UCF’s Beckton works to reassure recruits.
It’s been a crazy recruiting cycle for the UCF football program and things got even crazier this past weekend after the Knights ran their record to 12-0 and won the American Athletic Conference championship over Memphis.
In a perfect world, all of that would translate into nothing but positive energy for UCF as it heads toward the new college football signing period that opens Dec. 20.
That all changed about an hour after UCF players and coaches hoisted the AAC championship trophy.
Scott Frost, the man responsible for UCF’s improbable two-year turnaround from college football also-ran, he, well, also ran.
He departed for Nebraska by 6 p.m. Saturday and most of his UCF staff members joined him, earning raises as members of the Cornhuskers’ next football coaching staff. In the trail of dust, they left 18 high school players committed to the Knights under the Frost regime and numerous other players holding UCF scholarship offers. So now what? If you are committed to UCF, do you stay on board even though the coaching staff that recruited you has high-tailed it for the Cornhusker State?
If you have a UCF offer, how do you handle that? You knew Frost was expected to leave, but how much does that change your perception? One staff member, Sean
Beckton, has not yet decided if he will follow Frost to Nebraska and he has been left with a roll of duct tape and some wood glue to try to salvage what had become a pretty darn good recruiting class for 2018 — a recruiting class currently ranked among the top 50 in the country.
Beckton is a UCF landmark. He played receiver for the Knights from 1987 to 1990. At one time, he was the UCF career leader in receptions and receiving yards. He is in the UCF Athletic Hall of Fame. He has served in numerous capacities as a coach at his alma mater during a stretch of 18 different seasons and is currently UCF’s tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.
From his seat, this may be his most difficult sales pitch ever.
This year it won’t be about coaches, although Beckton says it never has been for him. He is selling UCF — UCF football, UCF education, UCF life.
“We’re still selling the University of Central Florida,” Beckton said. “That’s the biggest thing for us. … I’ve been on the phone with a lot of guys trying to let those guys know that we’re still committed to their pledge … and we expect the same with them.”
Beckton has gotten some help from interim coach
Troy Walters, who has called every recruit committed to UCF to let them know the Knights still want them.
The pitches shouldn’t be this difficult, not for a 12-0 team headed for a New Year’s Day bowl game against SEC power Auburn. Yes, Frost is gone, but the pieces on the field remain in place. The players who won 12 consecutive games are still at UCF.
Beckton said the season has certainly given UCF ammunition in the recruiting wars and even with Frost gone, UCF is still trending with a lot of players around the state.
With games like the crazy wins over USF and Memphis to end the regular season, the UCF energy is still there, albeit tempered a bit by Frost leaving. The achievements still resonate around the college football world and, regardless of the head coach leaving the program, UCF still has plenty to sell.
It still doesn’t make it any easier for high school football players to understand that they are choosing a college, not a coach. And that’s reasonable to an extent. A player is recruited by a coach, so he would expect that person to be there when he gets there. The reality, however, is that players can never control who their coach will be, even in high school, so they have to find the right place where they are going to be happy for the next four to five years.
“That’s the thing we try to get the kids to see before they commit, and that’s why we always want their parents here so they’ll know the situation,” Beckton said. “We show them everything that’s involved with the campus and the academic atmosphere and the student-body atmosphere. We try to give them the whole gamut.
“A lot of times we would end with coach Frost in [the meeting] saying, ‘Hey, you pick the school as though the coaches weren’t there,’ and you go from that. I’ve been in this business a long time. Coaches move, coaches get better jobs … assistant coaches, also.”
For now, this assistant coach is out recruiting. Beckton will be on the road for the next three days, making sure committed players remain that way while trying to let others know UCF still wants them.
The sooner UCF locks in a new head coach, the better, but in the meantime, Beckton is there.
He’s like a drywall hanger, patching holes, smoothing seams. Right now he is UCF’s ambassador and there is no better staffer to carry that flag. UCF is in his blood, so what recruits hear from him won’t be ear candy. He’s the real deal. If you can’t trust him, you can’t trust anyone.