I think one of the really interesting storylines that will develop over the next couple of weeks involves the immediate future(s) of many of the veteran UCF players on the roster. Just in the two-deep alone, UCF has a ton of fifth-year, redshirt senior, and senior roster members. When the school releases their list of players walking/being recognized on Senior Day, I think at that point we can read between the lines and decipher which of those guys are gone next year (or not).
Basically, if a player is classified as a "fifth-year", they will run out of eligibility at the conclusion of this season. In other words, these players (by the end of the season) will have played four NCAA seasons besides their COVID 2020 year. Jason Johnson, Tre-Mon Morris-Brash, Jireh Wilson, John Rhys Plumlee, DeJordan Mask, Walter Yates III, Ed Collins, Tylan Grable, Lokahi Pauole, Alec Holler, Bula Schmidt, and Decorian Patterson are part of this group. Their time at UCF is nearning an end.
I think the interesting decisions will be forthcoming from the other two groups - redshirt seniors and true seniors.
When factoring in both their redshirt and 2020 COVID years, guys like Ricky Barber, RJ Harvey, Amari Kight, and Adrian Medley could technically come back to the team in 2024 if they wanted to. Assuming all of these guys are graduates, they could play one year elsewhere as well...
And then our true seniors (in their fourth-year, no redshirt seasons) could also come back for a fifth-year due to COVID/2020 - guys like Johnny Richardson, Javon Baker, Kobe Hudson, Quadric Bullard, Corey Thornton, and Josh Celiscar. They could also go elsewhere for one season.
That's roughly ten core players on this year's roster who may or may not be coming back next season to UCF. Their decisions over the next couple of weeks will affect players the coaching staff opts to bring in through the portal, etc.
We shall see...
