Now on to the final portion of the Signing Day Show Recap. After about 15 minutes of Danny White, Scott Frost addressed the crowd, and yes, told one of his terrible jokes, this one with Mario Verduzco being the eventual punchline.
Frost personally thanked his coaching and recruiting staff for their efforts.
"I'm really thrilled with this class. Our goal as a coaching staff as we talk through how we want to build this program is we're looking into the future. At a point in the not-too-distant future we want to be able to take the field with what we feel like are as good a player as anybody else has in our league at every single position. That's tough to do and there's going to be some great players in the league on different teams, but we feel like if we can have as good linebackers, quarterback, d-line, o-line, etc., then we can take the field and win conference championships and more than that. That's a process.
"I can't say enough about the success they had here before our staff arrived. That being said, we had some really good players at some positions last year and some other places that we knew we needed to get better. We think we addressed a lot of those issues with this recruiting class. We think we're building toward the future to get to where we want to. We also recruited some really good young men, not just good football players. We're really excited about that."
Frost then introduced each coach and staffer individually, then each coach came up to talk about 2-3 players. This brief video clip is Frost introducing coaches, Beckton was the first one mentioned but I hadn't started recording yet.
-Mario Verduzco talked about the two QBs. He didn't want to use the microphone, so he just talked real loud. "Microphones drive me freaking nuts."
Darriel Mack - "Darriel Mack is the son of Darriel and Hope Mack. He's going to be a sociology major. Tremendous young guy. Tremendous character. When Coach Frost and Coach Walters were talking about recruiting quarterbacks, it was important for us, just for where we were in space and time with the quarterback position, that we recruited guys that really wanted to compete. We were going to maybe scholarship three guys. Those three young characters were going to need a tremendous will to compete. Darriel is of that ilk. Tremendous young guy. Tremendous player. Tremendous character. He's also a basketball player. Just the kind of quarterback that we need for our system.
Noah Vedral - "Noah Vedral is a 4.0 student. He's going to major in business. He's the son of Sarah and Mike. As Coach Frost has mentioned, he has had experience and played with Vedral's family at Nebraska. His grandfather is actually the coach at the high school, Coach Turman. Tremendous family. Tremendous character. As I watched the tape as a I typically do for quarterbacks, then it goes to Coach Walters and then obviously Coach Frost and the rest of the staff, he just jumps out at you as a player, similar to how it was for Darriel.
"Coach Frost called me in his office that one of the interesting things about him is the fact Tom Osborne, who I think all of you would agree knows quarterbacks, told Coach Frost that, 'You've to take this young guy.' He is just a tremendous player. He's a multi-sport athlete. Just a tremendous young guy as is Darriel Mack."
"I'll leave you with this. I don't know a lot of things..." Verduzco then spots Barrett Ruud in the back of the crowd, and greets him, "Hello, Coach Ruud, how are you doing?" Then he continues with his train of thought. "I know three things. There is a God. I'm not God. Aside from my wife and my son, there isn't anything better than being here at Central Florida coaching football with Coach Frost. When he called me to come here, it was a freaking honor. Then being with these guys, all the assistants here. Sometimes I feel like the whole world is a tuxedo and I'm a pair of brown shoes. They've all been in the NFL and have tremendous pedigrees. It's certainly just awesome being here. I can't tell you what a thrill it is for my wife and my son."
Verduzco then introduces "one of the best guys I've ever met in my life. He's just awesome. You see him in pre-game. It's on, baby!"
-Ryan Held then comes up to talk about the two running backs in the class. This was obviously before the Cordarrian Richardson news of today.
"I want to reiterate the fact that we really appreciate your support in being here. We're able to do all the things that we can do because of your support. Every day we come to work building and working to become a championship organization. That's our goal every single day. I love working with each one of these coaches. I'm very appreciative that Coach Frost called me down from the JUCO ranks. I've had to work my way up through the minors, so to speak, and lived in some small places in my life to get to wear this logo. Like Mario said, I can tell you my wife gets to wear flip-flops every day, being out of the cold weather. She loves being here. I love being here. I want to reiterate how much we appreciate being a part of this family and you being a part of it. We look forward to great things, building on what we did this year.
Otis Anderson - "This year we signed two running backs, one of them is on campus currently, Otis Andersom from University Christian High School in Jacksonville. He's already put on 10 pounds since he's been on campus. Obviously he's not the biggest guy if he walked in the room, but he's a guy that's made a lot of progress already in a month. Statistically, he runs for 1,200 yards, 17 touchdowns, great. Stats, I'm not a big stat guy, but the one guy that I really like about this guy is he's been part of back-to-back state championship football teams in the state of Florida. That's big to us because we want to surround ourselves with champions. Guys that know how to win. As you build a program, you've got to have guys who know how to win so they can help everybody else. Otis has great character, great family. He's always got a smile on his face. He's already learning the plays. He's coming in every day because he wants to be a part of this and help us get this thing back up to the top. We're very pleased to get him. Coach Beckton did an outstanding job recruiting him. He's already on campus and going through spring ball. Very elated with him."
