Like many of you, I braved the elements in heading downtown for the first stop of the 2016 "Charge On Tour" at the historic Cheyenne Saloon. The torrential downpour subsided as I made my way in, but I did get a good drenching on the way out.
I'm hoping somebody else can provide a comprehensive food/beverage review as I partook in neither as I had just dined at Tijuana Flats moments beforehand. I did see two tables of complimentary hors d'oeuvres.
The 6 to 7 p.m. hour included autographs upstairs.
The speaking portion of the event began promptly at 7 p.m. with Marc Daniels asking everyone to applaud the fans who have been supporting UCF Football since 1979. Then the obligatory "raise your hand" if you have season tickets for this season and then a pointing out of the ticket table in the back.
Danny White was the first speaker.
"It's a hell of a time to be a Knight," he proclaimed.
White then recited some facts about UCF as an institution and athletic program.
"We've got the greatest president in America in Dr. Hitt," White said. "I'm so fortunate to get a chance to work for him."
Facts he outlined:
-UCF is ranked No. 3 on the U.S. News & World Report's "Up and Coming Universities."
-Incoming freshman class has an average GPA of 4.0 and SAT score of 1261.
-Ranked as one of the most innovative universities in America.
The following stat got Danny "excited."
-Based on high school applications, UCF is the No. 1 most popular university in the State of Florida and No. 2 in the Southeast. "Big time stuff."
-ESPN ranked the UCF job the No. 1 Group of Five job in the country.
"It's not even close. We're a heck of a lot better than most Power Five schools and making our way to build a top 25 athletic department."
-UCF was the only Group of Five school to post a winning record against Power Five schools, counting all sports across the board.
-UCF has the No. 1 graduation rate among public universities.
Other points made by Danny: 23,000-plus fans at the spring was "awesome," the amended Nike deal is a "game changer," then added "hope you like the new uniforms." He "couldn't be prouder" of the three new coaches (FB, MBB, WBB) and briefly highlighted all three.
White then introduced the other coaches in attendance: Emily Marron (women's golf), Terry Rooney (baseball), Tiffany Sahaydak (women's soccer), Bryan Cunningham (men's soccer), Jeanette Bolden (women's track and field) and Becky Cramer (rowing). Rowing is back-to-back AAC champions.
White then offered this message:
"The country is watching us right now. It's a critical time in college athletics. We have an opportunity to really make a statement. I think we did that at the spring game. Leading up to this fall we have another huge opportunity. With events like this, you guys have already bought in. But the more you can help us this offseason to spread that word, we control our own destiny. The best way to look like a Power Five school is to act like a Power Five school. The things that they evaluate you by, people measure, the way you build a reputation in college athletics, are all things we can control. We can control the size of our fanbase, our season ticket base. The strength is in our numbers. We need to get people out. We have a 45,000-seat stadium, 10,000-seat arena. Let's pack those things every single game. It starts with you guys. Please help us spread the word to get that going."
Then as a finale to his podium time, White officially announced the "worst-kept secret" aka the new video/audio upgrades at both football and basketball. On the projection screen, they compared the size of the new board vs. the previous board. Talked about improving the fan experience inside both venues.
"We want you to have an awesome time in our venues."
White's final words:
"I'll leave you with this. I know I've said it, but I want to reinforce this. We have an opportunity to launch ourselves really aggressively and build a top 25 athletic department. We've already got the attention of the nation. Projects like this get everybody's attention even more. You have an opportunity to help us take that to a whole other level. Please take this offseason and spread the word. You all know a lot of UCF people... Football is $99 bucks (for season tickets). Everybody can afford a season ticket if they make it a priority. Spread that word and let's get our numbers way up and make a national statement."
Marc Daniels took back the mic and then welcomed Johnny Dawkins, Coach Abe and Scott Frost to the stage where each took a seat. Instead of each coach addressing the crowd individually, Marc did his own "Q&A" peppering each coach with the usual questions.
First question was to Frost. Marc said he's had a busy few months, mentioned the recent wedding and asked if he's had a chance to slow down yet.
"This is my honeymoon right here," Frost said with a smirk. "I'm so excited about this. We hit the ground running here. We had a great recruiting class. Put a staff together. Had spring ball. It all happened really quickly. I'm really excited about the progress we've made and the support that we've had."
Marc then asked Coach Abe about bringing the family to Orlando.
