The Josh Heupel
era gets underway at UCF as spring football workouts start.
Just like last year, the latest music tracks from Drake and Migos blared over the loud speaker at UCF football’s practice field on an overcast Tuesday morning.
It was the first official day of the Josh Heupel era, with the first of 15 spring workouts in the books. And if it weren’t for the new faces on the sidelines and the construction site for the new football offices sandwiched in between the field house and the Wayne Densch Sports Center, it’d be hard to notice much change since Jan. 1.
“It’s all high energy, there’s a lot of flying around,” UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton said of his first practice under Heupel. “There’s no walking on the field, nothing like that. Guys are interactive and communicating. It’s not a lot different in all honesty.”
What was noticeably different, though, was the large white banner wrapped around the practice field with the words “National Champions” in large black print.
Players take pride in their achievements last season, which included a spotless record and a convincing 34-27 win over Auburn in the Peach Bowl. But they’re also ready to move on past the seemingly endless social media mocking spawned by the words “National Champions.” The latest digital jab came from Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne after UCF basketball fell to Alabama in the WNIT Sunday.
“Me, personally, I’m ready for it to be over with. That’s last year, we’re on to this season,” UCF punter Mac Loudermilk said. “The fact that the Alabama AD wants to shoot one at us, what, 72 days later? Better late than never I guess. But all they have to do is sign the paperwork and we’ll play them whenever they want to and we’ll fight it out.”
Make no mistake about it, UCF football players still have a chip on their shoulders and for good reason.
They want to prove their success can be extended beyond former coach Scott Frost’s brief reign and continue building the program’s brand as a school worthy of a Power 5 invitation. And it doesn’t hurt to have Milton, an undersized quarterback with Heisman Trophy-like numbers and Baker Mayfield-like confidence, leading the team.
Milton looked visibly
bulkier during interviews Tuesday and said he’s sitting around 183 pounds after offseason workouts under the direction of new strength and conditioning coach Kurt Schmidt.
“2017 is in the past. We’re focused on 2018 and we have a long ways to go,” Milton said. “We’re learning a new offense, a new defense so we have to be locked in day-in and dayout and get better every day. We’re 0-0 right now and by the time our first game rolls around, we want to be 1-0.”
Players have only worked out in Heupel’s system for one day, but Milton said the offense so far will look similar to last season. The only real difference players noticed on offense is that they take more vertical shots down the field.
But keeping the same overall system and process, which includes morning workouts with contemporary music, was all a part of Heupel’s plan. In fact, the first-year coach said he doesn’t approach 2018 as
though it’s a first-year coaching situation.
Heupel is working to sync a pre-existing flow with some nuances that made his previous offense at Missouri successful.
“The challenge for us as a coaching staff is you’re coming into a program that’s highly successful and guys are used to doing things a certain way. There’s got to be give and take on both sides,” Heupel said.
“We had to share as a coaching staff in the learning process. This can’t be year one within what we’re doing even though it is year one. I think we kind of helped bridge the gap as far as learning on both sides so that when we went out to practice today, there are some things that are comfortable to our kids whether it’s schemes or calls and combinations and those type of things where our kids have some experience in what we’re doing.”