Bentavious Thompson - "The next guy who is a little bit bigger. We wanted to get a little bit bigger running back in our prorgram, Bentavious Thompson. 6-foot-1, 195 pounds. He's got a nice frame to where we can put some really good weight on him. He'll be a guy that will end up being a bigger back for us. Again, if you look at it statistically, ran for 900 yards or whatever, I don't care. What did he do? He was part of the state championship football team. Another kid that's a state champion. That's big for my room. As you know, last year we ended up with Dontravious who was a senior, but we also played two freshmen, Adrian Killins and Jawon Hamilton. Both of those guys did some outstanding things, so when you add those two guys, then Taj McGowan coming back and then these two guys coming in, we have a really nice room. I'm excited to be able to get these guys to get better every single day. We want to be able to play faster this year. We've all had another year in the system and I think that's going to pay a lot of dividends as we build this to the future."
"As Mario said, I'm kind of the crazy man on stuff. I do the 'It's on, baby,' and get everybody fired up and go nuts and all that. That's kind of my personality. I love it. I love coming to work every day. We appreciate you being here and supporting us. We look forward to seeing you for the spring game and obviously this coming fall.
-Troy Walters came up next. He joked that he better get up on stage or else you wouldn't be able to see him.
"I'm so excited about this group of receviers. Going into recruiting, we needed to get more depth, we need to get more athletic and needed to find some playmakers. I think we did that."
Emmanuel Greene - The first young man, Emmanuel Green, he actually visited us last March. He came to a spring practice, enjoyed it. I think it opened up his eyes for what UCF has to offer. This kid had offers from probably every place in America. He came back again in June and committed to us in June. A lot of his friends and teammates were like, 'Why'd you commit to UCF? They were 0-12.' I always remember the quote he said. 'You all see the record, I see the future.' He sees the vision of Coach Frost and see where the program is going.
"This young man is already on campus, already working out with the guys. The reports that have come back to me is he's probably, in term of route running, one of the best route runners we have already. He's already polished. He's a true receiver. He's a playmaker. When the ball is in his hands, he's going to be able to take it to the house. We're glad to have Emmanuel Greene with us.
Marlon Williams - "The next receiver, Marlon Williams, is from Mobile, Alabama. This was an interesting story. He was committed to USC for most of the season. He decommitted in January. Coach Chinander, he reached out to me, he reached to him, to see if he had any interest in UCF. Got on the phone with him. He said he did. One of the connections that we had is his high school coach, a couple years ago, actually went out and visited the Oregon staff. Basically the same offense they run in high school, we run. There's familiarity with the offense. So I got on the phone with Marlon who said he was interested. He visited two weekends ago. He came on the visit and fell in love with the campus, fell in love with the people, the players. He saw the vision, he saw the future. Basically, silently committed before he left. Mom and his stepdad wanted him to visit LSU, Georgia Tech, so he went on his visits there. Didn't have as good of a time as he did here. Those are big schools. He had a choice to go to a big school or go to school where he knew he could play and contribute and be a difference maker.
"Last night he called and said he wanted to be a Knight. We're happy. He's a strong, physical, 6-foot-, 195-pound receiver. When the ball is in the air, he's going to go get it. He's strong. 39 inch vertical. We went to watch him play basketball and he can dunk any which way he wants. It's pretty amazing. I'm glad to have him. If the ball is in the air, he's going to make a play. We've definitely addressed our depth issue."
-Sean Beckton was up next.
"Like the other guys said, it's a privilege to stand before you tonight and celebrate this awesome recruiting class that we've worked so hard as a coaching staff to bring here. Every individual that we brought in, we talked to a lot of people at the schools, in the community. We did our homework with this group and we're very pleased with the guys we're bringing in to this program."
Beckton spoke about Gabe Davis from Seminole High School, whom he recruited.
Gabe Davis - "Every person we talked to in the school and in the community said this young man is going to be something special. As coaches got around him, they all said the same thing. He will be a team captain in this program. He's 6-2, 6-3, 210, 215 pounds currently. We're going to start him at receiver because that's what he did the last few years in high school. He has an opportunity with his growth to maybe put on some weight and maybe slide down to tight end. Some of you guys know I recruited Brandon Marshall and had the opportunity to coach him. We thought we might move him to tight end, but he stayed at receiver. This young man has the opportunity to do the same thing. Like Coach Walters said earlier, when we look for a receiver, we want guys who have playmaking ability. This kid here, this year, 69 receceptions for 1,300 yards and 17 touchdowns."
An audible gasp could be heard at those stats.
"Unbelievable numbrs. One in four times he's touched the football he's scored. We look for a lot of big things. He brings for the tenacity we're looking for. Those three receivers, I'm not sure if you saw the tweet I put out, this group of receivers, along with guys that we have, will be great down the road and really get the UCF receiving corps back to where it used to be. What we've called Wide Receiver U.
"Thank you again for your support. I see a lot of familiar faces out there. I appreciate you guys always coming up to me and talking to me about the loyalty I've had to this program. I appreciate it. It means a lot."
In introducing Greg Austin, Beckton talked about how Austin had a very challenging job, given the state of UCF's offensive line, and how he's in the process of getting it turned around.
-Next up was Greg Austin to talk about the offensive line recruits. He thanked the audience for all the support they've received since they arrived.
"As Coach Beckton, we had a lot of work to do and we still have a lot of work to do on the offensive line, Julio Castillo, Cole Schneider and Sam Jackson. As we looked to recruit this class of offensive linemen, we knew what we were looking for. If you look at the three guys that we signed, they have three qualities. Three traits. First and foremost all of them are tough. Tough guys. We need to get tougher and we will get tougher on the offensive line. All three of them have above 3.0 GPAs. That's big on the offensive line. You need smart guys playing for you. The last thing that all of them possess is leadership. Each one of these three guys were leaders, not only on their offensive line but amongst their team.
