Scott Frost doesn’t have to squint at the quarterback depth chart this summer. That alone changes the mood around UCF.
After last season’s messy rotation under center, the Knights head into preseason camp with a clear answer in Alonza Barnett, the James Madison transfer who arrives with real production and a reputation that already carries weight in the Big 12. Barnett was the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year last season, piling up 3,395 yards of total offense and 38 total touchdowns.
That kind of resume gives UCF something it lacked a year ago: certainty.
"Well, we're excited to have a guy," Frost said last week at Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas. "We went in last season with a a three-horse race at quarterback. You know, it's going to be nice and refreshing to have a guy that everybody looks to and knows that he's the guy."
Frost said Barnett’s experience is part of what separates him. The UCF coach pointed to the way Barnett handles himself on the field and in the huddle, saying the quarterback has already established himself as the offense’s leader.
"Alonza has played a lot of football games," Frost said. "He's won a lot of football games.
He's a competitor, a guy that I, you know, I've been really impressed with his presence on the field and in the huddle. He's in charge and uh I think the guys can see that and he has a ton of respect from our guys and is the clear leader on offense right now."
For a team that finished 5-7 last season, that kind of stability matters. Frost also drew a parallel to the defense, where Lew Carter is expected to be the unmistakable voice on that side of the ball.
"Like Lew Carter is the clear leader on defense for us," Frost said. "We didn't really have that a year ago either.
The vocal guy out in front. I think guys like that are going to give us a a little bit easier path to hopefully some success."
Barnett’s arrival doesn’t just settle a position battle. It gives UCF a quarterback who already has the kind of production and command that can reshape how the offense feels from week to week. And for Frost, that’s the big difference entering camp: no guessing, no committee, just one guy at the center of it all.
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UCF Finally Has The Quarterback Clarity Scott Frost Desperately Needed
Scott Frost spent much of last season searching for stability at quarterback, and UCF appears to have found it in Alonza Barnett III. The James Madison transfer arrives with real credibility, coming off a run that helped push the Dukes to the College Football Playoff and earned him Sun Belt Conference player of the year honors, the kind of rsum that gives a staff something it has lacked at the position.
For the Knights, the appeal goes beyond production. Barnett is a redshirt senior with the experience and leadership to step into a room that has been turned over, with last seasons quarterbacks gone and only a few familiar options left in the mix. If UCF is going to make a meaningful jump, it needs the quarterback spot to stop being a weekly question, and Barnett is the clearest sign yet that Frost believes that problem is finally close to being solved. [Read more 🡒]
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UCFs rise on defense has been built as much by the men in the middle as by the more recognizable playmakers on the edges, and a look back across the past three decades makes that clear. The program has leaned on a steady line of interior force, from starters who anchored entire fronts to transfers who arrived and immediately changed the tenor of the unit, with several of those tackles earning honors along the way and a few eventually drawing professional attention.
A recent all-time look at the Knights defensive tackle history puts that legacy in sharper focus, with names like Torell Troup, Jamiyus Pittman and Kalia Davis standing alongside a broader group of contributors who helped define different eras. What ties them together is the same thing UCF has long valued on defense, the ability to hold the point, absorb the dirty work and let everyone else play faster around them, even if the spotlight rarely landed there for long. [Read more 🡒]