Less than 24 hours later, UCF football turned a solid National Signing Day into a stellar one with the surprise addition of once Maryland-bound running back Cordarrian Richardson.
UCF coach Scott Frost tweeted on Thursday at 9:16 a.m. that the Knights would welcome its first four-star recruit of the 2017 class in Richardson. Should all the signees make it into the school, UCF would shoot to the No. 1 signing class among American Athletic Conference schools and No. 53 nationally, according to Rivals.com.
The news shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise, however, looking back at Frost’s press conference Wednesday afternoon. We’ll take a look back at the five most important comments Frost made foreshadowing the short-term future for the UCF football team.
1. “We learned last year that it’s good to have a couple of spots in your back pocket.”
UCF’s 2017 signing class featured 21 players as of Wednesday — before the Richardson announcement, of course. Frost said the school had room for a full class of 25 players but realized it’s a smarter strategy in the long run to save at least a few scholarship spots for late additions.
Currently, the Knights will have one scholarship left to potentially lure an elite recruit that might have fallen through the cracks of a Power 5 school or a graduate transfer who can help fill an area of immediate need.
“I think going forward, we’re always going to want to hold a spot or two after signing day. Looking back last year, we got three really great players in this program after National Signing Day,” Frost said.
“Shawn Burgess-Becker is a kid that transferred from Alabama, I expect him to have a great year. Trysten Hill came to the program last year in June and started for us on the D-line and we have another guy named Dedrion Bacote that red-shirted this year that I expect to be a big-time impact player for us next year and in the future.
“UCF is such an attractive place that I think when kids have other options fall through or have tried a different university out and don’t like it, this is a real easy landing spot for them because of what we have to offer here. We get calls all the time about transfers and fifth year transfers and guys that didn’t make it into other schools and often times they are really good players. We’ll continue looking for those type of people and hopefully we have the same opportunities we did last year.”
2. “It takes two, three, four years to get the program completely where you want it as a head coach.”
The linebackers unit and secondary got hit the hardest in terms of losing leadership and experience from last season. While the entire starting lineup of defensive backs is gone, UCF paid the most attention to replacing linebackers with the 2017 recruiting class.
In all, the Knights signed five linebackers — the most of any position group in 2017 — after losing the vocal leadership of key players Demeitre Brim, Mark Rucker and Errol Clarke.
“Some positions that weren’t our strengths last year are going to have to be strengths this year,” Frost said. “Then some positions that were strengths last year, we lost a bunch of guys. That’s what I was talking about in evening out the roster. I think in a couple of years I will be sitting at this table feeling really good about how we sit at every single position. And that’s when you can win championships as a football team.”
3. “We’re excited about these three offensive linemen.”
Improving the offensive line is one — if not the — No. 1 priority for the UCF football team headed into the 2017 football season. And Frost and Co. feel really confident about the addition of Samuel Jackson, Julio Castillo and Cole Schneider.
But even with the talented newcomers, the Knights will still face some challenges as the group manages to get younger and younger every season.
UCF’s offensive line took a big hit last season after guard Tyler Hudanick suffered a season-ending knee injury during the team’s homecoming loss to Temple and right tackle Wyatt Miller was limited due to nagging injuries.
That being said, UCF took a step forward toward building a stronger line, particularly with signees like Jackson, a 6-foot-6, 332-pound tackle. He also happens to have a black belt.
Read the Orlando Sentinel’s exclusive interview with Scott Frost for more on UCF football »
4. “Today was pretty much on par with what we expected.”
Learning that Beyoncé is pregnant with twins? Good surprise. Learning that a third of your recruits are bolting for other schools on signing day? Bad surprise.
All of UCF’s prior commits except for one (more on that later) signed to the school Wednesday morning before 10 a.m.
That is a victory for Frost and his staff, who managed to land yet another top three American Athletic Conference signing class.
“There weren’t too many surprises, so today was pretty much on par with what we expected,” Frost said. “This year in recruiting was about as wild of a year as I’ve seen with kids jumping around, decommitting, recommitting, some schools dropping kids, kids moving on. Recruiting is getting crazier and crazier, but today was pretty calm for us.”
5. “We had a chance to get a better caliber of player interested in us. That’s good and bad.”
UCF’s biggest surprise on signing day was losing defensive end Jamari Chisholm to Texas in the final hour. But, Frost surprised almost everyone the next day by introducing Richardson as the newest member of the Knights’ 2017 recruiting class Thursday morning.
You win some, you lose some. The takeaway here is that Frost isn’t afraid to get in the ring to wrestle with the far better resourced Power 5 schools.
“I think we signed some players that are really good players and some players that some Power 5 schools were interested in trying to get, and they decided to come to UCF,” Frost said. “Inevitably, I think as you’re recruiting those players, there’s going to be some of those schools that come in that are going to beat us a majority of time in recruiting. We’ve lost quite a few kids to decommitments in this class.
“One thing I’m proud of is that, even though, we don’t want to lose those kids, those kids are going to LSU, Texas, Kentucky and places like that. We’re battling with those schools and winning our share of battles.”
For the second straight season under UCF coach Scott Frost, the Knights finished with a top-three signing class in the American Athletic Conference.
For the second straight season under UCF coach Scott Frost, the Knights finished with a top-three signing class in the American Athletic Conference.
For the second straight season under UCF coach Scott Frost, the Knights finished with a top-three signing class in the American Athletic Conference.
For the second straight season under UCF coach Scott Frost, the Knights finished with a top-three signing class in the American Athletic Conference.
FSU came out on top while UCF turned in a solid effort. Florida rallied and USF made a huge comback from the bottom of the ladder.
FSU came out on top while UCF turned in a solid effort. Florida rallied and USF made a huge comback from the bottom of the ladder.
Seminole High School football player Gabe Davis signs to play football at UCF
Seminole High School football player Gabe Davis signs to play football at UCF
Chris Hays talks about who UCF will sign on National Signing Day.
Chris Hays talks about who UCF will sign on National Signing Day.
UCF basketball coach Johnny Dawkins chats B.J. Taylor injury
UCF basketball coach Johnny Dawkins chats B.J. Taylor injury
sgreen@orlandosentinel.com. Follow her on twitter @osknights and for more UCF Knights coverage, like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/osUCFKnights/
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