Freshman Otis Anderson provides offensive punch

Otis Anderson dreamed of playing in an offense like #UCFast.

The true freshman from Jacksonville is being utilized as an offensive athlete, lining up at both running back and wide receiver. His receiving stats doubled with a big performance against East Carolina, catching seven passes for 76 yards, bringing him up to 14 receptions and 156 yards on the season.

"This is something I dreamed of," Anderson said. "Growing up I watched Oregon do it with De'Anthony Thomas, Byron Marshall, Kenjon Barner, LaMichael James. All those players did what I'm doing today. It feels great to be able to play receiver, running back and maybe do some punt return next year."

Clarifying a question first asked by Marc Daniels' last week on UCF Knight Talk, Anderson explained how he received the nickname, "Gumby."

"That's a nickname I got coming out of seventh grade at Trinity Christian," Anderson said. "I had a high right, low left haircut. That's called the Gumby. They pulled up a picture of Bobby Brown. That stuck with me through high school. In Jacksonville, in the football world, I'm pretty much Gumby."

Anderson added how proud he is to wear the "904" decal on his helmet. Repping the area code is a big deal to the players.

"We love it," Anderson said. "It's personal. If you put the wrong area code on our helmet, we get mad. Center Jordan Johnson had 404 instead of 904 and he got really hot. They had to change it before the game."

And what did he think of last week's space uniforms?

"We loved it," Anderson said. "It's something different. We didn't expect the decals. We knew we'd have different combinations, but the decals really took it over the top."