UCF Sports Thread: 2025 Spring Football is Underway

[dsg2003mach1]

The team continues to stick together which is a big deal.

They came ready to play and believing they could win.

this is true, they could have gone in there, laid down and gotten steam rolled and nobody would have thought much of it.

I just don't know how the offense works when you're no longer a threat to pick up chunk plays through the air

[UCFJayBird]

they definitely let that one slip away.

Im torn between disappointed and glad they didn't get obliterated. The defense isn't gonna come up with 1.5 pick 6's like that every time, seems an extra shame they were for naught.

There is no quarterback capable of throwing a pass on this team. There hasn’t been for a while. So when people say Gus is good at recruiting I raise my eyebrows. You can run the ball all you want but when you cant pass at all you are so limited.

I firmly believe EJ Colson is that guy, he's just 17 years old. He should be in HS right now but reclassified early. Rizk might also be able to make those throws, but I don't think he's the mobile QB who fits in Gus' system, or there must be some other reason Gus prefers Brown to him.

So here are my thoughts:

1. I'm proud of the team for going in there and nearly stealing it away. They fought hard and that's about all you can ask.

2. The game management has been ATTROCIOUS this year. I've defended Gus in years past when people have questioned his play calling and i've waved it off. Not this year. He is constantly making mistakes in the play calling and time management. We saw all game that Brown could not hit the deep ball. But there were at least half a dozen 3rd and 5 situations where we tried to go deep. That is terrible play calling. I seriously cannot recall the last time we ran a slant. Also we're up in the 4th quarter and he goes no huddle for a quick 3 and out out of nowhere? Again, bizarre when we haven't been playing fast all game. Is he just making bad choices of when to try and catch the defense sleeping?

I try to be fair, I recognize that the two best QBs on the roster right now can't seem to throw for some reason. Jacurri was never known as a passer at Miami, but KJ was and seems to have just lost it.

Also, Jacurri Brown's helmet comes off so he has to come out for a play late in the game. For some reason the defense calling a timeout doesn't negate the need for him to sit a play, apparently we have to call the timeout (dumb rule). So what does Gus do? He sends out EJ Colson and burns one of his redshirt games for a single handoff to RJ. That's a frustrating bone headed decision by a coach. Send out KJ for that, send out Rizk! Don't waste that game for EJ to maintain his redshirt.

3. Realize we are two pick sixes (even if that one wasn't technically a pick six) and two big runs away from being blown out. You can maybe give coaching and play calling some of that, but also part of it is a few lucky breaks. We were not playing better than Iowa State. Our defense was on the field for 40 minutes, and though I saw a lot of improvements this week, there were still issues that need resolving (tackling mobile QBs continues to be an issue).

The team showed a lot of grit and heart, but until we have a QB who can make some basic throws we're going to suffer. Brown reminds me a lot of Justin Holman, who had an absolute laser of an arm, but couldn't throw it accurately down field.

For my money i'd rather just hand the reins for the season over to EJ. Let the kid get the experience. Brown is better than KJ, but we're clearly seeing why he wasn't the starter originally (not to mention the NIL deal making things complicated).

[dsg2003mach1]

#3 was definitely a big factor - when you look at the final score things seem pretty good but if you watched the whole game they really did NOT take some big leap forward

[UCFJayBird]

Grain of salt, but Gus names Brown the starting QB for the season and insider posts this:

Read on Twitter

Faulk was pretty vocal about how the players were rallying behind EJ last week when he was announced the starter. Reading between the lines but I think Gus is losing the locker room pretty quickly.

[dsg2003mach1]

Grain of salt, but Gus names Brown the starting QB for the season and insider posts this:

Read on Twitter

Faulk was pretty vocal about how the players were rallying behind EJ last week when he was announced the starter. Reading between the lines but I think Gus is losing the locker room pretty quickly.

greeeeat.

Obviously we don't know all the details but my knee jerk reaction is it wreaks of this whole "player empowerment" thing, NIL and the transfer portal aren't helping. They're players, not coaches.

[Optimus_Steel]

they definitely let that one slip away.

