Is there a link??

Very early conf game in mid Dec starts hopefully UCF's 2nd to last season in AAC.

I hope UCF doesn't have any players in "Health & Safety Protocol" that were left in Orlando as almost every league has had multiple games canceled this week due to Covid (NBA, NHL, College Hoops, EPL, etc..), while thr NFL had their most positive cases in 1 day (37) yesterday.

Historically, UCF has struggled in Philly going just 1-6 in 7 games at Temple.

For the rest of game notes, see below.

UCF has 15 high school commitments, 13 of whom are expected to sign. There are also at least two more targets to watch. Could there be other surprises?

Here's a look at the timeline of signings, however I should add these times may not have any bearing on the "official" signing and acceptance announcement by UCF.

Often times commits will sign the real thing early in the morning (which is done electronically these days, no more need for a fax), so the school ceremony is more for show, an event to celebrate the achievement, etc.

Gus Malzahn's press conference is scheduled for 2:30 p.m., so one would think they'd all be wrapped up by then.

So while some of these times are later, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of these NLIs actually come in much earlier.

LB T.J. Bullard (Tampa Berkeley Prep) - Early in the morning
APB Xavier Townsend (Tampa Berkeley Prep) - Early in the morning

Berkeley Prep is already out for holiday break, so no school means no ceremony. T.J. Bullard tells me he is signing from home tomorrow, it should be pretty early, and he is expecting Xavier Townsend to do the same. The school will have a late ceremony on Feb. 2.

Townsend decommitted from Iowa State a couple days ago and is expected to sign with UCF.

DL Jamaal Johnson (Chaminade Madonna) - Early in the morning

Johnson said his school isn't having a ceremony. He said he'll be signing early in the morning.

K Colton Boomer (Lake Mary) - 7:00 a.m.

Boomer is signing as a PWO, but will have an excellent opportunity to earn a scholarship in time. Schools usually like to save using initial counters on specialists and put them on scholarship later so they don't count against the 25.

RB Jordan McDonald (Alpharetta, Ga./Milton) - 7:15 a.m.

McDonald was arguably UCF's top RB target this entire year (and that includes all the attention the previous Heupel staff gave him in January before leaving). With the season he had, which obviously included a deep run in the playoffs, I'm astounded he didn't get more attention that he did. He looks ready to be an immediate contributor and IMO will be the No. 1 back when UCF enters Big 12 play.

WR Quan Lee (Gainesville Buchholz) - 7:45 a.m.

A one-time commitment to Miami, Quan is a social media extraordinaire and IMO will become one of the most beloved (and controversial?) players.

DB Demari Henderson (Seminole) - 8:00 a.m.
DB Ja'Cari Henderson (Seminole) - 8:00 a.m.

Seminole's main ceremony is at 12 noon, but I was just informed the twins will be signing earlier. It sounded like they just wanted to get it out of the way because their family couldn't be there at noon. Could be the best local players to ever sign with UCF, joining a list that includes players such as Mike Sims-Walker (Edgewater), Steven Moffett (Winter Park) and Brandon Marshall (Lake Howell).

OL Caden Kitler (Pope John Paul II HS near Dallas) - 8:15 a.m.

Caden took a free visit to SMU this past weekend, but has always been locked in. UCF likes him as a center.

TE Grant Stevens (Nease) - 11:15 a.m.

Baby Gronk? UCF desperately needs more out of the tight end position and Stevens can play.

QB Thomas Castellanos (Waycross, Ga./Ware County) - 11:30 a.m.

The Future. The second player to commit to Gus who has been key to building the class. Was already a solid pickup at the time of his pledge (March), but looked amazing as a senior. Perfect for Gus' system. Despite living 3.5 hours away and playing in his own games on Friday nights, he attended more UCF home games than many of you NARFs.

LB Kam Moore (Seminole) - 12 noon

Like the twins, widely considered one of the best players in the area. Brandon Moore's little bro.

DL Khurtiss Perry (Montgomery, Ala./Pike Road) - 1 p.m.

The big one. Will UCF shock the world? Could it be the recruiting upset of the century, stealing a player coveted by Nick Saban? Perry's finalists are UCF, Alabama, Auburn and Clemson. I can tell you this - UCF definitely thinks they have a shot. Will it happen? We'll see. Alabama is very difficult to turn down.

DB Nikai Martinez (Apopka) - 1:45 p.m.

Apopka will play for the 8A state championship this Saturday vs. Venice. Committed to UCF over South Carolina and Notre Dame (among many other offers).

WR Tyler Griffin (Brooklet, Ga./Southeast Bulloch) - 2:30 p.m.

A tall WR that UCF has been lacking. And like Tommy, he loves Mexican food.

DL Keahnist Thompson (Lakeland) - 2:30 p.m.

Edit: UCF has apparently just dropped Maldonado.

***

OL Leyton Nelson (Boone) - As the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday night, Nelson got cold feet and will not sign early. It appears he could be waiting on a potential Florida offer.