Now he talks about the three individually.
Sam Jackson - "Committed to us a very long time ago. 6-6, 315. A lot of pancake blocks. When you look at his film, when we recruit offensive and defensive lines, we look at game film. We look at highlight film as a brief introduction as to who a player is from a skill-set standpoint, then we look at game film. His game film was actually better than his highlight film. Play in and play out, he's going to try to finish his blocks and dominate the guy in front of him. He's a very solid player, very big player. The intangibles about Same is he can bend real well. When I say bend, that's a football term, but when you're 6-6 and 315, it's very important that you can get leverage on the guy you're trying to block. So when I say bend, you have to bend at the ankles, hips and the knees so you can get the leverage on a guy to push him where he doesn't want to go. We expect big things from him.
Cole Schneider - "Multi-sport athlete. Gritty guy. He played multiple positions at his high school. Leader on the team, offense, defense, sometimes he carried the ball. We see him as a center, maybe guard type here. When you turn on Cole's film, you'll see a guy that literally wants to tear somebody's face off every single play. He's a wrestler. I've seen him wrestle. He pins guys within a minute. He has that toughness factor along with his versatility. They put him in multiple positions so I know he can pick up things very quick. Another guy we expect big things from."
Julio Castillo - "He was our first o-line commit. When Chinander say Julio and what he could do in the spring, he came back and said, 'We've got to take that guy.' I've worked with him for a long time so I trusted his judgment, then I turned on the film and saw what he saw. He saw a big guy, a big 6-6 creature with long arms that was initially a bit overweight, trimmed himself down and got himself playing very good football. He played offense, defense and even played basketball."
Austin mentioned the fact he earned a graduate degree from UCF in 2009.
-Defensive line Mike Dawson came up next. His wife and son were in attendance. He mentioned he came in so late last year he wasn't very involved in last year's class.
"We kind of have a unique situation on the defensive line. We didn't have any seniors graduating or leaving the program, everybody is coming back which is very exciting to me because we have a great culture in our room. Guys know how to work, they understand the routine, they understood how we approach and attack every single week. It was very important to me that when we started this recruiting process that we bring guys that enhance that or are able to match and stay with that. Getting the two guys that we did were great fits for us. We wanted to get a little bit more length. I think we got that covered.
Mason Cholewa - "I have a little bit of connection up in that area, I was a graduate assistant at Pitt in the late 1990s and was able to recruit there when I was at the University of New Hampshire. Mason fit our need as far as big, long defensive linemen go. He was what we were looking for. He's going to be a very tough character. I think that will be apparent when he gets here on campus. He's a tough guy that's going to play the game the right way. He's a guy that's got a high ceiling. Hasn't played a lot of football so he's growing into his position. He got going as a junior and really flourished as a senior, was a Pennsylvania top 100 member and was all-conference in Pittsburgh. He had over 50 tackles as a defensive lineman this year which pays tribute to his high motor and how he plays the game the right way. We measured him just under 6-7, 265 pounds.
Jeremiah Zio - He's probably about 6-8, probably an inch taller than Mason. Not as big yet. Probably hovering 205 pounds. Both these guys will grow into 285, 290-pound defensive linemen for us. The neat thing about Jeremiah is he was a second team All-State player as a guy that just started playing football as a sophomore. He was a basketball player, which I think shows off his athletic ability. He was really athletic for someone that is that big. He can do great things with his body. He's going to continue to learn this game. He plays the right way."
-Erik Chinander covered the inside linebackers.
"Thank you for having us and welcoming us into your family. We've had an unbelievable time since we've been here. It's been the time of my life."
Chinander wanted to recognize some people behind the scenes, such as the Gold Team and trainer Mary Vander Heiden. He also pointed out his wife, Dawson's wife and Zach Duval's wife who were in attendance. Echoing Frost's earlier comments, he thanked the rest of the coaching staff, strength staff, medical staff and also personally recognized his fellow defensive coaches.
"You all as a fanbase are so lucky to have these people here."
Chinander recruits the panhandle, southern Georgia and Alabama, which he said is like being back home in Iowa. All the inside linebackers came from his area.
Sterling Jones - "When I first went in there, he was very cordial with me. We had a nice conversation, 'Coach, I've got Alabama, Auburn, Florida.' Sounded good. I watched him practice. He looked great. We let him be. I stayed in contact with his coach. He was ranked the No. 21 LB in the country. All of a sudden he called Coach Dewitt, said 'things aren't working the way I wanted it to, I'm interested in you guys.' We said, 'Come on down.' He came on a visit, just like Marlon, he fell in love with this place, the community of Orlando, the facilities, the coaches. He decided he wanted to be here. One thing I love about this young guy, Coach Frost asked, 'What do you want to do?' He said he wanted to commit to UCF silently three weeks ago. He said, 'I've got two visits.' Coach Frost said, 'I don't think you can be committed to us with two visits.' He said, 'Don't worry coach, I'll cancel them all.' He's a great kid.
"That's what you'll find in common with these linebackers, they're all great people. I know there's a lot of experts on the Twitter and Facebook and the internet in recruiting, we don't take anybody but great people in this program. Coach Frost makes sure of that. We vet their academics. We vet their social media. We vet their personal life. We vet them as a player. You're going to get three great players at linebacker and 21 great players overall."
