As an assistant coach at Maryland the past two seasons, Anthony Tucker saw firsthand the emergence of UCF Football.

In 2016 during the freshman season of current playmakers like McKenzie Milton and Adrian Killins, the Terrapins were lucky to leave Orlando with a double-overtime victory. Early last season in College Park with UCF's offense now running on all cylinders, the Knights rolled to a 38-10 win, setting the stage for what became perfection.

Tucker is now a Knight himself, joining Josh Heupel's staff as running backs coach last December. UCFSports.com recently caught up with the California native.

I know you were at Maryland the last couple years and actually faced UCF, and were at Arkansas State with Glen Elarbee prior to that. Was that sort of your connection to Heupel?

"Yeah. In this profession, the circles are really small. In the real world, you hear of six degrees of separations and there's probably two degrees of separation (in coaching). The connection was Glen Elarbee, we worked together at Arkansas State in 2014 and 2015 and had a lot of success together. I consider him a great friend. That's kind of where that initial connection was, then I got to know Coach Heupel."

What did you generally know about UCF? I know you were the familiar with the games.

"Two years in a row. It was a dogfight the first year (Maryland at UCF in 2016). We were lucky to get out of there in double overtime. Then this past season, they came up and handled us. I knew what this program was about just historically of having a lot of success here. A lot of great players. Great recruiting soil. Great infrastructure in what they're doing being that it's a newer program. I love the direction of the program and thought it was really appealing to me."

What made you want to join forces with Heupel?

"For me, just going in another direction. New exciting direction. Not that there wen't good things where I came from, but for me, I'm about growth. I want to grow. I want to grow my network. I want to continue to be around good people. Continue to be in and around good programs with great athletic directors. There's great support here. There's great area support. It's the hometown team situated right here in the center of Florida. It's just an exciting new direction for me. That's really what it was. I had already seen firsthand how these kids play and how these kids compete. I just love the direction the program is going in and I wanted to be a part of it."

How have you enjoyed being here the last few months?

"It's awesome. I've got a house with a pool that I can use probably 90 percent of the year. It's snowing up north, I have family up there. It's 80 degrees today just coming off the practice field. I love the area. Love the people. Love the university. It's really nothing not to like about this place."

You're almost getting to the halfway point of spring. Had your first big scrimmage on Friday. Are you getting a better sense of what you have to work with at running back?

"I'm always in my mind about trying to develop, whether it's a guy who has been in the program four years or a guy just entering the program. My job, and going into Friday we were just six practices in, there's still some getting to know each other. We're installing an offense. There's a lot of teaching. There's always teaching. There's creating better communication, things like that. It's a huge getting to know each other process. We spent a lot of time to this point being able to meet the guys, eating with them, learning where they're from. As far as the scrimmage, it kind of provided some insight. I'm excited about what we have in the running back room and really just excited about our team."

We talked to Adrian Killins and he said Greg McCrae had a particularly good scrimmage. Is that a guy who maybe has done some good things?

"Yeah. Greg has done some good things. Everybody in that room has shown they have value, which is great. I don't see a reason why everyone in that room should not be a huge contributor in the team aspect because we've got a lot of talent in that room. Some young guys in that room. Some guys in that room who have played and have been under the lights. Some guys who have experience. It's just a matter of that room jelling and coming together with the different types of guys. I think there's a lot of value in that room and Greg is one of those guys. There's five or six guys you'll see line up in the back field or on special teams. It's a good problem to have when you have a bunch of guys that can do a bunch of things. One, a dynamic offense comes from having dynamic players and I think we have that."

How has Cordarrian Richardson taken to everything? Did you have a prior relationship with him at Maryland and that recruitment?

"Not necessarily with Maryland. When I was at Arkansas State, I recruited one of his teammates who was older and I first met him when he was a sophomore. I think he came to one of our games and I had a chance to meet him. I kind of knew him, but never spend much time with him or anything like that. It was good to see him. I knew I was a familiar face for him as well."

What do you hope to learn by the end of spring about your position? It's not like the season starts tomorrow, but are you hoping to have an idea or solidify your top go-to guys?

"Yeah. You want to kind of have an idea. You only get 15 practices. Some of those practices are structured differently, scrimmages and the spring game. I think you get a good sample size of what you got and kind of what direction you need to go in as a team and as a group and I can give them feedback on things in my evaluation process that they need to focus on."

Do you feel like Adrian Killins and Otis Anderson will come back to your position? Last year we called them offensive athletes because they can play running back and wide receiver. It looks like they're playing more receiver this spring.

"You're a good coach when you put guys in position to make plays. So whatever that includes, that's what we're going to do. We're going to do whatever we've got to do to get the balls in those guys' hands in space and give them an opportunity to make plays. That's our job. They'll be in the back field, they'll be at receiver, moving all around. You'll see a bunch of different guys moving around. That's what makes an offense dynamic. It's our job to make sure that we're putting those guys in a position to make plays."

You played at Fresno State in the late 1990s - getting into the coaching profession, is that something you always thought about or just something that kind of just happened?

"Honestly, no. I never thought about being a coach. I had interest in law school and acting and things like that. I got involved at a high school and it provided me an opportunity so to speak to give back and then it just scratched that itch of football. I'm able to compete, but also serve at the same time. That's really what kind of drew me. I'm spending time around young people sharing my experiences and teaching. It drew me in and I realized I wanted to go in another direction. I realized then this is what I love doing."