It's been a crazy 72 hours.
AAC Championship and all the drama, Sunday with the bowl announcement and now Monday with the opening of the portal.
***
First, let's talk about Mikey Keene. I started hearing midway through last week, I guess it was Tuesday or so when the practice week started, that Mikey was not going to play in the AAC Championship. I wasn't completely shocked as playing in four games was always the plan, but I did put him on the spot with that direct question after the usf game about burning the redshirt and his reply of "Let's go win a championship."
I don't know if Mikey chose his words carefully (he didn't explicitly say he was playing) but his response led people to believe he was, myself included.
I'm not privy to what exactly happened with Mikey in the day or two that followed that game and any conversations that may have taken place, but Gus Malzahn always knew of Mikey's desire to save his redshirt since Gus made it fairly clear he would always covet a QB with more running athleticism. There was a standing agreement.
Look, this is no breaking news to any of y'all here. Based on chatter from player sources during the preseason, the overwhelming expectation was that Mikey would be named the starter based on his passing ability, accuracy and decision making. Of course, Gus brought in John Rhys Plumlee to start and thought his running ability would be a bigger asset even if he wasn't as polished of a passer. If you recall when the decision was made, Gus chose his words carefully about why he picked JRP over Mikey.
We know how the season unfolded... Gus opted to play Thomas Castellanos in some of the early mop-up duty games. In retrospect, at least a couple of those games really were a waste but obviously Gus didn't know then how important games played would become.
We get to the critical second half of the season and Mikey finally gets called into duty after JRP suffers the concussion vs. Cincinnati. He leads UCF to victory, then starts the next week at Memphis and helps to deliver another win.
Then when JRP was cleared and ready following the concussion, he was back in as the starter at Tulane.
Gus said he never felt a starter should lose their job due to an injury. And it worked out - JRP had his best game of the season in the win at Tulane. At that point, it looked like hosting the championship game would be a slam dunk.
Of course, it wasn't. Navy was a dreadful performance for the offense, both JRP and Mikey weren't great. And JRP's hammy finally got the best of him at South Florida. I had heard Mikey was hoping he wouldn't be needed for Navy/usf so he could save his last two games for the championship/Cotton Bowl, but circumstances said otherwise.
I haven't watched the ABC broadcast of the CCG, but reading social media and the Dungeon obviously I know Mikey was made out to be the villain for not playing. But if you're Mikey - and this is me projecting my speculation - the message was pretty clear back in August that Mikey had no future in a Gus Malzahn offense.
Would Mikey have changed his mind about the redshirt had Gus approached him after Cincinnati/Memphis and told him he should be the starter going forward, even when JRP was healthy? Try to convince Mikey that he does have a future in this offense? Who knows.
Anyway, I know people are upset about Mikey's "Let's go win a championship" line and then sitting out. Our rooting interest is in UCF, not necessarily the best interest of individual players. Yeah, it's certainly possible (if not likely), Mikey will never be in a position to win a conference championship again. But that's not written in stone.
Mikey's experience at UCF was being thrown to the wolves as a freshman and this season being asked to bail out UCF when probably felt deep down he should have been the starter in the first place. I can understand why he wasn't jumping to give up a year of eligibility for one game, even though a championship is on the line.
I get it... I understand all the viewpoints. It's just unfortunate the QB room only featured ONE player Gus could play without redshirt considerations.
At the end of the day, Mikey led UCF to three of the most memorable wins in recent memory between the Gasparilla Bowl, Cincinnati and War on I-4. He stuck around to play for a coaching staff that didn't recruit him and remained the ultimate teammate even when the decision was made to start JRP.
Again, he knows he has no future in this offense so I can't fault or blame him for making a decision that he feels is in his best interest.
***
More thoughts on the AAC Championship... I give a lot of credit to Tulane. I didn't really believe they had a real sellout, seeing how paltry the turnout was for the game a few weeks ago and how UCF fans dominated the stadium (particularly in the second half when all the Tulane fans left because of the cold).
But they brought it... the student body was fantastic. They packed their end zone and were loud and rowdy the entire game.
UCF turnout wasn't anywhere near what it was a few weeks back... folks had months to plan for that trip, very few people are going to make this trip with only a week's notice. I'd estimate around 2,000 UCF fans.
This will be an issue when UCF makes its first Big 12 Championship... it's just difficult to get a huge contingent of fans last minute to a place that's not particularly driveable.
