Willie Martinez knew UCF was poised for success

When the Knights were an upstart program in the mid-1990s transitioning from Division I-AA to the I-A ranks, Martinez served as defensive coordinator on Gene McDowell's staff (1995-96).

He's made quite a few stops in his 30-plus years of coaching, including a long stretch in the 2000s at Georgia, but always kept tabs on UCF from afar.

When Josh Heupel - whom he met earlier this decade during a stint at Oklahoma - called and asked to join him in Orlando, Martinez didn't hesitate. Now serving as assistant head coach overseeing the secondary, Martinez returns to a program coming off a pinnacle 13-0 season.

UCFSports.com recently caught up with Martinez, a Florida native, to talk about those memories and also spring practice.

You were here 20 years ago - Did you recognize UCF when you came back?

"I've always followed it. Obviously anywhere I've been, I've always followed the players that I coached and stayed in contact with them and saw the progress that the program has made in the last 20-something years which has been unbelievable."

You guys used to practice on the other side of campus and didn't have much in the way of facilities. Now there's a stadium and indoor. None of this was here.

"It's grown. You could sense it. You had an idea of what it could become. Obviously sitting in the center of the state that's filled with players. Recruiting was going to be outstanding. There's enough players to choose and evaluate in close proximity. You kind of knew it was a little bit of a diamond in the rough. It's exciting to see where it was and where it's at now."

When you look back on the years you spent here, Gene McDowell was the head coach, what do you remember of those days?

"Coach McDowell was a tough disciplinary coach. Very consistent in his coaching style coming from Florida State and the success they had. What I remember was is Coach did a great job of pushing the program in the right direction. I think he took it from Division II to I-AA and I-AA to Division I. Because I was in that transition from I-AA to I-A. We had a lot of good players back then. It started with Daunte. We recruited Daunte. That was the class that kind of got it started for us. Obviously was a great player and the players that came along with him too were really good players."

How exciting was it landing Daunte because if I recall there was a concern other schools may come back on him but he stayed loyal to UCF.

"The staff had done a great job recruiting him. Not to pinpoint one person or another, because it was a really good staff here. They did a great job. They just stayed on him. He was a heavily recruited player that maybe didn't have the academics at some point in time in the early stages. People kind of fell off of him a little bit. Credit to the staff. They stayed with him and built a relationship. Everything is about relationships in recruiting. He felt very comfortable and if anybody knows Daunte that's the kind of person he is. He's a great person and loyal kind of guy. He felt this was the right spot for him and we felt the same way. It was outstanding. He had a great career."

You got to know Coach Heupel a few years ago at Oklahoma, so when he got the job here and gave you a call, what is it about Heupel that made you believe in him and want to join down here at UCF?

"First and foremost, he's a great family man. You could see that in his passion for his family. Comes from a coaching family. I've always had a lot of respect for coming from a family where your coach was your dad. It's not going to fall far from the tree. Disciplinary guy, but knows how to have fun. Family is important to him. He did a great job at Oklahoma and everywhere he's been. Outstanding teacher. That's the thing I remember on the football field side of it. How well he taught and coached. I wanted to be a part of that. We've been friends since we were there. We talked about that maybe one day we could get a chance to work together again."

You were pretty familiar with Randy Shannon coming in here?

"He was at Miami when I was there. We did overlap and we've been friends ever since. We've had opportunities to work together at different stages in our career and it just didn't work out for whatever reason. We've always stayed in touch and shared ideas through the years."

What's it been like this spring? You're five days into it. You've got some experience returning with Kyle Gibson and Tre Neal.

"You named the two guys there, but there's Antwan Collier who obviously had a great first year and Richie Grant. We signed two kids that are here right now. We signed four guys, but two here right now in Derek Gainous and Jermaine McMillian. Right now they're slated at the safety position. And we've got great corners that got experience too. It's a veteran group when you put the four seniors together with Causey, Keenan Johnson (and the safeties). It's a great mixture of experience and also youth."

It may be kind of early, but has anyone stood out or surprised you?

"I think the guys have done a great job of competing. That's really what we're asking of them. They're going to make mistakes because you've got a new scheme in and they're doing a good job of just trying to stay positive and working through the kinks a little bit. We've thrown a lot at them in five days. They've handled it really well. It's really too early to figure out where everybody is at and where they'll be by the end of spring."

You'll go out and recruit after spring. Being back in your home state and recruiting to a program that's been really successful, how do you think that's going to go?

"I think it's going really good. Just by the response from the two signing days that we had and coming off last year. Again, it's not last year. The success has been there for UCF in the last five, seven years. You can see the excitement in the recruiting. You can see the interest. You can see the interest the players have in this program. We've had a lot of really good players on campus in the last couple months that maybe generally you wouldn't have gotten 10 years ago. That's exciting."