Kalia Davis - "When we watched his film the first time, we said he's so big, he can't be that good. He can't run like that. So I went up and watched him, and I was like, he is that good. We've got to take him. Then his folks drove all the way down here about seven, eight hours in July. His sister goes to school here. He said, 'Coach, this is a place I want to be.' He wasn't rated very high, but he had a lot of offers. Troy, East Carolina, Southern Miss. He had a lot of things going, but said this is the place I want to be. I watched him play. He was a first team All-State. He's the player of the year in that region. He committed, but then he was tweeting out that he was going take this and that visit, so I called him up and said, 'If you're shopping, I'm shopping, so we're on the same page, you can't be committed to me if you're going to visit.' He said, 'Don't worry coach, I'm shutting it down.'
T.J. Pitts - "He had zero rating. I didn't know about him. I went to his high school. Coach said, you've got to see this guy. I said it can't be. The internet age. There can't be an uncovered guy. I went in there and I said who in the world is walking down the hallway? Just like Coach Austin talking about Julio. I said who is that? Little school in Williston, Florida. I watched him pracitce and told Coach Frost, you've got to watch this one. He watched about five clips and said he's the one. How could he not be ranked? I talked to him, 'Coach, I've got a flip phone. I've got no Facebook, no Twitter. I don't go on the internet. If you want to call me, call me. Don't text or email me.' I said, 'Now I really know you're the one.' He's not high maintenace. He wanted to come here. He wanted to commit. He didn't want to take any other trips.
"I think we've got the three best linebackers in the country. I want you all to be proud of this defense. I think you'll be proud of this inside linebacker crew. I can't wait for the season."
-Jovan Dewitt, linebackers and special teams, talked about the outside linebackers. He recruits Broward County.
"I'm down in deep as they would say."
Gabe Luyanda - "Gabe is from Tampa, then went off to junior college. It just so happens that one of my previous stops in the state of Florida, the head coach at Garden City Community College was my neighbor. Funny how that works out. The defensive coordinator that they recently hired I've known for probably about 20 years. We've been fortunate enough to get Gabe and develop a relationship over a course of time. One of the needs we wanted to address through graduation that we lost, was a little bit of length. As we've talked about other positions, when you talk about an outside linebacker, you want to them to have a huge playing radius. He's got to have long arms. Gabe's about 6-5, 235 pounds and moves in space as well as anybody I've ever seen. I was able to make a couple trips up to Garden City, Kansas and watch him work. I'm extremely excited seeing Gabe come here and have a lot of success. He's 100 percent bought into what he's doing. He'll be here in June."
L.J. Cummings - "L.J. was a unique recruiting experience. He's had a lot of opportunities throughout the country, from Michigan State and all over the place. Coach Dawson did an amazing job. It was unbelievable. Truth be told, he was a guy we probably didn't pay close enough attention to early in the recruiting process. Coach Dawson said we were going to want this guy and he was absolutely right. Of the three outside linebackers we signed, he's arguably the most explosive. When you watch his film, you'll see explosive play after play. He's a good person, fun to be around.
Stephon Zayas - "He's listed as a defensive end on your sheet. He's from Dillard High School, which turns out a lot of future NFL players. He's 6-foot-6, a little on the light size. He's about 205 pounds, so if you see him walking around campus you'll notice he's really tall, please give him a cheeseburger because he needs it. He's got huge, long arms. When you see him, you'll understand why we recruiting him. He's a good kid. His high school coach has been a friend of mine for a long period of mine. I'm so excited to sign another kid from Dillard. I've signed a few of them before and every single one was successful.
-Travis Fisher was the final speaker.
"I won't take too long. If you've ever watched me play, I was very fast. So I'll be fast, I won't put you to sleep like the rest of these gusy."
Antwan Collier - "I've got a brother named Thad Ward, he's coaching at Illinois. He went to UCF and graduated with me. My brother is my best friend. Antwan decides he wants to go to Illinois and commit to them silently. He also decides he wants to commit silently to UCF. My brother recruits South Florida and so do I. So he gave us the same story. Me being the big brother, Antwan decided to commit to my brother, but big brother at the last minute got him back. He was highly recruited. About 6-2, 185 right now. Weak legs. Duval will work with with him to get him ready. He will hit you, he will strike you. He's definitely what we need at UCF. He's got to play so I won't talk him up too much."
Rennard Bozeman - "He reminds me of me a little bit. Bozeman is about 5-10, he's going to max out at about 190 pounds. He will compete, will compete, will compete. Everybody is looking for a 6-3 cornerback. Those guys don't play in the NFL. Guys that play in the NFL are guys that compete, compete, compete every play. This is one of them. This guy plays with his chip outside the jersey. He's very sensitive. That's what I like about him."
Zamari Maxwell - "He's long, very long arms, super smart. Has about a 4.0. Definitely can use him in the secondary getting everybody lined up. That's exactly what I needed. We played pretty good in the secondary last year, but we messed up a lot of times with being lined up. Smart on the field and in the classroom. Had a lot of offers like Kentucky and North Carolina. Coach Held did a good job recruiting him all throughout the year."
A few final words from Coach Frost, thanking the crowd for attending and also recognized Dr. Hitt and Danny White.
"We feel like we signed a great class. It was a juggling act at the end. We lost some, we gained some back. To let you guys know, we easily could have signed one more guy to make us the highest ranked class in the conference, whatever, that doesn't matter to us. Getting the right guys matters to us. We feel like we did that today."
