Russell Sandefer didn't need much time to think about it.

The Saint Leo freshman right-handed pitcher entered the transfer portal on June 7. Less than 24 hours later, he committed to Rich Wallace and UCF Baseball.

Sandefer said he initially intended to return to the Division II school for his sophomore year, but reversed course after Lions head coach Rick O'Dette took the job at Florida Southern, one of their rivals in the Sunshine State Conference.

Currently away from home playing in a summer league, the former Tampa Robinson pitcher was surprised by the influx of attention he received.

"I'm playing in the Appalachian League with the Danville Otterbots, so I was actually on a bus traveling to Greeneville, Tenn.," Sandefer said. "I finished my paperwork and got compliance to approve everything, then I put out the tweet. I was immediately getting hit up by a lot of schools. It was crazy. I never got that experience in high school. I wasn't heavily recruited. I was getting lots of phone calls.

"We had a game that night, so I put my phone on do not disturb. I checked my phone after the game and had a bunch of texts. UCF was definitely one of the bigger ones. It's always been a dream of mine to go there."

Recruiting in college baseball often starts early in high school with many players making commitments during their freshman year.

"I was definitely a late bloomer," Sandefer said. "I was undersized my first two years of high school. Then after my sophomore year I hit a growth spurt. I had a really good junior summer. The coach's son at Saint Leo, I played summer ball with him so (O'Dette) was at all our games. I never thought anything of it. But I was throwing the hardest I ever threw. At the end of our summer I was being recruited by Saint Leo. I was talking with a JUCO potentially, but I really didn't have anything else. I was excited to go play baseball at Saint Leo."

Sandefer had a standout freshman campaign, finishing with a 5-2 record and 3.35 ERA in 45.2 innings pitched with eight starts and 11 overall appearances. Saint Leo had an outstanding season, hosting a NCAA Regional.

"I thought it was a great year," Sandefer said. "I don't think the expectations were very high for me. We've got a great strength coach and we put in the work. I don't think I could have asked for a better freshman year. The guys on the team will be friends for the rest of my life. It was definitely a season to remember."

His most remarkable stat: Allowing just four walks. With 39 strikeouts, that puts Sandefer's strikeout-to-walk ratio at 9.75, impressive at any level.

"Honestly, in high school I had pretty solid command but it didn't jump off the page," Sandefer said. "It was a mindset change getting into college. The Saint Leo coaches really instilled confidence in everybody, just a mindset of attacking. I think that really helped me."

Of his pitching arsenal, Sandefer favors his fastball. He touches the low 90s and tops out at 94.

"I throw a two-seam and get a good amount of run," he said. "I'm mainly a fastball/slider pitcher. That's been pretty good for me."

As for his recent portal recruitment, Sandefer said he was laser focused on UCF as soon as he got the offer. Other schools involved included Oklahoma State, Florida Gulf Coast, Louisiana, Jacksonville, Purdue and Austin Peay.

"I grew up in Tampa and a lot of people go to UCF," Sandefer said. "UCF has always been a school that if I didn't play baseball I might have gone to. Another thing is my head coach is pretty close with UCF's pitching coach (Drew Thomas). When I entered the portal, I called my (Saint Leo) head coach and he told me the UCF guy is legit.

"I talked it over with my parents and we decided it was in the best interest to commit to UCF. I wanted to stay in Florida. Especially this first year at Saint Leo, I appreciated being closer to home. So I called Coach Wallace back pretty quickly and told him I wanted to be a Knight. He was super excited."

Sandefer says he's been a starter throughout his baseball career, but he's also open to any possibilities.

"I just want to pitch and help this team win," he said. "Do whatever it takes. Even at Saint Leo, I was a starter but would come out of the bullpen to help win games. My biggest priority is to help the team."

In addition to Sandefer, UCF has transfer portal commitments from LHP Dakota Stone (JU), RHP Isaac Williams (JU) and OF Chase Krewson (Duke).

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In the spirit of @DuvalKnight music thread, I am curious what makes a legendary band become a tribute band? I always thought if you are producing the same quality after replacing a member, that is just a lineup change.

Lineup changes:

AC/DC. Brian Johnson vs Bon Scott
VH: Sammy Hagar vs David Lee

But what about these example….

Is Journey really Journey without Steve Perry?

Is Queen really Queen without Freddie Mercury?

Can Van Halen continue with Sammy, Michael and Alex but not Eddie?