OL Miguel Maldonado (Lakeland) - Maldonado has been quiet, and I did notice Lakeland's signing day announcement did not list him. The Orlando Sentinel just confirmed he is not signing tomorrow. I just checked with a source and confirmed he has been processed.

***

Surprises?

Beyond waiting for decisions from Xavier Townsend and Khurtiss Perry, I'm not aware of any surprise names that could sign tomorrow. We've been surprised in the past, so we'll see. Locally, UCF had continued to recruit S JaCorey Thomas (Georgia) and Markeith Williams (Miami) but there's no indication those players aren't solid with their pledges.

***

Transfers to Watch...

I think any potential transfer announcements won't be made until after early signing day, though some could happen later in the week. We'll see if that holds. I think some guys want to get it out of the way, but there is really no set deadline for transfers as there is nothing binding them to any school until they enroll. UCF's first day of classes is Jan. 10.

QB Bo Nix (Auburn) - Gus' former Auburn QB that just hit the portal. News of Nix's departure surfaced just as Michael Penix Jr. arrived for his UCF official visit. Perhaps this was the reason UCF declined to put the squeeze on Penix, which led to his decision to commit to Washington today. I'm not saying done deal, but I think Gus/UCF feels they have a great shot to land Nix. While Penix is a quality player, his prior injury issues are a major, major concern and any school would be right to hold off if there was a chance to land a first-tier player like Nix.

OL Tylan Grable (Jacksonville State) - Visited a couple weekends ago. Still expecting UCF.

OL Paul Tchio (Clemson) - Expected to come down to UCF and Georgia Tech. I never could get in contact with him, but landing a player like Nix could have some major sway. While GT is a great academic institution, their football trajectory is trending downward.

OL Cade Briggs (New Mexico) - If Leyton Nelson isn't ready to sign, I could see UCF pushing harder for his pledge. He visited ECU this past weekend. He's recently picked up Syracuse and Washington State offers, but the next the opportunity for visits isn't until Jan. 14. He may have to decide between UCF/ECU unless he's willing to commit to a school without visiting.

LB K.D. McDaniel (Kentucky) - Just visited. I'm expecting UCF.

DB Ladarius Tennison (Auburn) - He's gone radio silent since his visit, but he's deciding between UCF, Ole Miss and Missouri.

There could be additional names to surface. UCF has been looking for an immediate contributor at WR and likely would always take DL depth.

Where are are the transfers?

Nm

This guy usually knows what he’s talking about

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Give me a minute of your time and take in this cultural masterpiece. I’d like to start using references from here on out.

@Big12Knights Bing Bong!

Let's rip the Band-Aid off.

Big news. UCF was still heavily recruiting RB Xavier Townsend, who is a teammate of T.J. Bullard. Gus recently had an in-home visit with him.

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Looking for 5 lower bowl sideline seats for Michigan game. Ensure your seats go to a Knight fan!

What are the Knights getting in three-star RB Xavier Townsend?

I want to start a bit more virtual content, I have a new webcam and microphone I want to test. If anybody has Zoom and wants to connect for a few minutes, here is the link:

We can use a couple a big BOOMs tomorrow.

I'm working on creating a new board game based on the covid pandemic and looking for ideas. My first thought is that it needs to be like a combination of Monopoly and Risk, where you aren't just playing against your opponents, but also against banks and other countries. Some of my initial ideas:

Every time you round the board, the rules change.

Whenever you land on a "get vaxxed" square, you have to take a chance card. Chance cards would include things like "sorry, you got the Pfizer vaccine, pay 100,000 dollars to a heart surgeon.

Any time you roll doubles, you have to take a "Fauci Card" and do the exact opposite of what the card tells you to do.

Landing on either New York or California Avenues means you lose 3 turns and half of what you have in your bank account.


Help me out with some more details here. Gotta meeting with Parker Brothers in the morning.

SCHEDULE FACTS
56 Total Games
32 Home Games
12 Home Games in the AAC
12 games against 2021 NCAA Super Regional Teams (East Carolina, Ole Miss, South Florida)
18 games against 2021 NCAA Regional Teams
6 games against 2021 RPI Top-25 teams
10 games against 2021 RPI Top-50 teams
33 games against 2021 RPI Top-100 teams

MARQUEE MATCHUPS AT JOHN EULIANO PARK
Ole Miss, March 4-6
After taking a trip to Oxford, Mississippi a year ago, the Knights will welcome Ole Miss to John Euliano Park for a three-game series as the second weekend homestand of the season, beginning March 4. The Black and Gold won two of three games in Oxford during the 2021 campaign, as Ole Miss went on to finish with a 45-22 overall record and advance to the Tucson Regional.

Miami, March 16
The Hurricanes return to Orlando for the 10th time in the series history, marking the fourth midweek contest of the season for UCF. The Black and Gold will make the return trip to Coral Gables on May 11 as one of the last midweek contests of the year. The last time the two programs met, No. 5 Miami defeated No. 12 Knights in the last contest of the COVID-19 shortened 2020 campaign. A season ago, Miami concluded its campaign with a 33-21 record and advanced to the Gainesville Regional.

South Florida, April 1-3
The War on I-4 returns to John Euliano Park at the beginning of April to kick-off American Athletic Conference play. Last year, the Knights and Bulls faced off eight times during the regular season as UCF earned the 5-3 edge. The longest-running series in program history will reach 150 total games, as the Knights look to even the all-time series history that currently sits at 76-73 in favor of the Bulls.

East Carolina, April 14-19
In a series that will be crucial to The American standings, the Knights will welcome East Carolina for their second home conference series of the year. The Pirates finished the 2021 campaign with a 20-8 record in The American to clinch the regular-season title and advanced to a Super Regional in Nashville. The last time the two teams met, UCF eliminated ECU from The American Championship in the semifinal round.

It’s almost 0745 and the site hasn’t crashed yet! Let’s go, these are rookie numbers

I have noticed many new members, which I think is great. Thought that I would start a thread to help get them up to speed. Please add your thoughts veteran members.

It is spelled helmut not helmet due to a member’s spelling in a post a few years ago
It is Cindy, not Cinci or Cincy
NGE= Not Good Enough a George O’Leary saying
You may be something referred to as “big time” started by @Chez23
ZFG= Zero F@cks Gus

Most importantly never, ever capitalize usf, but you may also call them cow u or uwcf (still no caps)

There are some insiders and large donors who participate

You will get to know the trolls on the board

Jump in, post, don’t take anything too serious, and have fun…

So University of Texas fans recently announced a new foundation called the Carter Field Initiative I think.

I think they've got a $10MM amount already raised. And the plan is to pay out NIL deals to Texas athletes. What I had originally thought about NIL deals being a washing machine for donors to spend money directly on athletes has come to full fruition. It is not surprising that this has happened at UT which chronically overpays for under performance on the field.

What I don't know if this is an endowment with 10M in the bank and is meant to exist perpetually or if 10M is their annual expected donations. I think if annually that is incredibly hefty and would have to come out of the budget of UT's athletic department. And honestly if on the field results are the desired outcome it is probably money well spent.

Imagine if some donors came together and made a society which was a non-profit charitable organization. The spokespeople employed by the organization would deliver speeches at local K-12 schools and small youth athletic leagues aimed at youth who are at-risk etc. So the donations to said organization might even be tax deductible. The spokespeople regularly would attend events with donors. That level of access to these spokespeople and the inner workings of their unrelated activities outside of the society would be more entertaining than other competing organizations which give members a feeling of special attachment and knowledge of their spokespeople.

It would seem that going forward athletics at the official level will be funded by television contracts, student fees, and ticket sales. Official booster organizations will die on the vine. And organizations like the Carter Field Initiative will be the only option. This will be like the NFL without salary caps. In defense of NIL, I can say that it is dumb that we pay coaches $10M per year. If we are going to cap the athletes then we should also cap coaching salaries.

I also have thoughts about NIL deals and the headline numbers. Take Quinn Ewers for example. He supposedly got $1M to go to Ohio State for a year and is now in the transfer portal. If he was paid out $1M already then that was money wasted. However, I don't for a minute believe he was paid $1M. I believe that a lot of these dollar amounts we are seeing are total payments over many years and aren't guaranteed money. Perhaps some of these payments are based on a contract that extends 10 years and would last beyond the standard 4-5 year education period of an athlete. It's been a pretty common theme that Alabama QB's from the last 30 years show up at shopping malls to sign autographs etc. Like yeah bro you were a game manager QB for the team that won a national championship in 1992 and you got cut as an UDFA in the first week of training camp. But people still line up around the block at the Sand Mountain shopping center to shake your hand. So if we just formalize that agreement and extend it out for a long time we can make a jaw dropping headline number of $1M.

A smart NIL organization would do something similar to this and also make the contract payouts based on bonuses that can be forfeited. That is very much how it works in technology jobs. You are offered a large amount of money in the form of RSU's. The catch is that they don't vest until you reach so many years of employment. Since the NIL market is the free market, there's nothing to prevent this and would be incredibly wise for an organization. Employees would be protected because if they are released from employment at one of these NIL organizations while still increasing their brand awareness within a specific region, the word would get out and that organization would lose mindshare amongst potential future employees. That's a big no-no. But if an employee were to stop developing brand awareness within a specific region and were terminated, then prospective future employees would get the message that if you don't perform you will be terminated in an at will employment agreement.

They beat Mercer in Macon, 61-47🏀 Up next is Seton Hall (4-4) in N.J. Tuesday

Anyone tried to transfer bowl tickets yet? I make it as far as selecting the transfer option and then selecting the game, but after that it says I have no tickets to transfer. If I select the game it shows my 6 tix.

UCF is ranked 60th in the updated NET Rating. 1-1 in Quad 2 and 2-0 in Quad 3

Just in time for that last minute Christmas gift.