***
At the close of Monday, here are the UCF players in the transfer portal:
P Andrew Osteen
QB Mikey Keene
CB Davonte Brown
LB Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste
WR Ryan O'Keefe
LB Terrence Lewis
WR Jordan Johnson
DB Philjae Bien-Aime
DB Trevion Shadrick-Harris
Obviously, the only players of note here are Mikey Keene, Davonte Brown, JJB and ROK.
There had been rumblings about ROK potentially leaving. He was said not to be a fan of this offense (at least compared to Heupel). He preferred Mikey as the QB too - remember when Mikey finally got to play against Cincinnati? He targeted ROK a lot.
Anyway, ROK was rumored to be getting unsolicited NIL offers last spring when he wasn't even in the portal. But he stayed on for another season, fulfilling his four years and I think should be graduating. Now he has an extra year due to COVID to see if he can get some bigger NIL dollars elsewhere and play in an offense he feels suits him better. Good luck to him - he was a star at UCF and we'll never forget his Gasparilla Bowl and tribute to Otis.
Davonte Brown was another who received unsolicited offers last spring (Miami?). His season was disappointing, at least based on how we thought he'd perform as a junior. Maybe he can get paid somewhere else.
Like ROK, JJB also played his four years and will graduate. He's not really an NFL player, so maybe he can get a little NIL money to end his football career.
Everybody else on the list is NGE.
I would anticipate a few more portal entries... Might be a few players who actually want to play in the bowl game, and there is also a spring window as well.
It does make you wonder about the late-season defensive performances, wondering if some may have been checked out or maybe weren't giving their maximum effort.
***
Longtime OL commit Jamal Meriweather flipped to Georgia on Monday. A guy from Georgia who gets an offer from the home state team? Not to mention the SEC and the fact UGA is clearly the best team in college football. Nobody can compete with that.
It came out of the blue, but apparently UGA offered him on Sunday night.
That position is a real concern. UCF has just one HS commitment right now - that being Johnathan Cline. And UCF only signed one HS commit in the 2022 class - Caden Kitler.
I know UCF has loaded up on the portal (and will continue to do so), but the backbone of this offense has been guys like Sam Jackson, Matt Lee, Lokahi Pauole... guys who came here as freshmen.
***
Speaking of OL, Florida transfer Joshua Braun was a clear target. He visited for the Navy game. He committed to Arkansas today following a visit.
And speaking of Arkansas, QB Malachi Singleton reaffirmed his commitment to the Hogs following his OV. I know he visited UCF for a couple games during the season and there was chatter he may be thinking about flipping, but that obviously seems a bit less likely now unless something changes significantly.
On Monday night, Gus and Chip visited with the QB that wants to be here - Dylan Rizk. I hope to catch up with him on Tuesday to talk about it.
***
It wasn't all bad news. John Rhys Plumlee announced he is coming back for 2023. Maybe it was always being announced today, but Gus sort of referenced it last night on the Military Bowl call and I then I asked Gus directly about him returning - and voila, he announced it today.
It is significant because there was internal chatter that JRP may have been thinking (at some point anyway) to play this football season and then go all in on baseball and hope to do well enough to get drafted by MLB.
It is expected he will play baseball this spring and that schedule is obviously in direct conflict with spring football practice. We'll see how he juggles that (if he even can).
Gus also said he plans to roll with four scholarship QBs in 2023 - which right now would be JRP, Thomas Castellanos, Timmy McClain and Dylan Rizk.
***
Are UCF coaches really leaving for Auburn? That place is always crazy with the rumor mill and it's hard to know how much of it is legitimate, fabrication or just a mountain made of a molehill.
There was chatter from Auburn insiders last week that new coach Hugh Freeze would likely hire UCF WR coach Grant Heard. I mean, it made a lot of sense as Heard worked with Freeze at Ole Miss. Then there were rumors Freeze may be targeting current Ole Miss WR coach Derrick Nix (who may have turned him down) and now maybe he's moving on to Liberty WR coach Maurice Harris (who was the TE coach at Ole Miss when Freeze was there).
Late last week and into the weekend, Auburn sites were touting the possibility of Travis Williams coming home to be Freeze's new DC. Chris Kiffin (now with the Cleveland Browns) has also been mentioned. And now Todd Grantham?
Frankly, I'm not sure anybody really knows anything for certain. Auburn has not officially announced any assistant coach hires besides retaining Cadillac Williams but there are a few names known to be on staff.
***
We'll dive more into portal targets as the week unfolds.
