Malzahn: Knights on track with no ‘ugly stuff’

UCF players were put through their paces for more than two hours as the Knights participated in their first live scrimmage of spring football camp Saturday at the Bounce House.

The team wrapped up the eighth of its 15 practices in front of a small crowd, many of whom sought shade under umbrellas or coverings as temperatures climbed to the mid-90s before noon.

“There’s nothing like a scrimmage,” new UCF coach Gus Malzahn said. “That’s when you as a coach, you’re able to evaluate everything. Everything is clear.

“We put the ball down and played old-school football.”

For the first time this spring, all the quarterbacks except for incumbent Dillon Gabriel were live with defenders allowed to tackle as well. The team ran close to 100 plays on the day, starting off with four field goal blocks as well as punt returns. Otherwise, it was a typical scrimmage.

“Overall, there’s a whole lot to work on and we have a ways to go, but the good thing is, I think our attitude is good and I think our guys want to get better,” Malzahn said. “But it gave us great information from a coach’s standpoint of where we’re at. It’s been a pretty solid first two weeks.

“Usually, first scrimmages there is a lot of ugly stuff, but there wasn’t a whole lot of ugly stuff big picture.”

While much of attention

was paid to the execution on both sides of the ball, Malzahn spent time focused on the smaller details.

“I’m looking at the attitude and I’m looking at the effort,” Malzahn said. “Everything I saw is correctable. Nothing really stood out except we’re where we need to be as a team as far as attitude. Effort-wise, we’re always going to challenge our guys to be at the highest level of that.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of fancy offensive plays and there wasn’t a whole lot of fancy defensive plays. It was more, “Put the ball down and play.’ “

Malzahn said the ability to play without limitations for the first time this spring was a huge benefit for the quarterbacks, who got their first live action since the Boca Raton Bowl.

“It was good for them, to see how they reacted,” Malzahn said. “When you’re back there practicing, you’re wearing a gold jersey [no contact] and we’re blowing the whistle and telling the defense to stay away from the quarterback, there’s nothing like getting out there and really playing.

“They did some good stuff and some stuff I wish they did better, but it was good for them to play regular football.”

With half the camp already over, Malzahn said the focus over the next two weeks before the spring game April 10 will be to continue to build the foundation of the program while fine-tuning some things before players break for summer conditioning.

“We’re trying to figure out what our strengths are and we’re going to build around our strengths,” Malzahn added. “We’re starting to understand that a little bit better and obviously we learned a little bit more today than we did any of the other practices overall.”

Malzahn received a special treat this week when legendary UCF coach Don Jonas stopped by to meet the Knights’ new coach.

“It was pretty special for me,” said Malzahn. “I’m learning the history and that’s important to me.”

Jonas coached UCF for three seasons from 1979-81 in the program’s beginnings as a Division III member. He led the team to a 14-12 record during that period.

“As I said before, the foundation has been laid in a big way by the former coaches and former players,” Malzahn added. “… For me, it’s about getting to know the people who helped build this program. That helped get it where it is today. That’s important to me.”

Malzahn also spent time meeting several former players who will be participating in this week’s Pro Day on April 1, including receivers Marlon Williams, Jacob Harris and Tre Nixon, along with running back Greg McCrae and safeties Richie Grant and Aaron Robinson.

“I got a chance to meet the guys who are going through Pro Day,” Malzahn said. “I knew a lot of them or knew of them, coached against some of them and recruited a few of them. That was really special.”

Malzahn receives a special visitor: