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UCF defensive coordinator Travis Williams is excited about their spring transfer class, which includes four players that will play on his side of the ball: safety Koby Perry, defensive tackle Lee Hunter, linebacker Terrence Lewis and buck K.D. McDaniel.

Opening statement:

"I just want to start off with the four guys we signed from the portal. I'll start out with Koby Perry. He's a safety for us. Really good football player. Was the player of the year in the OVC. What was really impressive about him is the coaches that were there were calling us about him, saying how hard he works on the practice field. How he loves football. That he'll be a great addition for us. That's always good to get that type of feedback. We're excited to have Koby. Looking for him to do some great things here.

"The next person is Lee Hunter. Big defensive tackle from Mobile, Alabama. I've been recruiting him since ninth grade. Got a good history with him. I know his family pretty well. Very excited about him. He's a big human being. He'll give us a big body up front. You can't have enough of those guys, defensive tackles that can cover guys up so we can make plays and play in the back field. Very excited about Lee Hunter.

"Terrence Lewis. He was a highly-recruited linebacker from out of Miami. We have a history with each other as well. I recruited him when I was at another school. Built a relationship then, so once he got into the portal we just kind of jumped back on that relationship. He had a lot of schools recruiting him and he chose to come here. Excited to have him. Brings speed to the room. Brings explosion to the room. Really excited to have Terrence.

"KD McDaniel is coming from Kentucky. He gives us some juice off the edge, that pass rusher that we need losing Big Kat. We're getting a guy that can generate some pass rush. He's a guy we're very excited about from South Georgia. He's a guy that you watch his film, has a really good skill set, can bend off the edge and get to the quarterback. Very excited about him. He has time on task. A veteran guy. He played 30 snaps in the bowl game.

"Again, very excited about all four guys we're bringing in. We're bringing these guys in to play. Obviously you've got to compete. We don't hand anything out. When we bring guys in, it's a position of need. We feel really good about bringing those four guys in."

How has the transfer portal changed recruiting in evaluation and filling out classes?

"It changed for everyone. It changed for colleges and it changed for the high school kids. It's really one of those deals that you have to adjust with time. Our head coach, coach Gus Malzahn, he does a great job of knowing exactly what we want to do. How many high school numbers we want, how many portal numbers we want. How many we're going to keep leftover. Even after the spring there's going to be other guys. You've got to adjust with him. You've got to adjust. It's big on relationships. Guys are going to guys they know. What I like about it as far as the portal, it makes you have a genuine relationship with guys. It makes you keep your word. Now guys can just leave and go other places. That's what I do like about it. Also, you've got to have the other side of it of sticking out and fighting through. That sort of deal. It's still life lessons. But again, it's the portal and we've got to adjust to the times. I'm not going to complain about it. I'm going to find some players."

Both Lee Hunter and Terrence Lewis were highly-rated high school recruits, but they didn't really pan out their freshman season. Terrence is coming off a knee injury as well. Is that a concern or do you trust what you saw in high school?

"I trust what I saw in high school. I wouldn't say pan out. If you've got an ACL, you can't play football. You can't say a kid didn't pan out. He was injured. Then Lee Hunter, I did my research and talked to a lot of guys even at Auburn. They say he's a really good football player. The times of the portal. When I played, guess what, Travis Williams was redshirted. Redshirt freshman year I was running out on kickoffs. Redshirt sophomore year, the third year, that's when I started linebacker. So I don't know about the whole didn't pan out. You've got to develop them and give them time. But both those guys, we're looking forward to those guys being able to help us."

How different is this team going to look next year? You've lost guys to the transfer portal, gained guys in the portal and the incoming freshmen, so an entirely different group.

"Not to switch subjects, but I'm watching basketball last night. I was watching different teams. Kentuckys and Auburns of the world, all their guys are transfers and they're top 10 teams. You've got to adjust to the times. You still have to have your high school guys as far as your foundation, but you want to plug in positions of need so you can continue to grow your team. I think that's what we're doing here. That's Coach Malzahn's vision. Get a position of need. We turned guys away. There were really good players, but we're not just piling on. We're good at certain positions and there are positions of need."

Great football is played at every level. Bryson Armstrong came to you from FCS and some top players in the NFL played FCS. So you're getting Koby Perry from Austin Peay, talk more about him and what he can provide as an older, more experienced player in the secondary.

"When he walks in the room, he brings that energy. He loves football. He's working out and you can tell who he is because he's talking and he loves ball. We did our research on him. Everybody said this kid loves football. Very excited to have him. Again, it's a position of need. He's played a lot of ball at Austin Peay. Player of the year. I like the kid. I like being around him. He's high energy like myself. I'm glad we got him."

In your experience, is this an unusual signing day since no high school players were signed and is this the new norm going forward?

"It's pretty much the new norm. We signed all our guys in December. There's a couple guys signing a couple guys, but for the most part guys are signing in December and a lot of guys are enrolling early. We did a lot of our work at the beginning of it in December. That's why it helps us to go out in January and really focus on the '23 class because the '22 class was already signed. That was the advantage for us, so when we were out, we were getting a jump start on getting information on the '23s instead of doing home visits for '22s and doing different things. We got that done in December, so it was an advantage for us."

You mentioned you had a long relationship with a couple of these guys. When you're recruiting high school kids now, do you mention that UCF will be a place for you even in the future?

"I want to get them like right now. But I want to build a strong enough relationship that if he goes somewhere and it doesn't work out, my relationship from the past, if it's a kid we still want us, that can help us. It's all about relationships. If you don't have a relationship, you're going to be behind the eight-ball."

You mentioned KD McDaniel from Kentucky. He's been listed as a linebacker in the past. You described him more as an edge in that Big Kat type?

"He's going to be a buck for us. He's an edge rusher for us. He's a guy that can generate some pass rush for us. He is an outside linebacker."

You talked about focusing on '23s. You just had a big event this past weekend, Hometown Hero. It seemed like hundreds of guys were on campus. How does that set the stage for what you want to do in this next class?

"It was huge. Hats off to Dave Shumate and Leah Cunningham. We just hired her. She's doing on-campus recruiting as well. The way they had it organized. We had hundreds. We literally have over 300 kids come through, including the 7-on-7. It might be 500. 7-on-7 and the invites for the Hometown Hero. It's always good to get those guys on campus. Then when they get here, it's like this is awesome. We wanted to keep it exclusive, then we were like you know what, let them come. It was real deal players here. It's always good to get those types of guys on campus."

Coach Malzahn talks about UCF being the future of college football. You're going to the Big 12 next year, But beating Florida in the bowl game, that's a little more recent, how much of an impact did all those things have when you talked to guys this past weekend?

"It's huge. Talking to Coach Malzahn, we are the state champs. That goes a long way. Beating a team like Florida and being able to compete on a high level, on big-time TV with people watching us, that's always huge. Us going to the Big 12, we're pushing that out there. This '23 class, their first year, will be in the Big 12. We've got a lot of things to sell here. Just a great area. The only football school in the area. There's so much. The weather. It was cold for like three days last week, but now we're back to 80 degrees. There's so much to sell here. Coach Malzahn's vision, the future of college football. He really believes it. We believe it. We know this right here is a goldmine. We're looking forward to the future."

She Painted This.
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Now that we know Kristi is on the mend. I have know idea if Gus had any other reason for not being involved with the press conference yesterday other than taking care of his family, but it did accomplish one major thing. It gave the coordinates a chance to be front and center and show just how competent they are. I know I was impressed with them.

On the Sons of UCF LIVE Show #54: Thanks to former UCF Football stand out Kalia Davis for talking about the Knights Defense. Also, BJ Taylor returns to provide analysis on UCF Men's Basketball. Thanks to Adrian Killins for the surprise question in the Sons Mailbag!

Please click here to watch.

Just wondering if there are any updates on how she is doing.

