Heupel offers Mississippi JUCO teammates

Recruiting is officially underway for new UCF coach Josh Heupel.

The initial focus since his hire last Tuesday was reconnecting with the prior commits and lining up many of those players for official visits this upcoming weekend.

On Sunday, new offers started going out. That list includes a pair of teammates at East Central (Miss.) Community College: Offensive lineman Josh McMullen and tight end Chris Deloach.

McMullen, who is originally from Starkville, Miss., spoke with both Heupel and Glen Elarbee, one of the new staff members. Elarbee's UCF position has yet to be officially announced, but he had been the offensive line coach at Missouri.

"We talked for a while," McMullen said. "They offered me and want me to come up on a visit this weekend."

McMullen (6-5, 270) says he will definitely be in Orlando.

"I'd be crazy not to," McMullen said.

A prior commit to Austin Peay, McMullen reopened his recruitment once he started receiving wider interest. He was offered by Colorado in November and visited Boulder the weekend of Dec. 1.

"The coaches are obviously new to the area, but from what they told me UCF sounds like a great place to be," McMullen said.

Deloach, who is 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, committed to Southern Miss last month. He's originally from Columbus, Miss.

"Coach Heupel contacted me and gave me a call," Deloach said. "He told me I have an offer and he wants me to come visit next weekend. He said he watched my film and he liked my game."

Due to his prior commit, Deloach hasn't yet decided if he'll head down to Orlando on Friday.

"I'm going to talk to my family about it and decide from there," Deloach said.

Tight end is a big need in this recruiting class considering UCF is expected to lose their top three players to either graduation (Michael Colubiale, Jordan Franks) or the NFL Draft (Jordan Akins).

Both players are December graduates.