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UCF officials just announced all 15 spring football workouts are slated to be open to the public. The Knights start spring practice at 9:10 a.m. Thursday. The team will practice for three days straight and then shift to Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday workouts until the spring game. The spring game is set for April 11.

The school also is holding two pre-spring practice press conferences this week. UCF offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe and defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable will talk Monday morning about the offense and defense. Six players coming back from significant injuries will be available on Tuesday to talk about spring football. The players are WR A.J. Guyton, LB Cory Hogue, DE Darius Nall, TE Corey Rabazinski, LB Jordan Richards and WR Rocky Ross.

Despite a recent slowdown in blog activity, Knights Notepad is very excited about covering spring football. Consider this the calm before the storm and look for wall-to-wall football coverage.

Part of what will be different in 2009 will be the offensive sets, as Taaffe vows to go with a pro-style offense with more single-back sets.

“We will not start out with a traditional two back system," Taaffe said.

Part of the reason for the single-back sets will be the lack of talent at the fullback position, according to the Knights new offensive coordinator. The team will utilize more of an H-back position that will likely feature Corey Rabazinski, who missed most of last season.

Still, schemes alone won’t transform the nation’s worst offense a year ago to an explosive one in 2009, even if many of the key players do have another year of experience. The hopes are that the single back pro-style set will be easier for the young quarterbacks to wrap their arms around.

"A pro style offense with an option,” Taafe said when describing the system he plans on utilizing. “I think Rob can do it.”

New venue: The conference tournament is moving to Tulsa next year, and that will most certainly be a good location.

Women's Tourney bracket is out, #14 UCF vs. #3 UNC in Chattanooga, Saturday at noon.
Let's go ladies, bring everything you got.

Good luck Lady Knights, which is perhaps the biggest misnomer and stupidest name in the state outside of the "Lady Bulls" to your left. At least you made the tourney, we're abuzz over the screw job about not being invited (with 22 wins; including more than some teams picked out of our own conference whom we beat head-to-head).

"A pro style offense with an option,” Taafe said when describing the system he plans on utilizing. “I think Rob can do it.”

UCF freshman quarterback Rob Calabrese grinned at the small mob of reporters ready to interview after the first day of spring football practice. It marked the first time the Knights' starting quarterback was allowed to be interviewed by the media. Calabrese talked about UCF's 4-8 record during the 2008 season and his high hopes for major improvement this year.

Question: How was the first day of spring football? Calabrese: It went well. We were a little sloppy. Gotta fix things up, you know first day with all the installation. We've just got to be more consistent.

Q: What has it been like working with new offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe? C: I like Coach Taaffe. We got to work with him a little bit. We got to meetings. Just going over all the new stuff, new installation and all that. It's been good getting to work with him.

Q: Do you feel comfortable running the option Taaffe has talked about adding to the playbook? C: Sure, sure. I like running the ball a little bit. We haven't gone over that yet, so we'll see when that comes up.