Frost personally thanked his coaching and recruiting staff for their efforts.
"I'm really thrilled with this class. Our goal as a coaching staff as we talk through how we want to build this program is we're looking into the future. At a point in the not-too-distant future we want to be able to take the field with what we feel like are as good a player as anybody else has in our league at every single position. That's tough to do and there's going to be some great players in the league on different teams, but we feel like if we can have as good linebackers, quarterback, d-line, o-line, etc., then we can take the field and win conference championships and more than that. That's a process.
"I can't say enough about the success they had here before our staff arrived. That being said, we had some really good players at some positions last year and some other places that we knew we needed to get better. We think we addressed a lot of those issues with this recruiting class. We think we're building toward the future to get to where we want to. We also recruited some really good young men, not just good football players. We're really excited about that."
Frost then introduced each coach and staffer individually, then each coach came up to talk about 2-3 players. This brief video clip is Frost introducing coaches, Beckton was the first one mentioned but I hadn't started recording yet.
-Mario Verduzco talked about the two QBs. He didn't want to use the microphone, so he just talked real loud. "Microphones drive me freaking nuts."
Darriel Mack - "Darriel Mack is the son of Darriel and Hope Mack. He's going to be a sociology major. Tremendous young guy. Tremendous character. When Coach Frost and Coach Walters were talking about recruiting quarterbacks, it was important for us, just for where we were in space and time with the quarterback position, that we recruited guys that really wanted to compete. We were going to maybe scholarship three guys. Those three young characters were going to need a tremendous will to compete. Darriel is of that ilk. Tremendous young guy. Tremendous player. Tremendous character. He's also a basketball player. Just the kind of quarterback that we need for our system.
Noah Vedral - "Noah Vedral is a 4.0 student. He's going to major in business. He's the son of Sarah and Mike. As Coach Frost has mentioned, he has had experience and played with Vedral's family at Nebraska. His grandfather is actually the coach at the high school, Coach Turman. Tremendous family. Tremendous character. As I watched the tape as a I typically do for quarterbacks, then it goes to Coach Walters and then obviously Coach Frost and the rest of the staff, he just jumps out at you as a player, similar to how it was for Darriel.
"Coach Frost called me in his office that one of the interesting things about him is the fact Tom Osborne, who I think all of you would agree knows quarterbacks, told Coach Frost that, 'You've to take this young guy.' He is just a tremendous player. He's a multi-sport athlete. Just a tremendous young guy as is Darriel Mack."
"I'll leave you with this. I don't know a lot of things..." Verduzco then spots Barrett Ruud in the back of the crowd, and greets him, "Hello, Coach Ruud, how are you doing?" Then he continues with his train of thought. "I know three things. There is a God. I'm not God. Aside from my wife and my son, there isn't anything better than being here at Central Florida coaching football with Coach Frost. When he called me to come here, it was a freaking honor. Then being with these guys, all the assistants here. Sometimes I feel like the whole world is a tuxedo and I'm a pair of brown shoes. They've all been in the NFL and have tremendous pedigrees. It's certainly just awesome being here. I can't tell you what a thrill it is for my wife and my son."
Verduzco then introduces "one of the best guys I've ever met in my life. He's just awesome. You see him in pre-game. It's on, baby!"
-Ryan Held then comes up to talk about the two running backs in the class. This was obviously before the Cordarrian Richardson news of today.
"I want to reiterate the fact that we really appreciate your support in being here. We're able to do all the things that we can do because of your support. Every day we come to work building and working to become a championship organization. That's our goal every single day. I love working with each one of these coaches. I'm very appreciative that Coach Frost called me down from the JUCO ranks. I've had to work my way up through the minors, so to speak, and lived in some small places in my life to get to wear this logo. Like Mario said, I can tell you my wife gets to wear flip-flops every day, being out of the cold weather. She loves being here. I love being here. I want to reiterate how much we appreciate being a part of this family and you being a part of it. We look forward to great things, building on what we did this year.
Otis Anderson - "This year we signed two running backs, one of them is on campus currently, Otis Andersom from University Christian High School in Jacksonville. He's already put on 10 pounds since he's been on campus. Obviously he's not the biggest guy if he walked in the room, but he's a guy that's made a lot of progress already in a month. Statistically, he runs for 1,200 yards, 17 touchdowns, great. Stats, I'm not a big stat guy, but the one guy that I really like about this guy is he's been part of back-to-back state championship football teams in the state of Florida. That's big to us because we want to surround ourselves with champions. Guys that know how to win. As you build a program, you've got to have guys who know how to win so they can help everybody else. Otis has great character, great family. He's always got a smile on his face. He's already learning the plays. He's coming in every day because he wants to be a part of this and help us get this thing back up to the top. We're very pleased to get him. Coach Beckton did an outstanding job recruiting him. He's already on campus and going through spring ball. Very elated with him."
Bentavious Thompson - "The next guy who is a little bit bigger. We wanted to get a little bit bigger running back in our prorgram, Bentavious Thompson. 6-foot-1, 195 pounds. He's got a nice frame to where we can put some really good weight on him. He'll be a guy that will end up being a bigger back for us. Again, if you look at it statistically, ran for 900 yards or whatever, I don't care. What did he do? He was part of the state championship football team. Another kid that's a state champion. That's big for my room. As you know, last year we ended up with Dontravious who was a senior, but we also played two freshmen, Adrian Killins and Jawon Hamilton. Both of those guys did some outstanding things, so when you add those two guys, then Taj McGowan coming back and then these two guys coming in, we have a really nice room. I'm excited to be able to get these guys to get better every single day. We want to be able to play faster this year. We've all had another year in the system and I think that's going to pay a lot of dividends as we build this to the future."
