Scott Frost is leaning into something that doesn’t always get enough credit in college football: stability.
For the 2026 UCF Knights, that might be the biggest reason optimism is building. The staff is largely intact, the roster kept several important pieces through the transfer portal cycle, and Frost believes that kind of consistency can make everything click faster once the season starts.
On the coaching side, UCF brought back most of its key voices. Offensive coordinator Steve Cooper, defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and EDGE coach Mike Dawson are all still in place. The turnover was limited to a couple of position spots, with the program losing late offensive line coach Shawn Clark, who passed away last September, along with cornerback coaches Brandon Harris and Will Johnson.
The cornerback room had a particularly busy offseason. UCF hired Johnson, who had previously coached at North Dakota State, after Harris left for Florida.
Then Johnson moved on again, this time to the Minnesota Vikings as their defensive analyst. The Knights responded quickly, bringing in David Overstreet II, who was the Dallas Cowboys' cornerback coach last season.
AJ Blazek, who previously coached at Wisconsin, stepped in as the new offensive line coach.
That kind of quick response matters. With fewer moving parts, Frost gets a staff that should communicate more cleanly and keep practices running with less friction. The result, in theory, is a team that makes fewer mistakes when the games tighten up.
"Everybody understands the direction we're trying to move and our process; we're trying to get there," Frost told reporters at Big 12 media day last week. "And that kind of continuity and understanding of the process can get passed along to the kids a lot faster. And just seems to go a lot smoother when you when you can retain coaches."
The same idea applies to the roster. UCF held onto several important contributors, including wide receivers Waden Charles and Duane Thomas Jr., defensive tackle Horace Lockett and defensive backs Jayden Bellamy and Braeden Marshall. Those players give Frost dependable building blocks, and they already know the style he wants and the standard he expects.
That shared understanding between the staff and the locker room is the real advantage here. In a sport where players bounce from school to school and coaches are constantly shuffling, the Knights have something steadier than most.
If that continuity translates the way UCF hopes, it could help push the program toward its first six-win season since 2023.
In Other News...
Former UCF Guard Jaylin Sellers Is Forcing A Bulls Decision
Jaylin Sellers has spent Las Vegas Summer League doing what former UCF guards have to do to stay in the conversation: make every possession count. In three appearances with the Chicago Bulls, the two-way guard has shown the kind of speed, defensive edge and efficient scoring that can catch a coaching staffs attention, and his best stretch came in a 24-point outing against the Washington Wizards.
For a player trying to carve out a place on the edge of an NBA roster, the appeal is obvious. Sellers is giving Chicago a reason to think beyond Summer League box scores, building a case for a back-end rotation role with the kind of all-around impact that can matter when the regular season begins and the Bulls have to sort out their guard depth. [Read more 🡒]
UCF Gets An Early Look At Two Very Different 2026 Battles
As UCF keeps counting down toward the 2026 season opener, a couple of roster spots are worth a closer look because they tell very different stories about where the Knights are headed. One is in the kicking game, where Australian punter Atticus Bertrams arrives with Wisconsin experience and looks positioned to handle the job, giving UCF a veteran option at a spot that can quietly shape field position all season.
The other is on defense, where walk-on Donnell Johnson III represents the long shot side of roster building. Johnson came to UCF after starting at Clarke University, but he did not get on the field after joining the Knights in fall camp, and his path now appears to be about earning whatever limited chances come his way in 2026. For a program trying to sort out depth while also settling on dependable specialists, those two names offer an early snapshot of just how different the next chapter can look. [Read more 🡒]
UCF Fans Will Want To Settle This All-Time Pass Rush Debate
UCFs pass-rush history has enough names to make any fan start arguing over eras, and the latest reminder comes from a look back at the Daytona News-Journals All-FBS team over the past 30 years. Nine defensive ends from the Knights have earned a spot on that list, a group that stretches across different coaching staffs, different defensive systems and even a few players who arrived at UCF after starting elsewhere or shifted positions along the way.
Bruce Miller, Malachi Lawrence, TreMon Morris-Brash and Nyjalik Kelly are among the names that keep showing up whenever the programs edge rushers are discussed, and the production behind them is part of the reason. The list also brings back the old sack totals that still frame the debate, along with the NFL paths that followed for several of those players, which is exactly what makes this kind of ranking so easy for UCF fans to revisit and so hard to settle for good. [Read more 🡒]