As a redshirt senior, Aaron Evans has seen the highs, the low and resurgence of UCF Football.

The Tampa-area native redshirted in 2013, but he was there to witness the pinnacle 12-1 season as UCF marched to an American Athletic Conference Championship and a top-10 ranking after defeating Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl.

In 2014, the first year Evans would see game action, the Knights saw success once again, winning their second of back-to-back league championships.

The bottom fell out in 2015 with the winless record, but the arrival of Scott Frost in 2016 saw a complete turnaround as UCF finished with a 6-6 regular season record to get back into a bowl game.

As Evans wrapped up his final spring practice, the left tackle sees a lot of reasons to be optimistic heading into 2017.

"Going into the offseason, we all knew we needed to get a lot bigger and we all needed to become more cohesive as a unit and really understand our jobs," Evans said. "To go along with that, we needed to build our toughness. I think going in, we had our minds made up what we were going to do, our goals. Most of the o-line gained 15-plus pounds. There's been significant strength gains in the weight room. That translated to the weight room with more productivity. Also in the mental aspect, we were more focused and there was more leadership with the o-line. We're calling each other out and holding each other accountable. It's led to more productivity in plays because we're detailing our assignments much better. It's leading to the whole offense performing better."

No player on the offensive line made a bigger jump than Evans, who has added about 30 pounds to his frame since last year.

"I feel more explosive," Evans said. "I feel better than I did at a lighter weight. It's easier to do my job. Maybe I can take harder hits. A bunch of different things. It looks better from a scouting aspect too. All the way around, it's really benefited my game."

From a leadership standpoint, both Evans and fellow tackle Wyatt Miller have been noted as the top players leading the way.

"I think there's been a lot more buy-in," Evans said. "I think the leadership has improved a lot and we're calling each other out more. We're not accepting anything less than greatness. That's really shown in our offensive line play and mentality."