelled UCF within the top 25 of team recruiting rankings.
"The bottom line is Coach Malzahn is on it every single day," Hinshaw said. We don't have many days off. When you look at what's supposed to be the offseason, it's not the offseason for us. Coach Malzahn has really just literally pressed the pedal down as far as recruiting goes and staying on guys and recruiting. We'll recruit against anybody in the country. We're not worried about that. We're not. We're going against against SEC schools. We're not worried about that.
"We got more targets coming. Believe me, who's next? We're in that process right now of continuing to do that. We've got to go do it on the field and go have a great season this year. It all works together."
The Big 12 has obviously benefited UCF tremendously.
"Terry Mohajir, he's the best AD in the country," Hinshaw said. "He's working his tail off constantly. To get us into the Big 12 was huge. In the past, you've seen the players UCF has put into the NFL and the talent we've brought here and developed. But now we're going to bring in better talent quicker instead of having to wait for their development. That's huge and it all comes with the Big 12. They don't have that against us we're in the Power Five."
Hinshaw spoke a bit about the rotations and depth, how they're going three-deep in practice. There's a daily competition in practice. He spoke about his own history at UCF, how they recruited a quarterback every year that wanted to take his job. He mentioned the fact wide receiver Trent Whittemore is coming along.
As far as the center competition, Hinshaw said they've got three centers that can play between Caden Kitler, Bula Schmidt and Drake Metcalf. They're all rotating. They'll start to narrow things down soon.
Asked about leaders on the offense, Hinshaw mentioned Lokahi Pauole, Marcellus Marshall and Tylan Grable on the offensive line. Alec Holler among the tight ends. He's extremely vocal. And John Rhys Plumlee is the leader.
Javon Baker is coming on. "He's practicing like every snap is important to him. You'll see it on Saturdays."
Xavier Townsend is also a leader, though Hinshaw would like him to be more vocal. RJ Harvey is a leader among the running backs. He'd like to see the running backs be a little more physical, breaking tackles and extending runs.
Gus Malzahn spoke recently about the need to execute "end-of-game scenarios." Hinshaw elaborated.
"When you look at the Big 12 last year, every single team had at least four games that were decided by less than a touchdown," Hinshaw said. So what that means at the end of the game, you're either in four minute or you're in two minute (offense). You're trying to score to either get back ahead or you're trying to run the clock or you're trying to do situational football where you want to get first downs, run the clock and end the game."
They've been practicing those various scenarios.
"When you look at the Big 12 and the teams that were in those games-- TCU was 5-0. Texas was 0-5. The record could easily be skewed the other way if you lose those one score games. That's what we have to do with situational football at the end of the game is to be able to finish and then find a way to go win."
Hinshaw then elaborated a bit more on freshman quarterback Dylan Rizk.
"He's got incredible energy and he is working his tail off. Every play is like the Super Bowl for him, which is what I want a quarterback to be like. You see that he's a winner. But the challenge is, I use the old riding the bike deal, like I can show you how to ride a bike on film... I can show you the bike, I can spin it in front of you. I can show you how to pedal when it's stationary.
"But then when you get on the bike, what happens? Everybody falls. You got to go fall as a freshman and go through situational football, the defense and what they're doing. Okay, this is where I should have went with the ball. This is what I got to do.
"So for him, it's just experience, being able to go through it and then the constant install of plays and different things that we're putting in red zone. Third-down, situational football. Different situations that we're doing where he's got to go learn as he's going and then retain. That's the biggest thing, retain. When we go run those plays again, that you learn from other people's mistakes, not just yours."
Last edited:
