UCF continues their march to the 2024 season, wrapping up their second week of preseason camp on Saturday with a 110-play scrimmage inside the Bounce House.
The day also served as an opportunity to work with the Big 12's new Microsoft Surface tablets, which this year they'll be able to utilize in-game to review game footage on the sideline. That's in addition to helmet communication which allows one player on both offense and defense to hear pre-snap instructions from coaches.
After one day, Gus Malzahn seems to be a big fan of the tablets.
"The quality of coaching is gonna be better," Malzahn said. "I mean, it's gonna be a lot better. Just the advantage... Because a lot of times, if you're not completely coordinated with eyes in the sky, you won't know until Sunday, and you'll look up and you say, 'Man, why didn't we see that?'
"Those days are over. So the quality of football, the quality of coaching should be up across the country."
As for the helmet communication, perhaps it's not as beneficial for offenses that like to run at a fast tempo.
"I like it, but honestly, for us and the way we play, it's not to the effect you think it would be," Malzahn said. "I mean, there's times you talk, and there's times you don't, and we've got enough days in practice to figure all that out."
Malzahn said the first and second teams ran in a typical scrimmage format while the third team went 7-on-7.
"Got a chance to let everybody play," Malzahn said. "There's some good things. I think it was nine penalties overall, we cut that in half (from last week), but that's still not good enough. Our defense had one turnover, that was the last play of the scrimmage with the threes. We gotta do a better job getting the ball.
"We also worked kickoff and kickoff return live in the middle of the scrimmage too, to make sure that we were able to evaluate our personnel and everything that goes with that. The quarterbacks were not live other than (freshman) Riley (Trujillo). He did some good things at the end of the scrimmage to see how he reacted with that.
"I think Peny Boone had two touchdown runs, they were fairly short in the red zone with that."
Malzahn said there were no major injuries, which is always a positive.
Last week, Malzahn said quarterback KJ Jefferson probably wasn't at his best when he's not allowed to be live. How did the second scrimmage go for him?
"He's a veteran guy, man," Malzahn said. "He's one of the more experienced quarterbacks in the country. He's played for what, three and a half years or something. So he knows, but obviously, when he's live, it's different. But that's okay. That wasn't a problem.
"(Jacurri) Brown didn't go live today either, and that was okay, too."
The No. 2 QB job is still up for grabs with the primary contenders being redshirt freshman Dylan Rizk and Jacurri Brown, the post-spring transfer from Miami.
"We know a lot about Dylan," Malzahn said. "Brown, we've given him a lot of extra reps just to learn more about him. He went live last week.
"The two freshmen (EJ Colson and Riley Trujillo) have done a good job too. They've been primarily with the threes.
"We'll start putting the pieces of the puzzle this week. And for sure, next week at this time, it'll be set."
Penalties were improved this week, but still too many for Malzahn's liking.
Asked about differences between this year and last year, Malzahn referenced the bolstered roster thanks to the transfer portal.
"We've got more veteran guys," Malzahn said. "That's the biggest difference. I mean, we have guys that have played a lot of football."
Elaborating on special teams, Malzahn said they've got to improve on kickoff.
"Last year, we stunk at kickoff," he said. "We were one of the worst in the country. We gotta get better, and so that's been an emphasis.
"We have some veteran personnel that's a little bit different. I know that'll help, and the kicker. Our kicker's gotta kick it where they're supposed to kick it, and they didn't do a very good job of that last year.
"That was just two reps today. We'll continue to build on that."
Running back Peny Boone (Toledo transfer) had two short-yardage touchdowns in the scrimmage.
"He's a downhill guy," Malzahn said. "He's a veteran guy. You can tell he's played a lot of football. He's just learning the nuances of our offense, and plays, what we call stuff and everything that goes with it.
"But he's a downhill guy, man. He falls for it. He knows how to play with great physicality. He's protected the football."
How is the offensive line progressing? UCF began camp with a first team of Caden Kitler at center, Amari Kight and Paul Rubelt at tackle and Adrian Medley and Marcellus Marshall at guard.
"There are veteran guys that we know are in the mix to compete for playing time, "Malzahn said. "Our defense has done a really good job with some different movements and stuff like that. It's taken away some of the offensive line's aggressiveness at times. But we got a veteran group."
Malzahn reiterated they'd start to finalize the depth chart after next week's scrimmage.
From what he's seen, this defense will be much improved on run defense.
"We're gonna be stronger against the run," Malzahn said. "I mean, we weren't worth crap last year. I think everybody in this room knows that. We brought in some playmakers. We brought in some defensive experience and that's really helped."
UCF got some big recruiting news earlier this week when Cocoa wide receiver Jayvan Boggs flipped his commitment from Missouri to UCF. Rivals ranks Boggs as the No. 67 player nationally, which would be the highest-rated commit in UCF history. The Knights' 2025 team ranking is currently in the top 15.
"This place, people wanna come here," Malzahn said. "Everybody can see the future. There's a handful of other guys that I believe they wanna come too. We'll see what happens. We gotta win on the field. We win on the field and the floodgates are gonna open up.
"It's gonna be a lot of fun. But it's an exciting time right now to be a part of our program and to be the head coach."
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