"I told my kids we were going to Disney every single day so they were in 100 percent," Abe said.
Albany schools aren't out until late June.
Similar question to Dawkins.
"When I look at this crowd right here, I couldn't be more excited," Dawkins said. "The energy that's in this room, the enthusiasm. It's been a wonderful experience. I've gone from one coast to another. This area, these people, the fans, it's amazing."
What are the top priorities for the men's basketball program right now?
Dawkins: "What's important for us is we're trying to lay a foundation. You want to rush in and get everything done at once, but when you do that, you make a lot of mistakes. I wanted to get a staff right. A lot of my staff is here tonight. Then we wanted to look at our roster and see what we needed. What is our identity going to be? We want to play a certain way. We're trying to establish that. We'll work on that throughout the summer. Then how do we want to schedule? If anyone here understands my track record, we've always scheduled very, very strong. I'm a believer in playing everyone. So we're trying to establish that. But it's a process to getting there. We're looking at that now. Scheduling, recruiting, as well as staff, those have been the three big things. We're moving in the right direction."
Marc then asked Abe about establishing a winning culture at UCF.
"I think the biggest thing people will hear me say all the time is to empower these young women. Just stick by our philosophy every single day which is family, academics and basketball. Just work towards it. I can't tell you the secret to it, but it's really about empowering these young people. Give these young people a great college experience with a great degree and win a lot of games."
Now a question for Frost about what he was "most proud of" following the spring.
"I was most impressed with the buy-in. Our players were so hungry for something different, a new approach to the game they love to play. They did everything we asked them to do. We still have a long way to go, a lot of improvements to make. When players are buying in and giving you that kind of effort, I think improvements can happen quicker. I was really excited about the progress from practice one to practice 15."
Now questions for all three - why did they come to UCF and what makes them more excited about the opportunity?
Frost: "People have probably heard me say is I came to UCF because I think the sky is the limit as far as potential for our football program. We're in the middle of one of the best recruiting grounds in the United States. It's an up and coming university, second-largest university in the country. Beautiful campus. Great things to offer. I think we're going to be able to attract the type of football player that can make us a winning program. Since I've gotten here, on that same train of thought, we only had a month and a half to recruit, so we were only able to target 40 kids. We had 22 spots to fill. We hit on 22 out of 38 or 40 kids that we got involved recruiting. That kind of success, if we can cast a wider net in this recruiting class, maybe we can even start to recruit some better players. I'm excited about where we can take it."
Abe: "With every coach it starts with recruiting. Can you recruit to a university? Is it a great academic school? Is it a family atmosphere? Kids these days look for the flash and the wow. Every time I talk to a recruit I say I'm the head coach at UCF and they're like, "in Orlando, Florida? Woo." We can recruit, all of us, from every part of the country because everybody wants to come to the Sunshine State. The facilities are awesome. Academically, there's so many degrees here. At so many schools I've been to, they didn't have the degree a young woman wanted to major in. If a recruit says I want to major in this, I'm like, yes, we have it. Academically it's been wonderful for us. The sell is also there's palm trees on campus. Come on. Why wouldn't you want to come to UCF?"
Dawkins: "For me, I think it's a meaningful opportunity. I really do. The upside is so good here. It's already trending in the right direction. To be a part of something like that, to catch that wave, can be really special. What I hope to do is establish a culture and a tradition here that everyone can be proud of. That's in the classroom. All of the coaches would agree. It's more than just wins and losses."
Then another question for the panel about what they want to see from fans:
Frost: "Well I think just.. a little bit of patience. We're taking over a program that wasn't successful last year. I love the trajectory we're on already. I think we're headed in the right direction. I think everyone is going to be able to recognize the improvements we've made and the progress we're showing. But I don't have any magic pixie dust to sprinkle on our team to make it undefeated. That's going to come through a lot of hard work and for our players to follow the process we put in front of them. With the support that I've seen in places like this, if we can get that kind of support and keep working how we are, I think everybody is going to be happy with the end result."
Abe: "I think I said to a few people upstairs, "Do you have 1,000 friends?" Bring 1,000 friends to all of our games to multiply this crowd would be awesome. Support everyone, not just men's basketball and football. The second thing with basketball especially is to cheer and get stops on defense, not just cheer for offense. That's really what matters. Can you get a stop on defense? Cheer on defense too."
