Central Florida aims to live up to the ‘Heup’

UCF football fans will finally get to see what all the ‘Heup’ is about today.

New head coach Josh Heupel faced the daunting task of keeping a perfect team in championship form this spring, despite the losses of several key players, including Shaquem Griffin and Tre’Quan Smith anchoring the defensive and offensive sides of the ball. And the former Missouri offensive coordinator had to accomplish this while fighting through multiple recruiting deadlines (hello early signing period), retaining current players and building an entirely new front office staff after previous head coach Scott Frost offered the entire coaching staff — including the recruiting coordinator — the chance to follow him to Nebraska. With so many moving parts, Saturday’s spring game will be anything but an extended national championship celebration after last season’s success.

“I like what we’ve done,” Heupel said Monday. “I feel like the defense, in particular, the last two or three days out on the grass has really gotten a lot more comfortable in assignment, alignment and technique and getting their eyes in the right place, so I like where we’re continuing to push. When we finish up after Saturday, there’s still a lot of growth that’s got to happen with us in May, June and July with our players. If we do that, then we have a chance.”

Heupel and Co. will use the game as a final evaluation of offseason progress, which will aid them in understanding what holes to shore up this summer.

Here’s our look at three key areas to watch in the annual spring game: Backup quarterback. Returning starter McKenzie Milton is the undisputed field general on offense, so there is no question mark surrounding his status. Heupel hasn’t named a backup to Milton yet and probably won’t do so until late in preseason camp.

But it’s worth pointing out the Knights head into the summer with just two scholarship quarterbacks on the current roster in Milton and sophomore Darriel Mack Jr.

Earlier this week, Heupel said they had a “long ways” to go for their backups to play at a championship level and that he ideally likes to have about four scholarship quarterbacks on the roster if his starter is an older player.

It’s likely coaches will look to build more depth during the next few months and Mack will need a strong summer of improvement and production to help UCF. Defensive line. Senior defensive lineman Joey Connors has risen through the ranks as one of the clear voices of leadership on defense. And players will be relying on him and his fellow linemen to continue to anchor the defense. Heupel said the spring game format will likely feature offense and defense on separate sides, giving fans an opportunity to see how much the defense responds to the offense’s faster tempo players and coaches have discussed the past few weeks. Running backs. There’s an unwritten rule about spring football games that dictates coaches keep the offense as basic as possible to either help out a team that’s still in the learning process or to reveal as little as possible to opposing programs that might be flying a drone overhead. But you can expect Heupel to showcase his arsenal of talented running backs Saturday. Adrian Killins Jr. told media on Wednesday that he expected the group to “put on a show.”

“We want to at least have like 300-plus rushing yards, 200 receiving and two touchdowns for each running back,” Killins said.

If the talk matches the production as well as it did last season, UCF fans should be in for another exciting year.

JOE BURBANK/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER UCF head coach Josh Heupel: “There’s still a lot of growth that’s got to happen with us in May, June and July.”