Im torn between disappointed and glad they didn't get obliterated. The defense isn't gonna come up with 1.5 pick 6's like that every time, seems an extra shame they were for naught.

There is no quarterback capable of throwing a pass on this team. There hasn’t been for a while. So when people say Gus is good at recruiting I raise my eyebrows. You can run the ball all you want but when you cant pass at all you are so limited.

I firmly believe EJ Colson is that guy, he's just 17 years old. He should be in HS right now but reclassified early. Rizk might also be able to make those throws, but I don't think he's the mobile QB who fits in Gus' system, or there must be some other reason Gus prefers Brown to him.

So here are my thoughts:

1. I'm proud of the team for going in there and nearly stealing it away. They fought hard and that's about all you can ask.

2. The game management has been ATTROCIOUS this year. I've defended Gus in years past when people have questioned his play calling and i've waved it off. Not this year. He is constantly making mistakes in the play calling and time management. We saw all game that Brown could not hit the deep ball. But there were at least half a dozen 3rd and 5 situations where we tried to go deep. That is terrible play calling. I seriously cannot recall the last time we ran a slant. Also we're up in the 4th quarter and he goes no huddle for a quick 3 and out out of nowhere? Again, bizarre when we haven't been playing fast all game. Is he just making bad choices of when to try and catch the defense sleeping?

I try to be fair, I recognize that the two best QBs on the roster right now can't seem to throw for some reason. Jacurri was never known as a passer at Miami, but KJ was and seems to have just lost it.

Also, Jacurri Brown's helmet comes off so he has to come out for a play late in the game. For some reason the defense calling a timeout doesn't negate the need for him to sit a play, apparently we have to call the timeout (dumb rule). So what does Gus do? He sends out EJ Colson and burns one of his redshirt games for a single handoff to RJ. That's a frustrating bone headed decision by a coach. Send out KJ for that, send out Rizk! Don't waste that game for EJ to maintain his redshirt.

3. Realize we are two pick sixes (even if that one wasn't technically a pick six) and two big runs away from being blown out. You can maybe give coaching and play calling some of that, but also part of it is a few lucky breaks. We were not playing better than Iowa State. Our defense was on the field for 40 minutes, and though I saw a lot of improvements this week, there were still issues that need resolving (tackling mobile QBs continues to be an issue).

The team showed a lot of grit and heart, but until we have a QB who can make some basic throws we're going to suffer. Brown reminds me a lot of Justin Holman, who had an absolute laser of an arm, but couldn't throw it accurately down field.

For my money i'd rather just hand the reins for the season over to EJ. Let the kid get the experience. Brown is better than KJ, but we're clearly seeing why he wasn't the starter originally (not to mention the NIL deal making things complicated).

Comedy of errors. How do you run quick huddle in that situation and then when you run the ball multiple times in a row for only a few secs go off the clock? Just terrible. Also I thought Kyle Israel was the worst UCF passer I've seen. The two current QBs are challenging him for that. They had like 45 yards with 1 min left in the game passing....Honestly this last game was more Iowa St playing terrible due to their own mistakes, not something that was necessarily UCF.

[UCFJayBird]

Read on Twitter

The letter is worth reading. It's not your standard transfer portal message.

[dsg2003mach1]

ouch

[Optimus_Steel]

That will help recruiting lol

[Kent]

Read on Twitter

The letter is worth reading. It's not your standard transfer portal message.

There's two sides to every story, but with as detailed, respectful, appreciative and classy as this letter comes across, it seems truthful.

If so, that's unacceptable and not like anything else you hear out of UCF.

In any case, there needs to be changes made as a result of this and the season as a whole. Because this is not "the future of college football" we had in mind.

[UCFJayBird]

Pathetic showing vs BYU until the last two series when we put in a QB who can actually make a throw, and shocker, he had half our points and half our yardage in two series, lol. The talk out of camp was that Rizk was the best passer but struggled with the RPO, but if that's all he struggled with he should be starting quite frankly. Can't have an offense if your QB can't make basic throws.