Lynyrd Skynyrd feels like a tribute band without Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington or Allen Collins

I saw The Beach Boys in Orlando with Mike Love but none of the brothers Wilson

I saw Styx without DDY but they still had TS and JY

How about the Grateful Dead without Jerry?

Sitting here, few bourbons deep. Got the 12min Oakland Coliseum Live version of Freebird playing, and I wondered what people thought was the greatest loss to music of artists that left us too soon.

This is obviously completely subjective.

Boggs on UCF, Georgia and Missouri​

UCF: “UCF is is the hometown team for me. The staff is building something and they are putting together a top recruiting class. They are working to keep all of the dogs in central Florida.”

Georgia: “What I like the most about Georgia is how Coach Smart and Coach Coley coach. I like their coaching styles. They are on their guys heavy and they want their players to be great. Those are the type of coaches I want to play for.”

Missouri: “I had a good time out there. I saw practice, I have a good relationship with Coach Jacob Peeler and Missouri showed me a lot when I was there.”

from link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/4-star-wr-jayvan-boggs-cancels-usc-official-visit/ar-BB1nDwHA

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/1...priests-molested-more-than-1000-children.html

Hundreds of priests were said to have molested more than 1,000 children — and possibly many more — since the 1940s, and senior church officials, including a man who is now the archbishop of Washington, D.C., allegedly covered up the abuse, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday.

horrific. i hope these scumbags burn

4 different QB's signed out of high school by those two OC/HC's to lil ol G5 UCF won FBS games in 2023 as their teams starting QB:

Gata Slaya - Fresno St
Sockboi - OK
Tommy gun - BC
Parker Navarro - Ohio

N/A - UCF

UCF's inaugural Big 12 men's basketball season can't be viewed as anything but a success.

There were low expectations going in. The Knights were picked last in the preseason and it's not hard to see why.

UCF was coming off a mediocre run in the AAC and were entering the best conference in college basketball. It was a mostly new roster with players that on paper didn't match up with the pedigree of the Big 12's best.

Adding to the angst was the tough offseason on the recruiting front. Two high school signees asked out of their letters of intent. One was due to lack of NIL (Petras Padegimas), the other due to family issues and a need to be closer to home (Joey Hart).

Ithiel Horton, who initially said he would return for another season, was a late exit to the transfer portal. He thought he had leverage to command more NIL, so he went to Texas where he got it.

UCF struck out on their early higher-profile transfer targets due to lack of NIL (relative to their new P5 peers). Players pursued included Khalif Battle (Temple to Arkansas), Javian McCollum (Siena to Oklahoma), RJ Melendez (Illinois to Georgia) and Russel Tchewa (South Florida to Georgia).

They eventually landed Jaylin Sellers (second-leading scorer at Ball State), Shemarri Allen (former JUCO player who was a star player at UMKC), Ibrahima Diallo (former Ohio State recruit who became a productive player at San Jose State), Omar Payne (former four-star who underperformed at Florida/Illinois and had fallen to JU) and Marchelus Avery (New Mexico State transfer who at one point committed to UCF in HS).

UCF's top portal commitment though was former Wichita State star Jaykwon Walton. He was initially enrolled at Alabama, but booted out of school due to a gun charge. Most schools wouldn't touch him. UCF gave him a chance and he enrolled.

But when Penny Hardaway at Memphis had a roster spot open in August, he wooed Walton with NIL to leave UCF. As a grad transfer, there were essentially no restrictions and he could enroll/leave as many schools as he wished (fortunately that loophole has been closed going forward). That was a blow.

In the late summer, UCF scrambled to fill late roster vacancies with Nils Machowski (Germany), Mintautas Mockus (Lithuania) and DeMarr Langford (Boston College).

Though some wondered how the team would fare in the Big 12, positive buzz began to circulate following the team's Italy trip and preseason workouts. UCF had a returning PG in Darius Johnson - he struggled with injury issues last season but if he stayed healthy and took a big step forward? Another returner, CJ Walker, was finally supposed to be healthy after missing most of the previous season.

We started hearing great things about the two transfer guards, Jaylin Sellers and Shemarri Allen. The two primary bigs, plus Thierno Sylla, could be serviceable.

Besides the loss to Stetson (which looks a lot better now), UCF played well in their non-conference schedule. They did lose an early road game at Miami and a two-point home loss to Ole Miss. Remember, CJ suffered a preseason injury and missed those games.

Even so, expectations were low going into Big 12 play. I was actually encouraged by the non-conference performance and I thought 6-7 wins in the Big 12 was attainable. My thought process - this team knew how to play defense and would rise up to the level of competition once you started playing those teams on a regular basis.