On the Sons of UCF LIVE Show #54: Thanks to former UCF Football stand out Kalia Davis for talking about the Knights Defense. Also, BJ Taylor returns to provide analysis on UCF Men's Basketball. Thanks to Adrian Killins for the surprise question in the Sons Mailbag!

Please click here to watch.

The final regular season men's basketball installment of the War on I-4 takes place on Thursday when UCF hosts South Florida.

I was able to catch up with head coach Johnny Dawkins and guard Darius Perry earlier today. Here's a recap of those conversations.

Darius Perry

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Being a rivalry matchup, I asked Darius Perry about his personal experience with rivalries beginning with high school. He played at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga.

"Walton (was our rival)," Perry said. "One time they had Ryan Harrow and the rivalry was pretty big. The gyms were definitely packed. They were real big games. It was nasty every time."

(Harrow played at Walton in the late 2000s and later would play collegiately at NC State, Kentucky and Georgia State).

Perry then briefly reflected on the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry he experienced during his years at UL.

"I didn't realize how serious the rivalries were," Perry said. "The Walton-Wheeler one was kind of serious, but it wasn't family ties serious. Kentucky-Louisville was that way. That was the biggest rivalry I've been a part of. I'm ready for this one against USF."

UCF lost to South Florida 75-51 back on Jan. 15, which easily ranks as their worst loss of the year in terms of performance (UCF shot 33 percent and were outrebounded 53-26) and level of opponent (South Florida has a NET ranking of 236).

"(Coach Dawkins) definitely brings it up so it stays in front of our minds," Perry said. "So we keep that fire in our chest to go out there and compete with them. That loss doesn't define us. We lost pretty bad when we went there, but now they've got to come here."

Perry believed their focus wasn't where it should have been during that first meeting.

"Just play harder," Perry said when asked what's got to change this time around. "I think last time they played harder than us. They really wanted that game. They embraced the rivalry. I think we have to do the same thing."

==

Johnny Dawkins

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First off, Johnny Dawkins briefly reflected on that first game at South Florida.

"It wasn't our best performance," Dawkins said. "Give them credit. I thought USF played well and we didn't play as well. We need to play better. We understand that. I think our guys are going to prepare that way."

What needs to change this time around?

"Rebound the basketball," Dawkins said. "That's got to be something we really concentrate on. They doubled us up in rebounding. That was tremendous effort by them. We have to do a lot better job of rebounding the ball on both ends of the floor."

Similarly to the question posed to Darius Perry, I asked Dawkins if he had a high school rival.

"DeMatha was our rival," Dawkins said. "They were the best program in our area and one of the best programs in the nation. Everybody wanted to win against them. I had that in high school. Then of course Duke-North Carolina, had that for four years in college. There's nothing like it. I think it's great for the area."

Dawkins admitted he didn't fully understand the scope of the Duke-UNC rivalry prior to enrolling.

"I didn't know when I was being recruited that it was such a big rivalry," Dawkins said. "Then I went down there to play and I'm hearing the different chatter. Then when you live down there and people recognize you as players, Carolina fans would say things. Or put stuff on your door. Put stuff on your car. Vice versa I'm sure. Then you realize, man, this is kind of a big deal. People are really up for this game. The whole area was locked in and waiting to see what would happen."

I asked whether the off-court stuff got out of hand, perhaps being heckled in public by UNC fans. He laughed and said it wasn't quite that intense.

"It was more low key than that," Dawkins said. "A sticker here, or a note on your door. 'Hope Duke loses.' Same thing with your car. Underneath your windshield wiper maybe a note that said something. It was all tastefully done. Nothing that was really bad. But it let you know that it's on tonight. It's gonna be a big game. You better be ready for it."

Shifting back to UCF, Dawkins commented on the continued growth of freshman point guard Darius Johnson and what he needs to continue to improve upon.

"He needs to continue to stay aggressive and continue to learn our system," Dawkins said. "He's playing well. He's getting better every game. I think conference play has been really good for him and he's grown a lot. As he continues to become the player we see him becoming, he's going to take the team over. He has that type of personality. He's ultra-competitive. He's a tough player. He has a good basketball IQ. We see the ball going into his hands as he continues to develop. He's tracking in the right direction."