"As Mario said, I'm kind of the crazy man on stuff. I do the 'It's on, baby,' and get everybody fired up and go nuts and all that. That's kind of my personality. I love it. I love coming to work every day. We appreciate you being here and supporting us. We look forward to seeing you for the spring game and obviously this coming fall.
-Troy Walters came up next. He joked that he better get up on stage or else you wouldn't be able to see him.
"I'm so excited about this group of receviers. Going into recruiting, we needed to get more depth, we need to get more athletic and needed to find some playmakers. I think we did that."
Emmanuel Greene - The first young man, Emmanuel Green, he actually visited us last March. He came to a spring practice, enjoyed it. I think it opened up his eyes for what UCF has to offer. This kid had offers from probably every place in America. He came back again in June and committed to us in June. A lot of his friends and teammates were like, 'Why'd you commit to UCF? They were 0-12.' I always remember the quote he said. 'You all see the record, I see the future.' He sees the vision of Coach Frost and see where the program is going.
"This young man is already on campus, already working out with the guys. The reports that have come back to me is he's probably, in term of route running, one of the best route runners we have already. He's already polished. He's a true receiver. He's a playmaker. When the ball is in his hands, he's going to be able to take it to the house. We're glad to have Emmanuel Greene with us.
Marlon Williams - "The next receiver, Marlon Williams, is from Mobile, Alabama. This was an interesting story. He was committed to USC for most of the season. He decommitted in January. Coach Chinander, he reached out to me, he reached to him, to see if he had any interest in UCF. Got on the phone with him. He said he did. One of the connections that we had is his high school coach, a couple years ago, actually went out and visited the Oregon staff. Basically the same offense they run in high school, we run. There's familiarity with the offense. So I got on the phone with Marlon who said he was interested. He visited two weekends ago. He came on the visit and fell in love with the campus, fell in love with the people, the players. He saw the vision, he saw the future. Basically, silently committed before he left. Mom and his stepdad wanted him to visit LSU, Georgia Tech, so he went on his visits there. Didn't have as good of a time as he did here. Those are big schools. He had a choice to go to a big school or go to school where he knew he could play and contribute and be a difference maker.
"Last night he called and said he wanted to be a Knight. We're happy. He's a strong, physical, 6-foot-, 195-pound receiver. When the ball is in the air, he's going to go get it. He's strong. 39 inch vertical. We went to watch him play basketball and he can dunk any which way he wants. It's pretty amazing. I'm glad to have him. If the ball is in the air, he's going to make a play. We've definitely addressed our depth issue."
-Sean Beckton was up next.
"Like the other guys said, it's a privilege to stand before you tonight and celebrate this awesome recruiting class that we've worked so hard as a coaching staff to bring here. Every individual that we brought in, we talked to a lot of people at the schools, in the community. We did our homework with this group and we're very pleased with the guys we're bringing in to this program."
Beckton spoke about Gabe Davis from Seminole High School, whom he recruited.
Gabe Davis - "Every person we talked to in the school and in the community said this young man is going to be something special. As coaches got around him, they all said the same thing. He will be a team captain in this program. He's 6-2, 6-3, 210, 215 pounds currently. We're going to start him at receiver because that's what he did the last few years in high school. He has an opportunity with his growth to maybe put on some weight and maybe slide down to tight end. Some of you guys know I recruited Brandon Marshall and had the opportunity to coach him. We thought we might move him to tight end, but he stayed at receiver. This young man has the opportunity to do the same thing. Like Coach Walters said earlier, when we look for a receiver, we want guys who have playmaking ability. This kid here, this year, 69 receceptions for 1,300 yards and 17 touchdowns."
An audible gasp could be heard at those stats.
"Unbelievable numbrs. One in four times he's touched the football he's scored. We look for a lot of big things. He brings for the tenacity we're looking for. Those three receivers, I'm not sure if you saw the tweet I put out, this group of receivers, along with guys that we have, will be great down the road and really get the UCF receiving corps back to where it used to be. What we've called Wide Receiver U.
"Thank you again for your support. I see a lot of familiar faces out there. I appreciate you guys always coming up to me and talking to me about the loyalty I've had to this program. I appreciate it. It means a lot."
In introducing Greg Austin, Beckton talked about how Austin had a very challenging job, given the state of UCF's offensive line, and how he's in the process of getting it turned around.
-Next up was Greg Austin to talk about the offensive line recruits. He thanked the audience for all the support they've received since they arrived.
"As Coach Beckton, we had a lot of work to do and we still have a lot of work to do on the offensive line, Julio Castillo, Cole Schneider and Sam Jackson. As we looked to recruit this class of offensive linemen, we knew what we were looking for. If you look at the three guys that we signed, they have three qualities. Three traits. First and foremost all of them are tough. Tough guys. We need to get tougher and we will get tougher on the offensive line. All three of them have above 3.0 GPAs. That's big on the offensive line. You need smart guys playing for you. The last thing that all of them possess is leadership. Each one of these three guys were leaders, not only on their offensive line but amongst their team.
