Ready to apply finishing touches
devastating knee injury that kept him out all of last season.
Navarro was recruited by new co-offensive coordinator Alex Golesh and new quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle.
“l like the way they recruit. … UCF is all over the place and I like that,” said Tom Lemming, who is the national recruiting analyst for CBS Sports Network.
Lemming attributes some of the Knights’ recruiting wins to the tenacity of the coaching staff led by Heupel.
“He gets out on the road and hits it hard,” Lemming said. “And he makes sure his staff does too, so you can see why there’s been … success at UCF because of their recruiting efforts.
The Knights are also looking to sign tight end Zach Marsh-Wojan, a three-star junior college recruit from Sacramento City College. He had 36 catches for 502 yards and three touchdowns last season.
After back-to-back classes slanted heavily toward bolstering the defensive front, UCF turned its attention toward the secondary during this recruiting cycle.
“We haven’t signed big classes at the DB positions, so it was a need for us going into this recruiting cycle — we knew that,” Heupel said at the start of the three-day early signing period in December. “The players that we got are big-time players and come from really good programs.
“They’re competitive, they’re long and they’ve got really great speed. I think these guys have a chance to come in here and push and have an opportunity to play early, and we certainly need that from them.”
The Knights return eight defensive backs with starting experience, including Richie Grant, Antwan Collier, Aaron Robinson and Tay Gowan. Five of those players, however, will be seniors in 2020, including Brandon Moore who is working his way back after missing all of last season after tearing his ACL during the opener against Florida A&M.
UCF continues to recruit the state of Florida heavily, with 13 of the 20 players in this cycle coming from the Sunshine State. The Knights drew players from as far as away Arizona and New Jersey as well.
Seven of the 17 signees are already enrolled in school, led by Paul Rubelt, a 6-foot-10 offensive lineman from Germany. Marcus Tatum, a 6-6 tackle who joined the program as a graduate transfer from Tennessee, also is enrolled in classes and can participate in spring football practices.