Mamadou N'Diaye is the newcomer to Dawkins' coaching staff this season, helping to tutor the big men. N'Diaye, a native of Senegal, played collegiately at Auburn and spent a decade playing professionally including the NBA.

"He's brought a lot of experience," Dawkins said. "He's gone through a lot. He's had to work like crazy, like all of us, to make it in the NBA. Just the whole journey and what it takes, the attention to detail and the work ethic. When you apply that to working with young people, you can't help but help them get better. I think he's a great addition because he's going to help our young bigs really continue to improve because of how he had to work to improve to become the player he became.

"In the locker room, the credibility he has. Having done something every player in that locker room would like to do, that's the dream of all these young players, he's the perfect guy to listen to because who knows better than someone who has already done it. I think having another person like that on your staff adds to what we want."

N'Diaye was a big reason Cheikh Mbacke Diong transferred to UCF for his final season.

"We're in position to win because of Mbacke," Dawkins said. "He comes in every day and works. He leads. With his leadership and his work ethic, it permeates through our team. Excited to have him. Of course he and Mamadou are close because of the prior relationship. Really have enjoyed getting to know Mbacke myself and what he's done for our team is terrific. Our guys love him. You can see by how hard they play for him on the court."

As far as recruiting, UCF already has a pair of 2022 signees in the Hendricks twins - Taylor Hendricks and Tyler Hendricks - both of whom signed in November. The duo attend Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale and they were in Central Florida this past weekend to take part in the Montverde Academy Invitational Tournament.

On Friday, Taylor Hendricks scored 17 points in a 54-51 win against. Dr. Phillips. Calvary Christian then lost the championship game to Montverde in overtime, 79-76. Hendricks had 15 points in that game, making the All-Tournament team.

"We got a chance to see them on Friday against Dr. Phillips," Dawkins said. "It was a good game to watch. They played well. It was a good win by them. Then an overtime loss to Montverde. They have a really good team and they're playing well."

Rivals ranks Taylor Hendricks a four-star prospect and the No. 87 player in the nation.

"It's important because you want to be bringing in that caliber of player," Dawkins said. "We should be able to bring that type of talent here at UCF and we are. I think that's more for us to build on. We're excited to have those guys as part of our family. They're excited to be here and to help take UCF to new heights."

I ended by asking what the forthcoming Big 12 move is doing for recruiting.

"It's all positive feedback," Dawkins said. "Everybody is excited about the move. They think it's going to continue to help us grow our program. We're looking forward to it. We're not finished recruited by any stretch of the imagination. Now with the portal and different opportunities to recruit, the more high school players that are available towards the end of this year, we want to make sure we find the right pieces to fit who we are at UCF on and off the court."

Looks like Texas is going to get a taste of winter, hope anyone there is prepared.

In completely unrelated news ted Cruz just re-downloaded Spanish Duolingo for some reason.

Leftwich wanted his own mewnGM bit Jags refused so the current GM hired Pederson.

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Cocoa QB Davin Wydner is visiting tomorrow. UCF is looking to bring him in as a preferred walk-on. He transferred from Melbourne-Holy Trinity to Cocoa for his senior season, setting the school record with 3,529 passing yards while completing nearly 70 percent of his passes (223 of 320) with 22 TD and eight interceptions.

He is likely an unfortunate victim of the transfer portal squeeze in regards to not having a scholarship spot at an FBS.

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No nerves this time! Kicked butt in the short program.

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27% was actually higher then I thought. Interesting numbers regardless

While CNN was lambasting people for hooking up with colleagues and others they weren't currently cohabitating with during the lockdowns...

That's exactly what 'Fox News doesn't deserve 1st Amendment protections' CNN President Zucker was doing with CNN Executive Vice-President Gollust.

CNN requires employees, especially executives and officers, so disclose personal relationships with employees for review, for obvious, ethical reasons in the case of officers, and Zucker did not disclose it because he knew it would neither allowed nor approved given the utter hypocrisy beyond the obvious other issues.

