The future of UCF's defense already has a leader in place.

Randy Shannon, the former Miami head coach, will be Josh Heupel's defensive coordinator.

Shannon, whose most recent stop was at Florida as defensive coordinator and for the last month their interim head coach, was present for Tuesday's press conference and met with the media afterward.

First and foremost, Shannon is dedicated to building a family atmosphere at UCF.

"Relationships go a long way," Shannon said. "I still talk to guys that I've coached maybe 20, 30 years ago. It never goes away if you're a coach. The kids recruited by Scott (Frost) and this staff, you let them build on that, but you build on what UCF is about which is family. You build on that family aspect of what we're trying to get done here. Like Coach (Heupel) said, we're going to build on being a family . That's one thing families do. They take care of each other."

They've never coached together, but Shannon was already familiar with Heupel's background as a player and coach.

"I have a lot of respect for him and what he did at Oklahoma," Shannon said. "I have a lot of respect for what he did at Missouri. Like anything else, you build on what your repuation is and his reputation has been big across the country. Having an opportunity to work with him is unbelievable."

Under Frost, UCF ran a 3-4 defense which was a departure of the traditional 4-3 under George O'Leary. Shannon isn't committed to any particular philosophy.

"It depends on the personnel we have," Shannon said. "What we feel is the best 11 on the field at that particular time. Could be a three-down, could be a four-down, could be an odd defense, could be an over, under defense. It depends on what our best players are at the time. We'll put those guys in situations to help us win games, create turnovers, cause negative plays and give field position to the offense."

Due to his coaching obligations at Florida, Shannon wasn't able to see any UCF games this past season but he knew of the success. His son, Randy Shannon Jr., is a redshirt freshman walk-on who played on the scout team.

"I probably won't coach him," Shannon said. "I'll let somebody else deal with him. It'll be fun. Like anything else, you treat everybody the same. He's my son, but he's a UCF player. He's got an opportunity to be a part of something special."

What can people expect of Shannon as a person?

"Sometimes in this profession, some guys have ego," Shannon said. "I'm not an ego guy. I'm a guy that's going to stay the same. I'm not going to get mad. You guys (media) might write something negative, but I'm not going to be mad because that's your job. That's your living. You have to keep moving forward."

Shannon was present for the meeting when Danny White introduced Heupel to the players.

"I told them the type of person I am," Shannon said. "Shook hands. Some of the guys I knew from recruiting aspects, so I had an opporutnity to see them and joke around with them."

On the recruiting front, Shannon wasn't sure when he'd be able to start visiting prospects, but knows time is of the essence with the early signing period being just two weeks away.