Duke Watson didn’t come to UCF looking for a solo act. The Louisville transfer sees the Knights’ running back room as a group that can push each other and raise the whole offense, and he’s buying into the competition rather than fighting it.
Watson is battling Landen Chambers and Taevion Swint for snaps, but he’s not framing it as a winner-take-all fight. His view is simple: the room gets better when everyone in it gets sharper.
That fits the way UCF wants to run the ball. Watson called the team’s “wide zone” approach the offense’s “baby” on the ground, and he believes it matches what he does best.
'When I'm moving side to side, I mean, I'm going to get it up north eventually, but when I'm moving side to side, from the start, that's like that's my goal," Watson said after Wednesday's scrimmage.
He also sees himself as more than just an outside-zone runner. Watson said he can work different gaps and still produce the same kind of result, while also crediting the rest of the backs in the room for their all-around ability.
"I feel like I could take it to the A gap, take it to the C gap; it'd be the same result," Watson said after Wednesday's scrimmage. "And then just working with them, I feel like they're all around backs, too, though."
UCF needed that kind of versatility after Myles Montgomery and Jaden Nixon finished their eligibility. Those two combined for more than 1,200 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, and the Knights didn’t have a tailback who topped 63 rushing yards behind them.
Scott Frost moved quickly in January’s transfer portal to address the shortage, bringing in Watson and Chambers to reshape the backfield and give the offense more options.
Watson arrives with a strong résumé. He led the nation in yards per carry as a freshman at Louisville, averaging 8.9 yards per rush, and in 2024 he ran for 597 yards and seven touchdowns.
His role shrank last season because of injuries and the rise of Isaac Brown. Watson finished the year with 197 yards and one touchdown on 47 carries.
Chambers brings a different kind of threat. The Central Arkansas transfer is a power back who can fight through contact and help in short-yardage situations, an area where UCF has had trouble. Too often, the Knights either hit a long run - like Nixon’s 89-yard burst - or got stopped at the line.
Chambers also comes in as a proven 1,000-yard rusher, something UCF has missed since the Denver Broncos drafted RJ Harvey last offseason.
Together, the new backs are meant to help balance an offense that ranked 11th in the conference in rushing at 158 yards per game. That matters even more with expectations all over the map this offseason, with some analysts projecting a borderline winning season and others seeing another bowl-less year.
For Watson, though, the focus is less on predictions and more on what the group can become.
"I'm ready to show the world what this team really got," Watson said. "Not more on me, like just really ready to see what the team got."
In Other News...
UCF Defense Has A Reason For Real Hope This Season
Alex Grinch spent this offseason looking for the kind of stability UCFs defense has often lacked, and the clearest place to find it may be right up the middle. The Knights are trying to toughen the defensive interior with veteran edge and a linebacker group that now has more continuity, thanks in part to the return of familiar faces such as Lewis Carter and Jayden Bellamy. For a unit that wants to play with more consistency snap to snap, keeping experienced pieces in place matters almost as much as any schematic tweak.
Cole Kozlowski could be the biggest reason that optimism feels real. The linebacker made an immediate impact after arriving from a mid-major program and earned All-Big 12 Third Team honors last season, and his pending return gives UCF another proven presence in the middle of the defense. If the Knights are going to turn that offseason hope into actual improvement, the interior is where it likely starts, and Kozlowskis availability is the detail that could shape how far this group can go. [Read more 🡒]
UCFs Big 12 Path Looks Tougher With One Contender Setting The Pace
Texas Tech enters the Big 12 race looking like the team to beat again, and that matters for UCF because the path through the league already appears crowded at the top. The Red Raiders are favored to repeat as conference champions at -105, a reflection of a roster that returns 65% of its production and should again bring the league's best defense into the fall.
Houston is part of the reason the middle of the Big 12 could be so unforgiving for everyone else. The Cougars bring back the conference's second-highest share of production and have shown real growth recently, giving the league another team with the pieces to push for the title chase while Texas Tech remains the standard. [Read more 🡒]