The affair was uncovered as part of the independent investigation recommended by the board, along with industry watchdogs, launched as part of the Cuomo situation, and brings further scruntiny to how CNN conducts itself from an integrity standpoint.

However, I don't expect a movie over the various issues like the one about Fox News. People will say that's different, but in the grand scheme of integrity and hypocrisy... not exactly.

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Essentially we canceled the whole series in 2020.

And 3 in the top 7. Let’s see how this effects recruiting for UCF

Wow, Dillon leaves and Gus counters with just BOOMING talent coming in!!! I am really amazed at what Gus is doing.

I don't think anyone else (with Gus' history, reputation, and personality) could have done this or be doing this!!

Not only the 9-4 season but beating Florida too!!

Now the awesome news coming in daily! Feels like an extended Christmas morning! (also we beat Memphis last knight so it's double BOOM!)

Thoughts?

I'm not entirely sure of the specifics, but I've been informed by close friends that she is hospitalized and the family is asking for prayers.

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Chip Lindsey has reunited with Gus Malzahn at UCF where he will be the Knights' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Lindsey, the head coach at Troy for the past three years, previously held the same OC/QB position at Auburn under Malzahn in 2017-18. And it was Malzahn who helped mentor Lindsey's entry into the college ranks and later hired the former high school coach as an analyst in 2013.

On Wednesday, Lindsey met with the media to talk about his new job as well as the incoming transfer class. Here's a recap of his 15-minute interview:

-Lindsey said he's excited to be here, noting that Dec. 28 was his first day on the job. He said it's been an interesting process dealing with the new recruiting timeline of the transfer portal.

-On working with Gus Malzahn again:

"He's a guy I've always had a lot of respect for. I think he changed the way college football was played way back when he first got into the SEC at Arkansas. I'm excited to reunite with him and some of the other guys I've worked with."

He says there's a lot of "energy" within UCF.

"Guys ask me, some of my friends, what's it like there? The energy here, I think you can feel that. From our fanbase as well as our players."

He added he's really looking forward to spring practice.

-On TE transfer Kemore Gamble, Lindsey sees a big, athletic guy who caught "40-something balls" at Florida last year.

"I think he can play all three spots at tight end, flexed out, attached as well as playing the hip. I think he's a guy that will play at the next level. I think he brings a different dimension to our offense. That's what we were looking for... I think he's an impact player for us. It's a big get for us."

-On WR Kobe Hudson, Lindsey recruited him when Kobe was in ninth grade and he was still at Auburn.

"For us, it was a no-brainer. Great family. He caught 40-something balls for those guys as well. He's a dynamic guy. He's got great balance and body control. Great ball skills. Obviously good athlete and can run and all those things. Really competitive and wants to be really good."

On QB John Rhys Plumlee, whom Lindsey also recruited him previously.

"Boy, he is a true dual-threat guy without question. Obviously he plays baseball and football, so you know he's a great athlete. He's a great person. He's come in and connected with his team. Some guys have personalities, I've learned over the 25 years I've been doing this, that it takes some time to interact with their teammates, to build those relationships. John Rhys naturally does that. You can feel the energy from him. He's off to a great start in the weight room and conditioning while moonlighting over there with baseball. I really think he could bring a really big dimension to our team from the standpoint of being a dual-threat guy."

Lindsey added Plumlee brings experience to a QB room that is lacking experience except for Mikey Keene's starts this past season.

On OL Ryan Swoboda:

"If you haven't seen this guy yet, he's huge. He has to duck down walking through the door. 6-10 guy, maybe 6-11. Two and half year starter at Virginia. Recruiting him was interesting too because he's an older guy coming in as a graduate transfer. A guy that really understands what he's looking to do. He wants to continue his development. Probably could have gone to the NFL. Who knows where he would have ended up, but he wanted to try to improve his stock so to speak. Obviously Herb Hand did a great job recruiting him and Gus Malzahn. Herb having the reputation of really developing guys, I think the numbers speak for themselves, I think that really excited Ryan."