Dawkins: "Again, we need everyone in this room to bring all their friends and family. If we can fill the stands, that makes a big difference. Every good team I've been a part of, it's more than the players, it's everyone involved and committed to helping that team become successful. This is beautiful right here, but we need to see this every night, times 100."
At that point, Marc gave shout-outs to John Kvatek, Eric DeSalvo, Andy Seeley and Jimmy Skiles and wanted everyone to get on stage for a "massive selfie."
Then about five minutes of raffle drawings.
Now a few questions from the crowd. There was no mic for fans so I imagine it was hard to hear. The first was for Frost about future football schedules.
"It's a better question for our AD than for me. Next year's schedule is set. The 2017 schedule is tentatively set. We're working on that too. I think without saying too much we want to have a model that makes sense to give you guys games you want to see, but also puts you in a good position to win games. I think there's been several schools, not Power Five schools, that have done a good job of having a game or two against big quality opponents, give you guys a game to see, but I also don't want to play people we don't have a legitimate chance to beat. If we get the program where I want it to be, there won't be anybody in the country we're afraid to play. But as we're building it, I want to be smart about scheduling. We're trying to work out those details now."
Marc then goes, "Who's going to Ann Arbor?!" LOL, I don't think Frost is a big fan of that game.
Another fan question for Frost. I didn't quite hear what was asked, but it had to do with the current team.
"We need to keep instilling more talent into our team. We have some really good talent on the team. I was impressed with the players we have on the team, but to be where we want to be we need more talent, frankly. I thought we did a good job addressing that in the last recruiting class. I think we'll do a better job addressing it. We're also playing a little different style of football than what they played before, so we need to recruit to that style. We need more speed on offense. We need some bigger defensive linemen and more linebackers to play in the 3-4 scheme. It's going to take us a little while to get our type of players into the system. I was thoroughly impressed with the talent on the team now and their ability to adjust."
A question to Dawkins about philosophy.
Dawkins: "I'm a big believer in fundamentals. I was raised that way. I was fortunate to work with and play under some great coaches. That's the one thing we learned. Our first workouts this spring, we wanted the guys to understand the importance of fundamentals. We'll carry that through their entire career. Some things they learn now, you'll see the fruits of their labor a year or two from now when they get habits the way we want them. They're all good kids. They want to learn."
Marc asked the coaches about uniforms.
Abe: "The first question I get from recruits is names on the back of shirts. Gosh. I think for women's basketball, they don't have a white uniform. I'm really big on white. It's the home color. We just got some new white uniforms ordered. We'll have white uniforms for home games. They'll have names on the back of the shirts. That's really hard for old-school Coach Abe to put the name on the back because I'm a big believer of they play for the school and not individuals. But everybody wants that. White uniforms are huge. It's special for home games."
Dawkins: "I think it's all about building a tradition. Coach Abe and I actually spoke about that a few days ago. We want white uniforms. That's something we should have at home. We want to establish that as a home uniform for us. I don't mind having different uniforms to change pace every now and then."
Frost: "I was glad everybody liked (the new uniforms). My relationship with some people at Nike I think helped a little. They have some very creative people there. Once they called me and told me they were going to take charge of the designing process for our uniforms, I knew something great would come out of that. I think we're going to follow their lead and wear white at home for the first game."
What does Frost look for in an ideal recruit?
"I'm a firm believer in recruiting talent. I want athletes. I want somebody when I put on the tape they make me go, 'Damn.' I want them to do something on tape that makes me raise my eyebrows and be impressed. I've got a great group of coaches on our staff. If we take the raw material of a great athlete, I believe we can teach them how to do the things we need them to do to be great football players. But it has to start with athletic talent."
A long question about making sure these coaches continue to stress academics. Obviously the response was, "of course."
Coach Abe said she's a big believer of players making good grades. They've always graduated kids. Dawkins believes in "standards." You must have high standards on the court and in the classroom, alluding to his time at Duke and Stanford. Frost mentioned the existing track record and how they want to continue that. "That starts in the recruiting process and recruiting the right kids that can function at the college level, not just getting to college. We're intent on keeping the track record where it is and getting it better. If Coach Abe's team average is a 3.0 GPA we'll probably use them for some tutors."