Hopefully Rizk gets his shot this weekend and we can see if it was a fluke or if he has something. A decent QB can help us maaaaaaybe make a bowl game with a good end to the season and turn some momentum around. It'll be tough regardless though.

Ted Roof was fired this morning. Not sure why tbh outside some scapegoating to play damage control for Gus. I didn't like the Roof hiring that much so don't hate the hiring outside the cash we're paying him to not coach.

Gus also said today he's handing playcalling back over to the OC, Tim Harris Jr. We'll see if the changes anything as well, and if he actually keeps his nose out of the play calling. He hasn't in the past even when he's said he would.

[UCFJayBird]

On the plus side, personally, i'll be driving up for the Space Game vs Arizona this Saturday. Only my second game of the season and probably my last (despite being a season ticket holder, lol). This is my wife's one game per year so looking forward to it.

[dsg2003mach1]

at this point my only "hope" is that they'll find someone that can be QB1 next season that can complete a freaking pass

[Optimus_Steel]

So you are telling me that coach picked 3 guys ahead of Rizk??? Wtf???

[dsg2003mach1]

Granted Arizona is apparently not very good Rizk looked great out there overall, made some tough throws and give the guys credit for hauling in some of them that were a little off

[Kent]

UCF to the Big XII after yesterday

[UCFJayBird]

So you are telling me that coach picked 3 guys ahead of Rizk??? Wtf???

From what i've gathered, it sounds like he was clearly the best passer in camp but was the worst at the RPO, which is a huge feature of Gus' offense. I think also NIL was certainly a factor (whether the coaches would ever admit to it), and KJ only started because of that in the beginning. I think Jacurri clearly has the best mix of size and fit for the scheme, but just can't throw. Maybe they thought his experience outweighed his inaccuracy, but yea it's pretty damning to see Rizk come in and immediately put up huge numbers.

On the plus side he's energized the team and a bowl game is now not such a crazy thought again. Tougher test this week on the road at Arizona State, but if we win that you'd have to think we'll have a great shot at getting to 6-6 or even 7-5 somehow. Gives me some hope for the next 3 years given Rizk is a RS Freshman. I'm hoping EJ stays and they compete for it, cause I do think EJ is very talented and could be the starter at some point as well (plus you never know with injuries, one bad play and Rizk is out a season). Plus we really don't know if this is legit with Rizk, still pretty early, but all signs point to him being our QB going forward. It's his team to lose at this point.

[dsg2003mach1]

ugh, shoulda coulda woulda on that one.

couldnt recover from the blocked kick and that monumental kick return screw up.

[Knightro]

Gus is legitimately the worst game day coach I've ever had the displeasure of watching at UCF.

Great recruiter, very willing to embrace all aspects of that, but he just can't coach.

[UCFJayBird]

Yea another game blown by really bad decision making in the game. It's truly incredibly that we gave up 14 points in 2 plays spanning about 20 seconds at the end of the first half. We dominated that game, and somehow lost.

I'm all aboard the fire Gus train, but unless he takes a reduced buy out i'm not sure it happens. Supposedly he's meeting with Terry today, so who knows. Either way the Special Teams coach has got to go. Special Teams has been abysmal all year, sloppy, lack of focus and execution, poor protection, etc. For us to give up a blocked punt that turns into a touch down is one thing, but for a player to not know to just kneel down in the end zone despite muffling the kickoff is ridiculous. Sure, the player SHOULD know that. But that stuff should be drilled into their heads if they're the return guys. Unbelievable.

But even more mind boggling was calling a play to throw over the middle from the 1 yard line. And i'm not convinced Gus didn't call plays in certain circumstances. Calling a wild knight with RJ and then still going with it after ASU called a timeout and not changing the play is so frustrating. They literally call a timeout, they know if you're in a wild knight it's going to be RJ up the middle. If you want to come out in the same look, it better be trickery at that point. Have RJ throw it, or give it to the guy on the jet sweep, don't do exactly what they expect you to do.

Ugh. More recruits decommitted as well. This program is going to need something to revitalize it quickly or we're going to wind up playing cleanup in the Big 12 for the foreseeable future.