Now he talks about the three individually.
Sam Jackson - "Committed to us a very long time ago. 6-6, 315. A lot of pancake blocks. When you look at his film, when we recruit offensive and defensive lines, we look at game film. We look at highlight film as a brief introduction as to who a player is from a skill-set standpoint, then we look at game film. His game film was actually better than his highlight film. Play in and play out, he's going to try to finish his blocks and dominate the guy in front of him. He's a very solid player, very big player. The intangibles about Same is he can bend real well. When I say bend, that's a football term, but when you're 6-6 and 315, it's very important that you can get leverage on the guy you're trying to block. So when I say bend, you have to bend at the ankles, hips and the knees so you can get the leverage on a guy to push him where he doesn't want to go. We expect big things from him.
Cole Schneider - "Multi-sport athlete. Gritty guy. He played multiple positions at his high school. Leader on the team, offense, defense, sometimes he carried the ball. We see him as a center, maybe guard type here. When you turn on Cole's film, you'll see a guy that literally wants to tear somebody's face off every single play. He's a wrestler. I've seen him wrestle. He pins guys within a minute. He has that toughness factor along with his versatility. They put him in multiple positions so I know he can pick up things very quick. Another guy we expect big things from."
Julio Castillo - "He was our first o-line commit. When Chinander say Julio and what he could do in the spring, he came back and said, 'We've got to take that guy.' I've worked with him for a long time so I trusted his judgment, then I turned on the film and saw what he saw. He saw a big guy, a big 6-6 creature with long arms that was initially a bit overweight, trimmed himself down and got himself playing very good football. He played offense, defense and even played basketball."
Austin mentioned the fact he earned a graduate degree from UCF in 2009.
-Defensive line Mike Dawson came up next. His wife and son were in attendance. He mentioned he came in so late last year he wasn't very involved in last year's class.
"We kind of have a unique situation on the defensive line. We didn't have any seniors graduating or leaving the program, everybody is coming back which is very exciting to me because we have a great culture in our room. Guys know how to work, they understand the routine, they understood how we approach and attack every single week. It was very important to me that when we started this recruiting process that we bring guys that enhance that or are able to match and stay with that. Getting the two guys that we did were great fits for us. We wanted to get a little bit more length. I think we got that covered.
Mason Cholewa - "I have a little bit of connection up in that area, I was a graduate assistant at Pitt in the late 1990s and was able to recruit there when I was at the University of New Hampshire. Mason fit our need as far as big, long defensive linemen go. He was what we were looking for. He's going to be a very tough character. I think that will be apparent when he gets here on campus. He's a tough guy that's going to play the game the right way. He's a guy that's got a high ceiling. Hasn't played a lot of football so he's growing into his position. He got going as a junior and really flourished as a senior, was a Pennsylvania top 100 member and was all-conference in Pittsburgh. He had over 50 tackles as a defensive lineman this year which pays tribute to his high motor and how he plays the game the right way. We measured him just under 6-7, 265 pounds.
Jeremiah Zio - He's probably about 6-8, probably an inch taller than Mason. Not as big yet. Probably hovering 205 pounds. Both these guys will grow into 285, 290-pound defensive linemen for us. The neat thing about Jeremiah is he was a second team All-State player as a guy that just started playing football as a sophomore. He was a basketball player, which I think shows off his athletic ability. He was really athletic for someone that is that big. He can do great things with his body. He's going to continue to learn this game. He plays the right way."
-Erik Chinander covered the inside linebackers.
"Thank you for having us and welcoming us into your family. We've had an unbelievable time since we've been here. It's been the time of my life."
Chinander wanted to recognize some people behind the scenes, such as the Gold Team and trainer Mary Vander Heiden. He also pointed out his wife, Dawson's wife and Zach Duval's wife who were in attendance. Echoing Frost's earlier comments, he thanked the rest of the coaching staff, strength staff, medical staff and also personally recognized his fellow defensive coaches.
"You all as a fanbase are so lucky to have these people here."
Chinander recruits the panhandle, southern Georgia and Alabama, which he said is like being back home in Iowa. All the inside linebackers came from his area.
Sterling Jones - "When I first went in there, he was very cordial with me. We had a nice conversation, 'Coach, I've got Alabama, Auburn, Florida.' Sounded good. I watched him practice. He looked great. We let him be. I stayed in contact with his coach. He was ranked the No. 21 LB in the country. All of a sudden he called Coach Dewitt, said 'things aren't working the way I wanted it to, I'm interested in you guys.' We said, 'Come on down.' He came on a visit, just like Marlon, he fell in love with this place, the community of Orlando, the facilities, the coaches. He decided he wanted to be here. One thing I love about this young guy, Coach Frost asked, 'What do you want to do?' He said he wanted to commit to UCF silently three weeks ago. He said, 'I've got two visits.' Coach Frost said, 'I don't think you can be committed to us with two visits.' He said, 'Don't worry coach, I'll cancel them all.' He's a great kid.
"That's what you'll find in common with these linebackers, they're all great people. I know there's a lot of experts on the Twitter and Facebook and the internet in recruiting, we don't take anybody but great people in this program. Coach Frost makes sure of that. We vet their academics. We vet their social media. We vet their personal life. We vet them as a player. You're going to get three great players at linebacker and 21 great players overall."