A question about style of play late in the game? The fan mentioned four quarter. Dawkins said they'll pursue early opportunities to score. Abe says they'll continue to push a lead, mentioned having to compete with UConn. Frost then says, "Since I'm the only coach of a sport that actually has a fourth quarter..." At that point it was pointed out that women's basketball now plays four quarters (this is a new change). Frost froze for a second and smirked. He then added the fast tempo would prove beneficial late in a game, "We can wear a team out with our tempo, we always had great third and fourth quarters because other teams were out of shape and couldn't play at that pace for four quarters."
One more question:
"Hey Coach Frost, I want to talk about how Justin Hoffman has adjusted to the offense?"
Awkward pause. Marc corrects to say Holman.
"He did a great job. I think it takes quarterbacks the longest. Our quarterbacks have to know what they're doing, they have to do what the offensive line, protection, blocking scheme, what the receivers are doing, what the running backs are doing, they have to know 11 guys plus what hte defense is doing. Guys also have to see all of that and make all the decisions in about 12 seconds because we want to snap the ball. We need guys who are fast thinkers, fast blinkers to process things really quickly. Justin did a great job of that. I think he improved tremendously from practice one to 15 because he got more familiar with what we were doing. That being said, some of the other quarterbacks had really good springs as well."
An auction for the Knightro bobbleheads yielded a $1,000 bid.
Then some final thoughts from the three coaches:
Abe: "I just want to say thank you for all the support and everything you do for this wonderful university. I know you are all very proud of it and we want to make you very proud. Thanks for all the support."
Dawkins: "I'd like to thank everyone for coming out. It makes us more excited. Nothing happens without energy and enthusiasm. From what I can see in this room, the future is bright. I'd also like to thank Marc, he's done a great job."
Frost, addressing Marc Daniels: "My final thought is when you were standing up there I wonder why they had made the 10th bobblehead two inches too tall." Zing. "I can't tell how thrilled I am with the support we've gotten already. I believe so much of where we can take UCF. I think along with the two other coaches up here, I think the right people are on board to make this thing special. I think the sky is the limit for UCF. I appreciate all you guys because we want you guys on board as we take this thing to places it's never been."
At that, Marc offered a few parting words, mentioned the upcoming tour stops, the baseball/softball games coming up as well as rowing, and the event was done.
My thoughts:
With GOL gone, UCF has taken back control of the event. Don't get me wrong, I loved GOL, but he was a "me guy" in many respects and was not happy when Tribble for a couple years fought for inclusion of basketball and other sport coaches at these events. If you noticed the past few years when Stansbury was here, the "Hometown Huddles" became completely football events. Stansbury was too afraid to speak except for the very last one.
I completely understand why the change was made but it did make things a bit more brief, bland and generic when you had to give three head coaches equal billing. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but Frost didn't have an opportunity to go in-depth about anything - I'm not sure that he would, he was pretty vague during the spring - but he really didn't get the opportunity with this format. It didn't help matters that the fan questions were largely a waste with generic softballs other than perhaps the scheduling question.
Reading between the lines, Frost wants to temper expectations. I thought it was telling when asked what he wants to see from the fanbase is "patience" while mentioning several times the need for talent. We all here understand and he's smart not to hype up anything when he probably doesn't really have a full grasp on what he has. There may be some talent in some areas, but you don't go winless just because of injuries and coaching turmoil. There were plenty of NGEs to go around.
Frost mentioned they'd wear their white uniforms in the first game, which is already being billed as "First Frost" aka a white-out.
As you read above, Frost continues to harp on the fact he's not a fan of challenging non-conference schedules. During the growth phase, as he said, he wants to load up on as many wins as possible. He's not going to say it publicly, but he has to hate this game at Michigan, which is pretty much meaingless except for the paycheck.
On the other hand, Dawkins played up the fact he wants to play challenging schedules.
Just a bunch of generic stuff, which is fine. No real specifics or juicy tidbits to be had. The video board stuff had already gotten out, which Danny alluded to.
I do think these other tour stops will likely yield a more insightful experience since each should be more intimate settings.
As for the crowd, it was good, I guess. I'm not going to sit here and say how great it was because I feel like a free event like this showcasing new coaches should have drawn thousands to the point where they had to cut off access to the venue. It was only a few hundred. The same people you always see. Not much different than last year in all honesty, maybe a few more folks scattered around the upper levels. What did y'all think of the crowd? Impressed or meh?