And UCF did just that. They finished the 2023-24 regular season with a 17-15 overall record and 7-11 in the Big 12. The seven wins included three against ranked opponents (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech).

This year's Kansas ended up being a notch below expectations, but what a night that was - seeing the court storming after beating the Jayhawks in the Big 12 home opener. Every game was an event and just a blast to watch. UCF was competitive in pretty much every game except two or three (at K-State, at Houston, at WVU).

If UCF had just a bit more offensive firepower on their roster, it's easy to see how they could have won a few more games and been a legitimate NCAA Tournament contender.

There is a strong belief that UCF has earned an NIT bid for the second straight season. Likely earning one of the Big 12's two autobids (given to the top two NET teams that don't make the NCAAT).

Kansas State just lost to Iowa State in the Big 12 quarterfinals, so it's expected UCF will remain ahead of the Wildcats in the NET. The Big 12 is believed to be a lock to get nine teams in the NCAAT. Right now, UCF is the Big 12's No. 11 NET team.

At the time I'm posting this, Cincinnati has not yet played Baylor. With a win, they could get closer to the NCAAT bubble. In any case, Cincinnati continuing to win would only help UCF as that would mean a 10th Big 12 team could get in the NCAAT.

If UCF gets a Big 12 autobid, they will almost assuredly host an NIT game next Tuesday. Maybe even against usf. Arena is unavailable Wednesday-Sunday due to a prior booking.

NIT brackets are revealed Sunday night at 9:30 p.m.

Anyway, back to the crux of this post - the status of Johnny Dawkins.

With one more year left on his contract following this season, this was always going to be a pivotal year in regards to the future. I never really liked the term "hot seat" when it came to JD because that implies some things that I don't think are true.

I don't think Terry Mohajir has been an AD hellbent on making a change for the sake of making a change, unlike other ADs out there. By all appearances, TMo has always been supportive and rooting for JD to succeed. They have committed more resources to MBB than ever before. Unfortunately, charters to every game and new facilities don't grow on trees.

Also, UCF Basketball has unique challenges moving up into the P5. Budget and resources pale in comparison to their Big 12 peers. And now it's NIL budget too. UCF was at the bottom of the Big 12 in MBB NIL, just a hair above Oklahoma State.

It's just the way it is, UCF being a football school coming up from the G5. There's not a proud hoops tradition. Fanbase (before this season) has been lackluster. It's hard to demand more success when the overall commitment just hasn't been there.

He's also somewhat of a bargain - With a salary this season in the $1.7M range, he's the lowest paid in the Big 12 and among the lowest-paid in the P5. JD giving UCF much more than they give him and all that.

Johnny Dawkins is a solid coach. Terrific human being. Players love him.

One would think Dawkins has earned an extension. It's incredibly rare for a P5 coach to enter the final season of a contract with no clarity.

Dawkins can point to some momentum on his side. Darius Johnson and Jaylin Sellers will return (if Dawkins stays). Possibly CJ Walker if he gets a medical redshirt.

7-foot-1 high school center commitment Moustapha Thiam (four or five-star prospect, depending on your service) is definitely reclassifying to 2024, so he'd be on the team next season. Former four-star Mikey Williams is also committed. Four-star KJ Greene Jr. signed in November. Five-star PG Mikel Brown Jr. (likely reclassifying to 2024) is also a top target.

The Mikey effect is real - there are other elite players interested in UCF to play with Mikey. UCF will be considered an attractive transfer destination. Bigs are obviously a need with Diallo and Payne leaving.

Of course, UCF needs to step up their MBB NIL game. I know they're working on it - Mohajir has personally been fundraising for it of late. They probably need to double (if not triple) their NIL budget going into next season.

Money doesn't always bring success though. Cincinnati's MBB NIL budget is believed to be $3M+ and they will likely be an NIT team just like UCF (whose budget this year was well under $1M).

So what does Mohajir do?

Does he offer Dawkins an extension? Another year or two added to the contract? For a program adjusting to the P5 but not yet at a full P5 payout, this seems like the prudent thing to do.

But if Mohajir does not believe Dawkins is the long-term answer, this could be the year to do so. Buyout will be as low as it's probably going to get (around $1.3M), short of letting Dawkins ride out his contract. The buyout could be lower. I only have a copy of his initial contract (not his extension), but if the base terms remain unchanged, the buyout would be offset by future employment.

