Gabriel’s improvement is ‘very exciting to watch’

Sophomore’s strides evident

Dillon Gabriel quickly established himself as the UCF starting quarterback last season.

The talented left-hander impressed the coaching staff with his arm strength, accuracy and understanding of the offense when he arrived in January 2019 as a true freshman. Those qualities helped him earn the starting job during Week 2 of the 2019 season.

From there, he guided the team to a 9-3 finish, passing for a UCF freshman-record 3,653 yards and 20 touchdowns.

As he prepares to open Year 2 leading the Knights’ offense, Gabriel believes he’s grown as a quarterback.

“I think all around, I’m more comfortable,” Gabriel said. “Being around the guys for a year-and-a-half, I feel good playing together and feeling out the receivers.”

With spring camp cut short after the campus closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gabriel retreated to his home in Mililani, Hawaii. Without the football program’s resources at his disposal, the sophomore turned his attention studying and sharping the mental aspect of his game.

He committed to 8 a.m. calls with new UCF quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle.

“It was a lot of the why — why defenses structure themselves like this and why people defend us a certain way and defend other offenses a different way,” Halzle said of the discussions. “When you have months of Zoom meetings, you can only talk about installing certain plays so many times. … So we spent a lot of time on the why of football.”

A year after praising Gabriel’s physical gifts, his coaches now tout his deeper understanding of the Knights’ offense.

“He wants to take everything to the next level of understanding and that’s what’s taking his game on the field to the next level of play,” Halzle said. “He’s earlier with the ball than he used to be. He’s not late and then trying to rip it in there. He’s seeing windows, he’s anticipating and he’s driving footballs all over the field.

“Everything we’re doing in the classroom is carrying over onto the football field.”

Much of Gabriel’s struggles last season came on the road, where UCF suffered losses at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Tulsa. In those games, he was 73 of 126 passing for 925 yards, four touchdowns and seven interceptions.

As the Knights prepare to open the season on the road at Georgia Tech, Gabriel is confident he can improve his performance away from home.

“I think now I just know how to approach them,” he said of road games. “Being a freshman, I lacked experience and that’s something that I have now. I know how to prepare, to be able to get a good drive going regardless of how things are going, to continue to be a positive attitude on the team.”