Debating driving over to Cocoa later today. The threat of rain may impact that decision. We'll see.
I'm hoping somebody else can provide a comprehensive food/beverage review as I partook in neither as I had just dined at Tijuana Flats moments beforehand. I did see two tables of complimentary hors d'oeuvres.
The 6 to 7 p.m. hour included autographs upstairs.
The speaking portion of the event began promptly at 7 p.m. with Marc Daniels asking everyone to applaud the fans who have been supporting UCF Football since 1979. Then the obligatory "raise your hand" if you have season tickets for this season and then a pointing out of the ticket table in the back.
Danny White was the first speaker.
"It's a hell of a time to be a Knight," he proclaimed.
White then recited some facts about UCF as an institution and athletic program.
"We've got the greatest president in America in Dr. Hitt," White said. "I'm so fortunate to get a chance to work for him."
Facts he outlined:
-UCF is ranked No. 3 on the U.S. News & World Report's "Up and Coming Universities."
-Incoming freshman class has an average GPA of 4.0 and SAT score of 1261.
-Ranked as one of the most innovative universities in America.
The following stat got Danny "excited."
-Based on high school applications, UCF is the No. 1 most popular university in the State of Florida and No. 2 in the Southeast. "Big time stuff."
-ESPN ranked the UCF job the No. 1 Group of Five job in the country.
"It's not even close. We're a heck of a lot better than most Power Five schools and making our way to build a top 25 athletic department."
-UCF was the only Group of Five school to post a winning record against Power Five schools, counting all sports across the board.
-UCF has the No. 1 graduation rate among public universities.
Other points made by Danny: 23,000-plus fans at the spring was "awesome," the amended Nike deal is a "game changer," then added "hope you like the new uniforms." He "couldn't be prouder" of the three new coaches (FB, MBB, WBB) and briefly highlighted all three.
White then introduced the other coaches in attendance: Emily Marron (women's golf), Terry Rooney (baseball), Tiffany Sahaydak (women's soccer), Bryan Cunningham (men's soccer), Jeanette Bolden (women's track and field) and Becky Cramer (rowing). Rowing is back-to-back AAC champions.
White then offered this message:
"The country is watching us right now. It's a critical time in college athletics. We have an opportunity to really make a statement. I think we did that at the spring game. Leading up to this fall we have another huge opportunity. With events like this, you guys have already bought in. But the more you can help us this offseason to spread that word, we control our own destiny. The best way to look like a Power Five school is to act like a Power Five school. The things that they evaluate you by, people measure, the way you build a reputation in college athletics, are all things we can control. We can control the size of our fanbase, our season ticket base. The strength is in our numbers. We need to get people out. We have a 45,000-seat stadium, 10,000-seat arena. Let's pack those things every single game. It starts with you guys. Please help us spread the word to get that going."
Then as a finale to his podium time, White officially announced the "worst-kept secret" aka the new video/audio upgrades at both football and basketball. On the projection screen, they compared the size of the new board vs. the previous board. Talked about improving the fan experience inside both venues.
"We want you to have an awesome time in our venues."
White's final words:
"I'll leave you with this. I know I've said it, but I want to reinforce this. We have an opportunity to launch ourselves really aggressively and build a top 25 athletic department. We've already got the attention of the nation. Projects like this get everybody's attention even more. You have an opportunity to help us take that to a whole other level. Please take this offseason and spread the word. You all know a lot of UCF people... Football is $99 bucks (for season tickets). Everybody can afford a season ticket if they make it a priority. Spread that word and let's get our numbers way up and make a national statement."
Marc Daniels took back the mic and then welcomed Johnny Dawkins, Coach Abe and Scott Frost to the stage where each took a seat. Instead of each coach addressing the crowd individually, Marc did his own "Q&A" peppering each coach with the usual questions.
First question was to Frost. Marc said he's had a busy few months, mentioned the recent wedding and asked if he's had a chance to slow down yet.
"This is my honeymoon right here," Frost said with a smirk. "I'm so excited about this. We hit the ground running here. We had a great recruiting class. Put a staff together. Had spring ball. It all happened really quickly. I'm really excited about the progress we've made and the support that we've had."
Marc then asked Coach Abe about bringing the family to Orlando.
"I told my kids we were going to Disney every single day so they were in 100 percent," Abe said.