I asked Lindsey to recall how the relationship with Gus Malzahn began. It was during the late 2000s when Lindsey was the head coach at Marietta (Ga.) Lassiter and TE Philip Lutzenkirchen was one of his top players being recruited by Malzahn at Auburn.

(Lutzenkirchen went on to become of the best tight ends in Auburn history, but died in a car crash a year after his graduation. Lindsey noted he was always close with that family, said Philip's sisters used to babysit his kids).

Anyway, he was really awestruck when Gus started to visit the school.

"This is Gus Malzahn coming in," Lindsey said. "He was kind of the first one in the SEC to start going fast. I was like, this is awesome. He came in to recruit him and I wanted to sit down and talk some ball with him. He wouldn't tell me anything. He's secretive. I tried to get him on the board, can you show me this? As we built this relationship and Philip became a good player for him at Auburn... That's how I met Coach and over the years we stayed in touch."

Lindsey got the QB coach job at Troy in 2010, and said Malzahn helped him prepare for that interview. He later was coaching at Spain Park High School in Alabama when Malzahn hired Lindsey as an analyst.

From there, he was an OC at Southern Miss and Arizona State before being hired by Malzahn as Auburn's OC in 2017.

"He's been a huge influence on my career for sure," Lindsey said.

-What did he know about UCF previously?

"I know they kicked our tail in 2017 when I was at Auburn," Lindsey said. "From afar, this has been always an intriguing and exciting job. The excitement, the energy. I remember that bowl game, the fans. I think it was probably three-fourths UCF fans. That said a lot. They were excited to be there. They wanted to be there. They were competitive and had a really good team. A lot of those guys are still playing in the NFL.

"I thought it was a program on the rise. I think Coach mentioned it. The future of college football I believe is here. I believe it 100 percent. When you're around this program and feel the energy, obviously moving to another conference in another year is big too, and we have an AD (Terry Mohajir) that is unbelievable. I've known him. We were in the same conference the last three years.

"Just a lot of positive, exciting things going on here. Our players enjoy being here. The one thing I've noticed about our players is they're very confident, but very humble. They do what we ask them to do. I'll be honest with you, college football with the transfer portal and mixing personalities, sometimes that's hard to do. But I think the system Coach has in place and the culture he's developed, I've seen it before, I think it helps those guys transition quickly and buy into what we're doing... I'm thrilled to be here. This is a great place to live and work. My family is excited to move as well."

-In regards to the QB competition, Lindsey told the players all he can go by is what they do on film and how they present themselves to their teammates. It's not always who has the best arm and who runs the fastest.

"It's going to be a lot of fun watching these guys develop. We sure hope a guy steps up to the front and separates himself quickly," Lindsey said.

-On the February signing day becoming somewhat irrelevant due to the early signing period in December, Lindsey says that's been the trend. He likes players that are all in and ready to sign. He honestly feels players should be able to sign even earlier.

-On adapting to using the transfer portal, Lindsey said relationships are always key, noting they've known Kobe Hudson for a long time. Most transfer players don't have a lot of time when they hit the portal in December and are trying to enroll in January.

-On the staff holding things down for Gus while he remains with Kristi who has been hospitalized:

"We've all been praying for Kristi. Her health and improving and I think she's making a lot of good progress. I'll let him speak on all that. If you know him, he's going to always stay in touch. It's not like we haven't heard from him. He's Zoomed in for staff meetings and done things like that. We've just tried to support him.

"The best way we can support him is handle our business here at work and in recruiting. I think we did a nice job of that. Coach was involved in that as well. Trying to keep the day-to-day things that come up that we can handle, to keep it out of his lap so to speak, I think was one way to do it. Everybody doing their job.

"This staff is very close. Coach has always had staffs that were close. Having a high school background, I think that feeds a lot of that. All of us hang out together and do things together, our families. No different with Coach Malzahn. We want to support him every way we could and take a load off him while he helps Kristi get her health back."

At least some winners are celebrating Women in Sports with swag. This should be UCF.

I’ll get off my soapbox.

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