UCF rose from the abyss
UCF seeks to build on success of Frost’s inaugural season
in Scott Frost’s first campaign, but any regression this season could poison the goodwill he’s built as the Knights’ coach.
NEWPORT, R.I. – By the time Aaron Evans finally pushed his plate away, the damage was done.
The UCF redshirt senior lineman left a pile of crustacean carnage unlike anything anyone at American Athletic Conference football media days had ever seen. Evans consumed a record 10 lobsters during Monday night’s annual clambake, leaving everyone else in his wake.
“It was satisfying to win anything,” Evans said with a smile. “They were hyping it up all week, so I figured why not go for it?
“Afterwards my stomach was a little upset, but I was starving by 11:30.”
UCF coach Scott Frost could only look on in amazement.
“Aaron went about it like it was his job,” Frost said. “He was going full steam ahead at six, seven and eight and I think he could have gone past 10.”
The Knights may have won the battle of the bulge, but the team was picked to finish second in the American Athletic Conference East Division, behind rival USF. That doesn’t bother Evans or his teammates, who are coming off a six-win season following a winless campaign in 2015.
“It has its place. It definitely motivates me, but … if you shoot for the highest pedestal that there is … let’s say a big bowl game, and then you’ll land at the highest level. That motivates me,” said Evans, who prefers focusing on this team rather than the noise around them. “I think this could be a special season for UCF.”
Shaquem Griffin agreed with his teammate’s assessment.
“It’s competition. If we have to be the underdog and work our way to the top, that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.
“Coming into this year, our whole thing is just to be better than we were last year.”
The senior linebacker, who finished last season as the American Defensive Player of the Year, led the league in sacks (11.5) while finishing third with 20.0 tackles for loss, is confident about the Knights’ future.
“I feel compared to last year, we’re on a whole different level,” Griffin said. “It’s better, we’re moving faster and I feel really confident what we can do this year.”
Frost, who is entering his second season leading the Knights, said his message to his team is that there is still a lot of hard work ahead of them. He recalled a
lesson he learned from former New York Jets coach Bill Parcells during his rookie season in the NFL. Parcells told him it’s easier to go from 4-12 to 9-7 than it is to go from 9-7 to 10-6 or 11-5 and make the playoffs.
“I think our team needs to understand that,” Frost said. “That the jump from 0-12 to 6-6 is going to be easier than the jump from 6-6 to 8-4 or 10-2. This is a very balanced league: top to bottom. Every game is going to be winnable for us, but we’re not going to win if we don’t play well.”
Senior defensive lineman Jamiyus Pittman started 11 games in 2015 and saw the lowest of the lows during a winless campaign that included coach George O’Leary retiring midseason. But throughout the process, including a new head coach and seeing the team bounce back with a bowl bid in 2016, Pittman has seen this group of players become a closer unit.
The group will soon shift from offseason workouts to a more intense preseason camp.
The elimination of the two-a-days has extended the number of days teams
“I feel like we all know each other and this is the closest I’ve been to a group of people ... I like where we’re headed.” UCF lineman Jamiyus Pittman
can spend on preseason practice. As a result, UCF will start camp on July 26 and will kick off the 2017 season on Thursday, Aug. 31, at home against FIU.
“It’s not hard to go into the weight room in the offseason and work when you went winless. You really see the true character of your teammates,” Pittman said. “I feel like we all know each other and this is the closest I’ve been to a group of people. I have all of their backs. I like where we’re headed.”