Albany schools aren't out until late June.
Similar question to Dawkins.
"When I look at this crowd right here, I couldn't be more excited," Dawkins said. "The energy that's in this room, the enthusiasm. It's been a wonderful experience. I've gone from one coast to another. This area, these people, the fans, it's amazing."
What are the top priorities for the men's basketball program right now?
Dawkins: "What's important for us is we're trying to lay a foundation. You want to rush in and get everything done at once, but when you do that, you make a lot of mistakes. I wanted to get a staff right. A lot of my staff is here tonight. Then we wanted to look at our roster and see what we needed. What is our identity going to be? We want to play a certain way. We're trying to establish that. We'll work on that throughout the summer. Then how do we want to schedule? If anyone here understands my track record, we've always scheduled very, very strong. I'm a believer in playing everyone. So we're trying to establish that. But it's a process to getting there. We're looking at that now. Scheduling, recruiting, as well as staff, those have been the three big things. We're moving in the right direction."
Marc then asked Abe about establishing a winning culture at UCF.
"I think the biggest thing people will hear me say all the time is to empower these young women. Just stick by our philosophy every single day which is family, academics and basketball. Just work towards it. I can't tell you the secret to it, but it's really about empowering these young people. Give these young people a great college experience with a great degree and win a lot of games."
Now a question for Frost about what he was "most proud of" following the spring.
"I was most impressed with the buy-in. Our players were so hungry for something different, a new approach to the game they love to play. They did everything we asked them to do. We still have a long way to go, a lot of improvements to make. When players are buying in and giving you that kind of effort, I think improvements can happen quicker. I was really excited about the progress from practice one to practice 15."
Now questions for all three - why did they come to UCF and what makes them more excited about the opportunity?
Frost: "People have probably heard me say is I came to UCF because I think the sky is the limit as far as potential for our football program. We're in the middle of one of the best recruiting grounds in the United States. It's an up and coming university, second-largest university in the country. Beautiful campus. Great things to offer. I think we're going to be able to attract the type of football player that can make us a winning program. Since I've gotten here, on that same train of thought, we only had a month and a half to recruit, so we were only able to target 40 kids. We had 22 spots to fill. We hit on 22 out of 38 or 40 kids that we got involved recruiting. That kind of success, if we can cast a wider net in this recruiting class, maybe we can even start to recruit some better players. I'm excited about where we can take it."
Abe: "With every coach it starts with recruiting. Can you recruit to a university? Is it a great academic school? Is it a family atmosphere? Kids these days look for the flash and the wow. Every time I talk to a recruit I say I'm the head coach at UCF and they're like, "in Orlando, Florida? Woo." We can recruit, all of us, from every part of the country because everybody wants to come to the Sunshine State. The facilities are awesome. Academically, there's so many degrees here. At so many schools I've been to, they didn't have the degree a young woman wanted to major in. If a recruit says I want to major in this, I'm like, yes, we have it. Academically it's been wonderful for us. The sell is also there's palm trees on campus. Come on. Why wouldn't you want to come to UCF?"
Dawkins: "For me, I think it's a meaningful opportunity. I really do. The upside is so good here. It's already trending in the right direction. To be a part of something like that, to catch that wave, can be really special. What I hope to do is establish a culture and a tradition here that everyone can be proud of. That's in the classroom. All of the coaches would agree. It's more than just wins and losses."
Then another question for the panel about what they want to see from fans:
Frost: "Well I think just.. a little bit of patience. We're taking over a program that wasn't successful last year. I love the trajectory we're on already. I think we're headed in the right direction. I think everyone is going to be able to recognize the improvements we've made and the progress we're showing. But I don't have any magic pixie dust to sprinkle on our team to make it undefeated. That's going to come through a lot of hard work and for our players to follow the process we put in front of them. With the support that I've seen in places like this, if we can get that kind of support and keep working how we are, I think everybody is going to be happy with the end result."
Abe: "I think I said to a few people upstairs, "Do you have 1,000 friends?" Bring 1,000 friends to all of our games to multiply this crowd would be awesome. Support everyone, not just men's basketball and football. The second thing with basketball especially is to cheer and get stops on defense, not just cheer for offense. That's really what matters. Can you get a stop on defense? Cheer on defense too."
Dawkins: "Again, we need everyone in this room to bring all their friends and family. If we can fill the stands, that makes a big difference. Every good team I've been a part of, it's more than the players, it's everyone involved and committed to helping that team become successful. This is beautiful right here, but we need to see this every night, times 100."
At that point, Marc gave shout-outs to John Kvatek, Eric DeSalvo, Andy Seeley and Jimmy Skiles and wanted everyone to get on stage for a "massive selfie."
Then about five minutes of raffle drawings.
Now a few questions from the crowd. There was no mic for fans so I imagine it was hard to hear. The first was for Frost about future football schedules.
"It's a better question for our AD than for me. Next year's schedule is set. The 2017 schedule is tentatively set. We're working on that too. I think without saying too much we want to have a model that makes sense to give you guys games you want to see, but also puts you in a good position to win games. I think there's been several schools, not Power Five schools, that have done a good job of having a game or two against big quality opponents, give you guys a game to see, but I also don't want to play people we don't have a legitimate chance to beat. If we get the program where I want it to be, there won't be anybody in the country we're afraid to play. But as we're building it, I want to be smart about scheduling. We're trying to work out those details now."
Marc then goes, "Who's going to Ann Arbor?!" LOL, I don't think Frost is a big fan of that game.
Another fan question for Frost. I didn't quite hear what was asked, but it had to do with the current team.
"We need to keep instilling more talent into our team. We have some really good talent on the team. I was impressed with the players we have on the team, but to be where we want to be we need more talent, frankly. I thought we did a good job addressing that in the last recruiting class. I think we'll do a better job addressing it. We're also playing a little different style of football than what they played before, so we need to recruit to that style. We need more speed on offense. We need some bigger defensive linemen and more linebackers to play in the 3-4 scheme. It's going to take us a little while to get our type of players into the system. I was thoroughly impressed with the talent on the team now and their ability to adjust."
A question to Dawkins about philosophy.
Dawkins: "I'm a big believer in fundamentals. I was raised that way. I was fortunate to work with and play under some great coaches. That's the one thing we learned. Our first workouts this spring, we wanted the guys to understand the importance of fundamentals. We'll carry that through their entire career. Some things they learn now, you'll see the fruits of their labor a year or two from now when they get habits the way we want them. They're all good kids. They want to learn."
Marc asked the coaches about uniforms.
Abe: "The first question I get from recruits is names on the back of shirts. Gosh. I think for women's basketball, they don't have a white uniform. I'm really big on white. It's the home color. We just got some new white uniforms ordered. We'll have white uniforms for home games. They'll have names on the back of the shirts. That's really hard for old-school Coach Abe to put the name on the back because I'm a big believer of they play for the school and not individuals. But everybody wants that. White uniforms are huge. It's special for home games."
Dawkins: "I think it's all about building a tradition. Coach Abe and I actually spoke about that a few days ago. We want white uniforms. That's something we should have at home. We want to establish that as a home uniform for us. I don't mind having different uniforms to change pace every now and then."
Frost: "I was glad everybody liked (the new uniforms). My relationship with some people at Nike I think helped a little. They have some very creative people there. Once they called me and told me they were going to take charge of the designing process for our uniforms, I knew something great would come out of that. I think we're going to follow their lead and wear white at home for the first game."
What does Frost look for in an ideal recruit?
"I'm a firm believer in recruiting talent. I want athletes. I want somebody when I put on the tape they make me go, 'Damn.' I want them to do something on tape that makes me raise my eyebrows and be impressed. I've got a great group of coaches on our staff. If we take the raw material of a great athlete, I believe we can teach them how to do the things we need them to do to be great football players. But it has to start with athletic talent."
A long question about making sure these coaches continue to stress academics. Obviously the response was, "of course."
Coach Abe said she's a big believer of players making good grades. They've always graduated kids. Dawkins believes in "standards." You must have high standards on the court and in the classroom, alluding to his time at Duke and Stanford. Frost mentioned the existing track record and how they want to continue that. "That starts in the recruiting process and recruiting the right kids that can function at the college level, not just getting to college. We're intent on keeping the track record where it is and getting it better. If Coach Abe's team average is a 3.0 GPA we'll probably use them for some tutors."
