We caught up with offensive coordinator Tim Harris, who provided an offensive update after the first full two weeks of preseason camp.
Last Saturday, UCF conducted their second scrimmage. He thought they did a much better limiting the penalties, going from 18 penalties in the first scrimmage to nine in this most recent one.
"That scrimmage was more based on situational things, so we put the balls to different places that you don't get just from a day-to-day practice situation," Harris said. "We were able to see some really good things from the red zone. We got some guys down there that could finish plays and get us in the end zone, so I feel really good about that."
They will be more specific in these next two weeks, such as QBs throwing certain routes to WRs and narrowing down how they want to rotate RBs.
A few guys have been banged up, but Harris seemed please with the overall injury situation.
In this past scrimmage, Riley Trujillo was the only QB that was live. His run game is an asset of his.
Harris was asked about RB Myles Montgomery (Cincinnati transfer) who didn't appear to be full-go on Monday. Harris said Gus Malzahn will always addressed specific injury-related questions but he intimated it wasn't serious.
He was then incredibly complimentary of Montgomery and how he's attacked camp.
"Right now if you had to pick one guy on our offense who's been the MVP through these first two scrimmages, it would be Myles Montgomery. Everything that he does has been 100 miles an hour, his effort level and everything that he does. The little things, the details of how he works, how hard he runs, he finishes runs, breaks tackles.
"So he's done a really good job and put himself in a really good position. But if we had to pick one guy on our offense that we feel brings it every single day, it's Myles."
Establishing the WR rotation is an ongoing process.
"The competition is so close every day," Harris said. "We added some guys that had experience at other places, they've played a lot of football. The competition in that room is just super competitive every single day.
"What it's done is it's made it where you have one guy that may play really good one day, and the next day somebody else takes that step.
"I will say, Kobe Hudson is a guy that over the last couple practices started to do things that we've been pushing him to do, make those contested catches on a consistent basis, be physical, finish in blocks. So he's done that.
"Ja'Varrius Johnson, he's put himself in a position to show, last week, that he can make those downfield plays, too.
"So it's constant movement from that group, and they're putting pressure on each other, and that's exactly how you want it."
Is Jacurri Brown (Miami transfer) contesting for the backup QB spot behind KJ Jefferson?
Harris said he's done a good job, and they continue to stay on him about the "little things" which includes "protecting the ball."
"He's got to do a really good job in that area. But like I told you guys last week, when he was live in that (first) scrimmage, that best shows his game. We didn't have him live the other day, so I think it takes away from who he is.
"But we got to be smart about it. We don't want a guy like that to be live every single scrimmage. So the one scrimmage where he got a chance for his game to really show, you saw exactly what you're getting.
"Now it's about tying up all the loose ends with him, making sure that he understands the details in every part of our offense, and then again, making sure that we do a great job of protecting the ball."
Harris likes the tablet usage, which they got to experiment with during the last scrimmage.
He was very complimentary of freshman QB EJ Colson, who did go live in the first scrimmage. He was initially a Class of 2025 commitment, but reclassified in order to enroll with the 2024 class.
"Everything that we've seen from him is super impressive," Harris said. "He's a super impressive young man. Take the football stuff out of it and you see how he handles himself around the building. You're very impressed with him.
"But what you see when you get out there physically, he's a natural thrower, man. We throw against air and He doesn't miss very much. The ball is consistently exactly where it's supposed to be. That's one of those things that stands out with him.
"You look at him, people talk about his height and all that, but a guy like him who's won at the high school level and won very consistently, you still feel strongly about what they can achieve at this level when you watch him go out there and play and you watch how his teammates respond to him."
To this point in camp, what's something that has exceeded his expectations? Harris said it would be TE depth.
"I think coming out of spring, we had probably two guys that we felt were skilled pass catchers and skilled receiver type guys. But as we go through the summer.. a guy like (Michigan State transfer) Evan (Morris). Evan's done a really good job.
"When we looked at him after spring ball, it was more of an in-line tight end. But he's got an opportunity through the summer and through training camp to show that he can be a receiving threat. Adding him to Randy (Pittman) and Grant (Stevens), those guys that we felt really good in the receiver category, it makes that group very deep and it makes us very well-rounded in what we can do with them."
Harris will coach from the booth during games. He said Gus Malzahn would be the one in charge of helmet communication. He also said the new rules allowing unlimited coaching staffs has freed up the existing analysts to be more hands-on and coach, which is a huge benefit. Under the old rules, analysts weren't allowed to directly interact with players during practice, for instance.
Asked about Kam Martin as RB coach, Harris said Kam is "super impressive" in how he handles himself as a young coach.
"He wasn't a young guy that was in trying to be friends with the players. That's what you get sometimes when you hire young coaches. They want to befriend the players because they don't understand that discipline factor. But you don't get that with Kam. You know, he's a straight up and down guy.
"He handles his business. His players have his respect every single day when he walks in the building. He does a really good job of handling those guys through good and bad."
The biggest question at this point is how this team handles adversity, which they probably won't know until the season starts.
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