AAC Championship and all the drama, Sunday with the bowl announcement and now Monday with the opening of the portal.
***
First, let's talk about Mikey Keene. I started hearing midway through last week, I guess it was Tuesday or so when the practice week started, that Mikey was not going to play in the AAC Championship. I wasn't completely shocked as playing in four games was always the plan, but I did put him on the spot with that direct question after the usf game about burning the redshirt and his reply of "Let's go win a championship."
I don't know if Mikey chose his words carefully (he didn't explicitly say he was playing) but his response led people to believe he was, myself included.
I'm not privy to what exactly happened with Mikey in the day or two that followed that game and any conversations that may have taken place, but Gus Malzahn always knew of Mikey's desire to save his redshirt since Gus made it fairly clear he would always covet a QB with more running athleticism. There was a standing agreement.
Look, this is no breaking news to any of y'all here. Based on chatter from player sources during the preseason, the overwhelming expectation was that Mikey would be named the starter based on his passing ability, accuracy and decision making. Of course, Gus brought in John Rhys Plumlee to start and thought his running ability would be a bigger asset even if he wasn't as polished of a passer. If you recall when the decision was made, Gus chose his words carefully about why he picked JRP over Mikey.
We know how the season unfolded... Gus opted to play Thomas Castellanos in some of the early mop-up duty games. In retrospect, at least a couple of those games really were a waste but obviously Gus didn't know then how important games played would become.
We get to the critical second half of the season and Mikey finally gets called into duty after JRP suffers the concussion vs. Cincinnati. He leads UCF to victory, then starts the next week at Memphis and helps to deliver another win.
Then when JRP was cleared and ready following the concussion, he was back in as the starter at Tulane.
Gus said he never felt a starter should lose their job due to an injury. And it worked out - JRP had his best game of the season in the win at Tulane. At that point, it looked like hosting the championship game would be a slam dunk.
Of course, it wasn't. Navy was a dreadful performance for the offense, both JRP and Mikey weren't great. And JRP's hammy finally got the best of him at South Florida. I had heard Mikey was hoping he wouldn't be needed for Navy/usf so he could save his last two games for the championship/Cotton Bowl, but circumstances said otherwise.
I haven't watched the ABC broadcast of the CCG, but reading social media and the Dungeon obviously I know Mikey was made out to be the villain for not playing. But if you're Mikey - and this is me projecting my speculation - the message was pretty clear back in August that Mikey had no future in a Gus Malzahn offense.
Would Mikey have changed his mind about the redshirt had Gus approached him after Cincinnati/Memphis and told him he should be the starter going forward, even when JRP was healthy? Try to convince Mikey that he does have a future in this offense? Who knows.
Anyway, I know people are upset about Mikey's "Let's go win a championship" line and then sitting out. Our rooting interest is in UCF, not necessarily the best interest of individual players. Yeah, it's certainly possible (if not likely), Mikey will never be in a position to win a conference championship again. But that's not written in stone.
Mikey's experience at UCF was being thrown to the wolves as a freshman and this season being asked to bail out UCF when probably felt deep down he should have been the starter in the first place. I can understand why he wasn't jumping to give up a year of eligibility for one game, even though a championship is on the line.
I get it... I understand all the viewpoints. It's just unfortunate the QB room only featured ONE player Gus could play without redshirt considerations.
At the end of the day, Mikey led UCF to three of the most memorable wins in recent memory between the Gasparilla Bowl, Cincinnati and War on I-4. He stuck around to play for a coaching staff that didn't recruit him and remained the ultimate teammate even when the decision was made to start JRP.
Again, he knows he has no future in this offense so I can't fault or blame him for making a decision that he feels is in his best interest.
***
More thoughts on the AAC Championship... I give a lot of credit to Tulane. I didn't really believe they had a real sellout, seeing how paltry the turnout was for the game a few weeks ago and how UCF fans dominated the stadium (particularly in the second half when all the Tulane fans left because of the cold).
But they brought it... the student body was fantastic. They packed their end zone and were loud and rowdy the entire game.
UCF turnout wasn't anywhere near what it was a few weeks back... folks had months to plan for that trip, very few people are going to make this trip with only a week's notice. I'd estimate around 2,000 UCF fans.
This will be an issue when UCF makes its first Big 12 Championship... it's just difficult to get a huge contingent of fans last minute to a place that's not particularly driveable.