Why would UCF consider a change?

While Dawkins has exceeded expectations this year, NIL fundraising is a new responsibility that all head coaches must adapt to. Dawkins is not considered particularly strong in that area, though he's in a tough spot coaching at a school with most donors focused on football.

But what if a coaching change meant an influx of NIL money?

As has been hinted on this board over the past few months, there could potentially be new money contributed to MBB if there is a coaching change. It's not wild speculation when ESPN's Jeff Borzello links Richard Pitino (New Mexico coach, son of Rick) to a potential UCF opening.

What sets UCF up best for future Big 12 success?

Johnny Dawkins with a $1M+ NIL budget?

Or Richard Pitino with a $2-3M NIL budget?

I'm just spitballing those numbers - don't take them as gospel. But it's just an illustration to show why a change might be considered.

And it doesn't have to necessarily be Richard Pitino, but any coach that has the blessing of potential new donor(s).

Like I said, NIL doesn't necessarily guarantee success but it's hard to be successful without it.

An extension - if one was agreed to - could be announced at any time. This is a popular week to announce extensions. In the past day or so, three SEC schools have announced extensions (Chris Beard at Ole Miss, Todd Golden at UF, Lamont Paris at South Carolina).

At the end of the day, UCF could do a lot worse than Johnny Dawkins. He's built up tremendous goodwill and does have a promising path going forward with the commits.

UCF is still somewhat limited in available resources, I don't think they'd be able to go out and hire a Dusty May. The circulating potential replacement possibilities aren't slam dunks. They'd either have a pedigree similar to JD, an up and comer (that could be boom or bust) or a retread.

So how do you see it? Should TMo extend JD? Has he earned it? What if TMo fired JD? How would you view TMo if he did that? Maybe I'm wrong, but I do think the anti-JD crowd is the "vocal minority" as Marc Daniels called it earlier in the season.

My guess as of right now - TMo extends JD.

In any case, this will be incredibly interesting to monitor in the coming days.

LSU football vacates all wins from 2012-2015, Les Miles now ineligible for CFB Hall of Fame.

Will Miles ever qualify for Cfb hall of fame?


https://sports.yahoo.com/lsu-footba...neligible-for-cfb-hall-of-fame-225858167.html

There are several new weapons for the 2024 UCF Knights offense, including veteran running back Myles Montgomery. The Jacksonville native spent the first part of his career at Cincinnati, but he is excited to be back and Florida and involved at UCF.

As Myles told Sons of UCF reporter Trace Trylko, he loves the explosive and fast UCF offense.

Click here for more.

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Clay Pasco and Andrew Cherico are Up All Knight to bring you their unique look at UCF Sports.

In this edition, the guys dive into the most important games for UCF in 2024. Plus, they spin the wheel, claim Knightmare of the week, and welcome special guest Dali Drama to test his trivia knowledge.

Click here to watch this week's Up All Knight.

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Billy Mohl took them to a Super Regional in 2021, the year they edge UCF in the AAC Championship Game to earn the automatic bid.

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I'm taking my 10 year-old to a Giants game at Oracle Park. We're not Giants fans, nor fans the team they are playing (Cubs). There's no special pitching, etc. So, we'll have no interest in the game or anything that'll be happending on the field. We're just going to the game to take in the sights and sounds of the stadium - which I hear is a top MLB stadium.

For those who've been to Oracle - based on the above - what seats would you recommend?

Also, looking for recommendations for food or activities in and around the stadium.

TIA.

The Sons of UCF Podcast was joined by former UCF Running Back Coach Ryan Held (2016-17) to discuss his time with the Knights. Coach Held came to UCF as part of Scott Frost's staff, and immediately began to change the running back room by adding talented speedster Adrian Killins and the dynamic Juwon Hamilton. After a year of learning in 2016, the Knights turned in a historic season in 2017, going undefeated and winning the Peach Bowl. The 2017 team also featured a talented new face in Freshman Otis Anderson, who combined with Killins and Quarterback McKenzie Milton, formed a lethal running attack.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and Coach Held and the staff left UCF and moved on to Nebraska. After several uneven years with the Cornhuskers, Coach Held has moved on again and is now a Head Coach at Nebraska-Kerney. However, after all of these years Coach Held looks back at the decision to leave, and wonders what could have been.

Click here to watch.

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Happy Father’s Day to all the Dungeon Dads! Hope you have a great day!!