A question about style of play late in the game? The fan mentioned four quarter. Dawkins said they'll pursue early opportunities to score. Abe says they'll continue to push a lead, mentioned having to compete with UConn. Frost then says, "Since I'm the only coach of a sport that actually has a fourth quarter..." At that point it was pointed out that women's basketball now plays four quarters (this is a new change). Frost froze for a second and smirked. He then added the fast tempo would prove beneficial late in a game, "We can wear a team out with our tempo, we always had great third and fourth quarters because other teams were out of shape and couldn't play at that pace for four quarters."
One more question:
"Hey Coach Frost, I want to talk about how Justin Hoffman has adjusted to the offense?"
Awkward pause. Marc corrects to say Holman.
"He did a great job. I think it takes quarterbacks the longest. Our quarterbacks have to know what they're doing, they have to do what the offensive line, protection, blocking scheme, what the receivers are doing, what the running backs are doing, they have to know 11 guys plus what hte defense is doing. Guys also have to see all of that and make all the decisions in about 12 seconds because we want to snap the ball. We need guys who are fast thinkers, fast blinkers to process things really quickly. Justin did a great job of that. I think he improved tremendously from practice one to 15 because he got more familiar with what we were doing. That being said, some of the other quarterbacks had really good springs as well."
An auction for the Knightro bobbleheads yielded a $1,000 bid.
Then some final thoughts from the three coaches:
Abe: "I just want to say thank you for all the support and everything you do for this wonderful university. I know you are all very proud of it and we want to make you very proud. Thanks for all the support."
Dawkins: "I'd like to thank everyone for coming out. It makes us more excited. Nothing happens without energy and enthusiasm. From what I can see in this room, the future is bright. I'd also like to thank Marc, he's done a great job."
Frost, addressing Marc Daniels: "My final thought is when you were standing up there I wonder why they had made the 10th bobblehead two inches too tall." Zing. "I can't tell how thrilled I am with the support we've gotten already. I believe so much of where we can take UCF. I think along with the two other coaches up here, I think the right people are on board to make this thing special. I think the sky is the limit for UCF. I appreciate all you guys because we want you guys on board as we take this thing to places it's never been."
At that, Marc offered a few parting words, mentioned the upcoming tour stops, the baseball/softball games coming up as well as rowing, and the event was done.
My thoughts:
With GOL gone, UCF has taken back control of the event. Don't get me wrong, I loved GOL, but he was a "me guy" in many respects and was not happy when Tribble for a couple years fought for inclusion of basketball and other sport coaches at these events. If you noticed the past few years when Stansbury was here, the "Hometown Huddles" became completely football events. Stansbury was too afraid to speak except for the very last one.
I completely understand why the change was made but it did make things a bit more brief, bland and generic when you had to give three head coaches equal billing. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but Frost didn't have an opportunity to go in-depth about anything - I'm not sure that he would, he was pretty vague during the spring - but he really didn't get the opportunity with this format. It didn't help matters that the fan questions were largely a waste with generic softballs other than perhaps the scheduling question.
Reading between the lines, Frost wants to temper expectations. I thought it was telling when asked what he wants to see from the fanbase is "patience" while mentioning several times the need for talent. We all here understand and he's smart not to hype up anything when he probably doesn't really have a full grasp on what he has. There may be some talent in some areas, but you don't go winless just because of injuries and coaching turmoil. There were plenty of NGEs to go around.
Frost mentioned they'd wear their white uniforms in the first game, which is already being billed as "First Frost" aka a white-out.
As you read above, Frost continues to harp on the fact he's not a fan of challenging non-conference schedules. During the growth phase, as he said, he wants to load up on as many wins as possible. He's not going to say it publicly, but he has to hate this game at Michigan, which is pretty much meaingless except for the paycheck.
On the other hand, Dawkins played up the fact he wants to play challenging schedules.
Just a bunch of generic stuff, which is fine. No real specifics or juicy tidbits to be had. The video board stuff had already gotten out, which Danny alluded to.
I do think these other tour stops will likely yield a more insightful experience since each should be more intimate settings.
As for the crowd, it was good, I guess. I'm not going to sit here and say how great it was because I feel like a free event like this showcasing new coaches should have drawn thousands to the point where they had to cut off access to the venue. It was only a few hundred. The same people you always see. Not much different than last year in all honesty, maybe a few more folks scattered around the upper levels. What did y'all think of the crowd? Impressed or meh?
Debating driving over to Cocoa later today. The threat of rain may impact that decision. We'll see.