Kalia Davis - "When we watched his film the first time, we said he's so big, he can't be that good. He can't run like that. So I went up and watched him, and I was like, he is that good. We've got to take him. Then his folks drove all the way down here about seven, eight hours in July. His sister goes to school here. He said, 'Coach, this is a place I want to be.' He wasn't rated very high, but he had a lot of offers. Troy, East Carolina, Southern Miss. He had a lot of things going, but said this is the place I want to be. I watched him play. He was a first team All-State. He's the player of the year in that region. He committed, but then he was tweeting out that he was going take this and that visit, so I called him up and said, 'If you're shopping, I'm shopping, so we're on the same page, you can't be committed to me if you're going to visit.' He said, 'Don't worry coach, I'm shutting it down.'
T.J. Pitts - "He had zero rating. I didn't know about him. I went to his high school. Coach said, you've got to see this guy. I said it can't be. The internet age. There can't be an uncovered guy. I went in there and I said who in the world is walking down the hallway? Just like Coach Austin talking about Julio. I said who is that? Little school in Williston, Florida. I watched him pracitce and told Coach Frost, you've got to watch this one. He watched about five clips and said he's the one. How could he not be ranked? I talked to him, 'Coach, I've got a flip phone. I've got no Facebook, no Twitter. I don't go on the internet. If you want to call me, call me. Don't text or email me.' I said, 'Now I really know you're the one.' He's not high maintenace. He wanted to come here. He wanted to commit. He didn't want to take any other trips.
"I think we've got the three best linebackers in the country. I want you all to be proud of this defense. I think you'll be proud of this inside linebacker crew. I can't wait for the season."
-Jovan Dewitt, linebackers and special teams, talked about the outside linebackers. He recruits Broward County.
"I'm down in deep as they would say."
Gabe Luyanda - "Gabe is from Tampa, then went off to junior college. It just so happens that one of my previous stops in the state of Florida, the head coach at Garden City Community College was my neighbor. Funny how that works out. The defensive coordinator that they recently hired I've known for probably about 20 years. We've been fortunate enough to get Gabe and develop a relationship over a course of time. One of the needs we wanted to address through graduation that we lost, was a little bit of length. As we've talked about other positions, when you talk about an outside linebacker, you want to them to have a huge playing radius. He's got to have long arms. Gabe's about 6-5, 235 pounds and moves in space as well as anybody I've ever seen. I was able to make a couple trips up to Garden City, Kansas and watch him work. I'm extremely excited seeing Gabe come here and have a lot of success. He's 100 percent bought into what he's doing. He'll be here in June."
L.J. Cummings - "L.J. was a unique recruiting experience. He's had a lot of opportunities throughout the country, from Michigan State and all over the place. Coach Dawson did an amazing job. It was unbelievable. Truth be told, he was a guy we probably didn't pay close enough attention to early in the recruiting process. Coach Dawson said we were going to want this guy and he was absolutely right. Of the three outside linebackers we signed, he's arguably the most explosive. When you watch his film, you'll see explosive play after play. He's a good person, fun to be around.
Stephon Zayas - "He's listed as a defensive end on your sheet. He's from Dillard High School, which turns out a lot of future NFL players. He's 6-foot-6, a little on the light size. He's about 205 pounds, so if you see him walking around campus you'll notice he's really tall, please give him a cheeseburger because he needs it. He's got huge, long arms. When you see him, you'll understand why we recruiting him. He's a good kid. His high school coach has been a friend of mine for a long period of mine. I'm so excited to sign another kid from Dillard. I've signed a few of them before and every single one was successful.
-Travis Fisher was the final speaker.
"I won't take too long. If you've ever watched me play, I was very fast. So I'll be fast, I won't put you to sleep like the rest of these gusy."
Antwan Collier - "I've got a brother named Thad Ward, he's coaching at Illinois. He went to UCF and graduated with me. My brother is my best friend. Antwan decides he wants to go to Illinois and commit to them silently. He also decides he wants to commit silently to UCF. My brother recruits South Florida and so do I. So he gave us the same story. Me being the big brother, Antwan decided to commit to my brother, but big brother at the last minute got him back. He was highly recruited. About 6-2, 185 right now. Weak legs. Duval will work with with him to get him ready. He will hit you, he will strike you. He's definitely what we need at UCF. He's got to play so I won't talk him up too much."
Rennard Bozeman - "He reminds me of me a little bit. Bozeman is about 5-10, he's going to max out at about 190 pounds. He will compete, will compete, will compete. Everybody is looking for a 6-3 cornerback. Those guys don't play in the NFL. Guys that play in the NFL are guys that compete, compete, compete every play. This is one of them. This guy plays with his chip outside the jersey. He's very sensitive. That's what I like about him."
Zamari Maxwell - "He's long, very long arms, super smart. Has about a 4.0. Definitely can use him in the secondary getting everybody lined up. That's exactly what I needed. We played pretty good in the secondary last year, but we messed up a lot of times with being lined up. Smart on the field and in the classroom. Had a lot of offers like Kentucky and North Carolina. Coach Held did a good job recruiting him all throughout the year."
A few final words from Coach Frost, thanking the crowd for attending and also recognized Dr. Hitt and Danny White.
"We feel like we signed a great class. It was a juggling act at the end. We lost some, we gained some back. To let you guys know, we easily could have signed one more guy to make us the highest ranked class in the conference, whatever, that doesn't matter to us. Getting the right guys matters to us. We feel like we did that today."
