It's officially game week.
With the season opener against FIU one week away, UCF began on-field preparations on Thursday.
"The guys had a lot of energy today," head coach Scott Frost said afterward. "We practiced a long time. The number of practices has been the same, but the time we've been here has been longer this year. I think the guys are anxious to play. They showed up with a lot of energy and had a great practice today."
UCF beat FIU 53-14 in Miami last season, but the Panthers will certainly have a new look as the coaching staff has completely turned over. Now at the helm is Butch Davis, the former head coach at Miami and North Carolina.
"It's a challenge, but typically in your first game you're going to run what you've been practicing for fall camp anyway," Frost said. "A lot of what we run has to be able to translate and be able to run against anything they give us. We're going to take our best guess about what they're going to be doing. They're in the same boat we were in last year going into the first game. It's impossible to get too much in when you haven't had that much time. I'm sure those coaches have them ready and we're doing the best to get ourselves ready."
FIU's offensive coordinator is Rich Skrosky, who most recently was head coach at Elon (2014-16) and prior to that in a coordinator role at Ball State (2011-13). Defensive coordinator Brent Guy is a former head coach at Utah State (2005-08) and coordinator at Tulsa (2011-14), among other stops.
"We'll watch a few games from last year for personnel reasons," Frost said. "We're trying to find whatever tape we can to try to have our best guess what they're going to do... We're looking at a bunch of stuff. Coordinators come from different places. Head coach has come from different places. We're doing our best to decipher all that."
Frost then fielded a variety of questions from attending media.
With UCF breaking into travel and scout teams today, he was asked about the importance of the scout team.
"Every player on our team is valuable," Frost said. "We try to do things all the time to make every player, from the first man on the roster to the last, feel like they're wanted and needed. The more those guys can embrace their role, the better team we'll be. We've had really good scout team play here. It was really good out there today. If those guys try to do the best they can at their job, we're going to be a better team."
UCF is expected to release their initial depth chart on Friday. Frost did acknowledge some freshmen will be on it.
"There's a few," he said. "We recruited well. I think the coaches did a great job evaluating and recruiting. There were a lot of players that helped us last year. I think there will be a number of them again this year. Some of those guys might not play as much early as they do late in the year. We're going to keep bringing them along. We definitely have a talented group freshmen."
McKenzie Milton is the starting quarterback, but who is No. 2 - Darriel Mack Jr. or Noah Vedral?
"Right now, the two freshmen are splitting the second team reps evenly," Frost said. "We're going to keep looking at that. I feel good about where both of them are right now. We just have to make some decisions on who plays in what situation. But both those guys have done a really good job through fall camp."
Who has made the biggest leap since spring?
"Some of the early enrollee freshmen from last year look completely different in the fall," Frost said. "That's the advantage of having them here through spring. Antwan Collier is one that comes to mind. He's had a really good fall camp. Light years ahead of where he was in the spring. A bunch of guys have improved... Top to bottom on the roster, I keep giving credit to our strength coach. I think he's done an unbelievable job changing what we look like and how we run. Seyvon Lowry is probably another one that I'd pick out. He was a backup for us last year, but he has played really well this fall. I look for him to have an expanded role."
How have the players adjusted to this week's schedule with the beginning of classes?
"I love practicing in the morning," Frost said. "I think our guys love it. We get up and get our meetings done and get practice over with. It allows them to go be students and be the best students they can be all afternoon. Hopefully our guys get off to a quick start academically. We're making sure to emphasize that. You don't notice too much because they get done here. They go do what they need to do on campus and we see them in the evening."
How does he feel about the overall depth this season?
"At several positions I think we have a lot more depth," Frost said. "Really across the board on defense. I feel like we have more depth than we did last year. We have backups that are perfectly capable of going in and making big plays for us. I think we have better receiver depth. We have really good running back depth. We have three tight ends that I think can play. Continuing to develop some depth on the offensive line and backup quarterback. Other than that, I think we're way ahead of where we were last year."
What's his overall feeling on the defense, which seems to be a team strength despite losing several key starters.
"I was worried we might take a step back losing some of those players from last year," Frost said. "We lost some really good players. I feel like we're ahead of where we were last year on defense. Hopefully that plays out on the field. The guys that are coming back have improved a bunch. We've added a lot of really good football players to that side of the ball. If we are where I think we are on defense, I think it'll be a good year."