My Dad love UCF and we spent many hours watching our Knights play. The last picture was from his last football game in November 2016. It was our Military Appreciation game vs Cincinnati. He passed in April 2017. Miss him everyday!


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He killed it 2 years ago.

5 p.m. ET

The UFL championship game between the Birmingham Stallions and San Antonio Brahmas is scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 16.

It's been two weeks since Greg Lovelady was dismissed as UCF Baseball coach.

It had appeared UCF was on their way to hiring former MLB manager Joe Girardi on Thursday, but he unexpectedly declined the offer when he had given every indication he was fully on board to consummating the deal.

At nearly the same time Girardi pulled out, University of Miami announced head coach Gino DiMare was stepping down. Some believe this was not a coincidence. Whether Miami will prioritize Girardi as their top candidate - which UCF did - remains to be seen. But one of my coaching contacts has heard Girardi is definitely on Miami's shortlist of candidates to interview.

Girardi, who coached the Marlins for one year in 2006, now lives in Boca Raton (not Winter Park). If he were to take a college job, UM is about an hour away if he chose to maintain his current home base. But enough about him.

Terry Mohajir was said to be regrouping this weekend with the hopeful plan to finalize a hire by early next week.

I don't have any late-breaking info to share, other than to share who I believe is likely still in the running.

Rich Wallace - FSU assistant
Bill Cilento - Wake Forest assistant
Mark Kingston - South Carolina head coach

There could be other candidates too.

I've covered Wallace and Cilento in prior updates. Wallace is obviously a former UCF player and Orlando native, dream job, highly qualified, etc. A lot of people want to see him here. Cilento has been a longtime assistant at Wake, successful program that's a No. 1 national seed that just won their first Super Regional game on Saturday vs. Alabama. They can clinch a trip to Omaha on Sunday.

The "secret" name I didn't want to mention in prior updates is South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston. But why would an SEC coach that just took his team to the Supers be interested in UCF?

South Carolina's season ended today in Gainesville as Florida swept them 2-0 to take the Super Regional and punch a ticket to Omaha.

Kingston has been considered on the "hot seat." He nearly lost his job after missing a regional following the 2022 season. His athletic director is Ray Tanner, the former legendary baseball coach that took the Gamecocks to SIX College World Series appearances between 1997-2012. And two National Championships in 2010 and 2011.

South Carolina considers themselves a college baseball blueblood where the standards are Omaha or bust, or at least every 2-3 years. It's now been more than a decade since they've been to a CWS. Combine that with an AD that's also happens to be their legendary former baseball coach so it's not surprising the tension would be high if you're falling short of expectations.

As for Kingston, he was the South Florida coach (2015-17) prior to landing the South Carolina job. In his six seasons, Kingston has led USC to one NCAA Regional (2021) and two Super Regionals (2018, 2023). They missed the postseason in 2019 and 2022 (and the season was canceled in 2020).

Kingston has been a solid coach. He was above average in five seasons at Illinois State (never had a losing season) prior to going to Temple Terrace. He led usf to two regionals in three years. By South Carolina standards, he's been NGE.

Kingston currently makes $600,000 at South Carolina on a contract that runs through 2025 with a $1.4M buyout. That buyout figure was referenced in a story last year when Kingston wasn't fired - it would have been $2.2M prior to June 30, 2022. So I'm assuming the $1.4M buyout remains until June 30, 2023.

The rumor mill says tension is high between Kingston and the AD, so much so he could be fired if they didn't make the College World Series. Kingston has had conversations with UCF, which some believed was a negotiation strategy to get an extension at USC, while others said he was hedging his bets to line up a potential replacement job when USC fires him.

So this situation will be interesting. Kingston would probably rather be fired to get that buyout money. I'd like to see the contract though to be certain of those details. Perhaps a buyout could be negotiated if USC allows him to take another job instead of being "fired."

If it's Wallace, UCF could finalize a deal at any time. FSU's season is over.

Cilento is still coaching in a Super Regional that could extend into Monday. And if they win, they'd be in the College World Series just a few days later. If he is the guy, it's possible he could be announced but obviously would be delayed in getting started.

Or maybe there's a new or wildcard candidate in the mix? UCF really needs to wrap up this process ASAP - rebuilding the roster isn't getting any easier.

Anyone been? We're going for a week coming up and plan to split our time between the jungle around san ignacio and on ambergris caye.
Any suggestions for can't miss activities or guides etc?

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Had him for Geology in 97. Never knew another more old, crotchety bastard in all my days at UCF. He was one to remember.