![]() The Knights this season will not face the Big 12 team that played in last season's College Football Championship, TCU, or Texas, which they lost to at home in their inaugural season in the on-campus stadium in 2007 and in Austin in 2009. The other road conference games are against Kansas State - another Big 12 team UCF has played, a 17-10 road loss in 2010 - Kansas and Texas Tech, longstanding Big 12 members, and Cincinnati, which is joining the league from the American along with UCF. Houston, which also is in its first Big 12 season after coming in from the American, also will come to Orlando. West Virginia and Oklahoma State will come to FBC Mortgage Stadium for the first time. The Knights beat the Bears in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl with Blake Bortles at quarterback. The home games will include Baylor, one of the only Big 12 teams they have played previously. The Big 12 publicly released its 2023 football schedules on Tuesday, and UCF’s first season in the conference will feature four league home games and five road games, including a meeting with Oklahoma and Knights former star quarterback Dillon Gabriel. The date many UCF football fans have waited for since the program started in 1979 came Tuesday, when they got a look at the Knights as part of a Power 5 schedule for the first time. It’s been a really good spring so far working with those guys.”Įmail Jason Beede at or follow him on Twitter at. ![]() “We have a great unit of guys that want to work and want to be coached. Then, for the young and new guys, it’s their opportunity to earn a position. ![]() “Obviously, when you graduate and lose some of the guys that we did, it’s time for the leadership to kick in. “It’s their unit,” Hand said about the four linemen. That includes veteran offensive linemen such as Pauole, Ed Collins, Paul Rubelt and Chidoziri Maghiro.Ĭollins and Maghiro are two of the few remaining Knights who were a part of the program’s last conference championship in 2018. While there are plenty of new faces on the offensive line and questions to be answered, there is a core group of leaders that help Hand daily on and off the field. “Both of those guys have acclimated really well and we’ll just continue to develop them.” It’s tough when you come in as a transfer, particularly if you’ve had success at the place you’ve been at. “They’ve been great additions to our unit. “We’re really excited about those two guys,” Hand said about Marshall and Kight. Marshall started all 12 games at offensive tackle last season at Kent State and earned first-team All-MAC while Kight served as a backup tackle at Alabama the last few years. Kight has mainly focused on right tackle. While Schmidt fits in at center, Marshall opened the spring at left tackle but also is practicing at left guard, Hand said. “I talked to Saga before we brought Bula in and he’s everything Saga told me he would be. “He’s been a multi-year starter at a great program in Fresno and played for a great offensive line coach, Saga Tuitele, who is now at Arizona State. “Bula is new to our system and our team, but he’s a veteran player,” Hand said. To help fill those three spots, UCF added Bula Schmidt (Fresno State), Amari Kight (Alabama) and Marcellus Marshall (Kent State) from the portal ahead of the spring.Īlthough returner guard Lokahi Pauole began spring practice working some at center, Schmidt has recently moved there after starting 27 straight games the past two years at Fresno State in that spot. The Knights lost multi-year starting center Matt Lee to the transfer portal while starting left guard Sam Jackson and starting right tackle Ryan Swoboda exhausted their eligibility. This is why figuring out who fits where on the offensive line is a major focus for Hand and the UCF coaching staff during the spring. ![]()
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