***
At the close of Monday, here are the UCF players in the transfer portal:
P Andrew Osteen
QB Mikey Keene
CB Davonte Brown
LB Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste
WR Ryan O'Keefe
LB Terrence Lewis
WR Jordan Johnson
DB Philjae Bien-Aime
DB Trevion Shadrick-Harris
Obviously, the only players of note here are Mikey Keene, Davonte Brown, JJB and ROK.
There had been rumblings about ROK potentially leaving. He was said not to be a fan of this offense (at least compared to Heupel). He preferred Mikey as the QB too - remember when Mikey finally got to play against Cincinnati? He targeted ROK a lot.
Anyway, ROK was rumored to be getting unsolicited NIL offers last spring when he wasn't even in the portal. But he stayed on for another season, fulfilling his four years and I think should be graduating. Now he has an extra year due to COVID to see if he can get some bigger NIL dollars elsewhere and play in an offense he feels suits him better. Good luck to him - he was a star at UCF and we'll never forget his Gasparilla Bowl and tribute to Otis.
Davonte Brown was another who received unsolicited offers last spring (Miami?). His season was disappointing, at least based on how we thought he'd perform as a junior. Maybe he can get paid somewhere else.
Like ROK, JJB also played his four years and will graduate. He's not really an NFL player, so maybe he can get a little NIL money to end his football career.
Everybody else on the list is NGE.
I would anticipate a few more portal entries... Might be a few players who actually want to play in the bowl game, and there is also a spring window as well.
It does make you wonder about the late-season defensive performances, wondering if some may have been checked out or maybe weren't giving their maximum effort.
***
Longtime OL commit Jamal Meriweather flipped to Georgia on Monday. A guy from Georgia who gets an offer from the home state team? Not to mention the SEC and the fact UGA is clearly the best team in college football. Nobody can compete with that.
It came out of the blue, but apparently UGA offered him on Sunday night.
That position is a real concern. UCF has just one HS commitment right now - that being Johnathan Cline. And UCF only signed one HS commit in the 2022 class - Caden Kitler.
I know UCF has loaded up on the portal (and will continue to do so), but the backbone of this offense has been guys like Sam Jackson, Matt Lee, Lokahi Pauole... guys who came here as freshmen.
***
Speaking of OL, Florida transfer Joshua Braun was a clear target. He visited for the Navy game. He committed to Arkansas today following a visit.
And speaking of Arkansas, QB Malachi Singleton reaffirmed his commitment to the Hogs following his OV. I know he visited UCF for a couple games during the season and there was chatter he may be thinking about flipping, but that obviously seems a bit less likely now unless something changes significantly.
On Monday night, Gus and Chip visited with the QB that wants to be here - Dylan Rizk. I hope to catch up with him on Tuesday to talk about it.
***
It wasn't all bad news. John Rhys Plumlee announced he is coming back for 2023. Maybe it was always being announced today, but Gus sort of referenced it last night on the Military Bowl call and I then I asked Gus directly about him returning - and voila, he announced it today.
It is significant because there was internal chatter that JRP may have been thinking (at some point anyway) to play this football season and then go all in on baseball and hope to do well enough to get drafted by MLB.
It is expected he will play baseball this spring and that schedule is obviously in direct conflict with spring football practice. We'll see how he juggles that (if he even can).
Gus also said he plans to roll with four scholarship QBs in 2023 - which right now would be JRP, Thomas Castellanos, Timmy McClain and Dylan Rizk.
***
Are UCF coaches really leaving for Auburn? That place is always crazy with the rumor mill and it's hard to know how much of it is legitimate, fabrication or just a mountain made of a molehill.
There was chatter from Auburn insiders last week that new coach Hugh Freeze would likely hire UCF WR coach Grant Heard. I mean, it made a lot of sense as Heard worked with Freeze at Ole Miss. Then there were rumors Freeze may be targeting current Ole Miss WR coach Derrick Nix (who may have turned him down) and now maybe he's moving on to Liberty WR coach Maurice Harris (who was the TE coach at Ole Miss when Freeze was there).
Late last week and into the weekend, Auburn sites were touting the possibility of Travis Williams coming home to be Freeze's new DC. Chris Kiffin (now with the Cleveland Browns) has also been mentioned. And now Todd Grantham?
Frankly, I'm not sure anybody really knows anything for certain. Auburn has not officially announced any assistant coach hires besides retaining Cadillac Williams but there are a few names known to be on staff.
***
We'll dive more into portal targets as the week unfolds.
