Scott Frost is sticking with the quarterback who delivered the biggest win of UCF’s season. After the Knights upset then-No. 2 BYU, Frost said Keyone Jenkins will remain the starter, choosing to keep riding the “hot hand” even with Alonza Barnett III close to returning from injury.
Jenkins has made the decision easy. He has now put together back-to-back games with 200-plus passing yards and four total touchdowns, and against BYU he turned in his best passing day of the season. The senior threw for 293 yards and three touchdowns while adding 35 rushing yards and another score.
He kept UCF’s offense moving all night against the conference’s fifth-best scoring defense, repeatedly extending drives with plays that showed off both his composure and his improvisation. Wide receiver Tyren Hornes was a major beneficiary, putting together a career-best performance with Jenkins feeding him in space and downfield.
One of the biggest plays came when Hornes caught a designed screen and turned it into a 56-yard gain on third-and-18 in the third quarter. A few snaps later, Jenkins ran in a 1-yard touchdown to push UCF ahead 24-21.
The game swung even more in overtime, where Jenkins kept escaping pressure and creating something out of nothing. On the Knights’ first overtime possession, he found Josh Derry for a 25-yard touchdown. Then in double overtime, he hooked up with Hornes on the two-point conversion that proved decisive.
Jenkins has earned the trust he’s getting now. His path has been a steady climb as he learned the playbook and gradually opened up more of UCF’s offense.
That progress was not obvious early. When Frost first named him the starter in Week 3 against Georgia State, Jenkins struggled, finishing 7-for-17 with one touchdown and one interception while rushing for 25 yards and two scores.
Since then, the growth has been obvious. The next week against TCU, he shattered McKenzie Milton’s single-game completion record by going 19-for-20. Milton had completed 24-for-26 against Austin Peay in October 2017.
Jenkins also earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors after throwing for more than 200 yards against then-No. 20 Houston on Oct. 3, then followed that up with a season-high four touchdowns against then-No.
18 Oklahoma State on Oct. 10.
The story of his rise is a notable one: a three-year starter at FIU, then a backup at UCF, and now the quarterback Frost is trusting to keep the job. With Jenkins leading the way, the Knights are two wins from ending a two-year bowl drought after the upset of BYU.
In Other News...
BYU Fans Have Every Reason To Be Furious After That Finish
The fallout from Saturdays BYU-UCF finish is still carrying beyond the game itself, with the Big 12 admitting there were officiating mistakes in recent college football games. For UCF, the broader issue is the same one that has been hanging over the sport all season: administrative errors can swing a game just as much as anything that happens between the lines, and this one landed in a spot where every detail mattered.
Rece Davis called out the growing number of those kinds of mistakes, saying the conference needs to clean them up, and it is hard to argue with the frustration around that kind of public correction. The BYU game also fits into a bigger pattern of controversial officiating decisions that have already drawn attention this fall, including an eye-catching Week 1 ruling in the Big Ten, which only adds to the sense that college footballs officiating standards are under the microscope again. [Read more 🡒]
Tyren Hornes May Have Changed UCFs Offense In One Night
Tyren Hornes entered the night as one of the more intriguing young pieces in UCFs receiver room, and he left it looking like the kind of freshman who can change how an offense is defended. In the upset of BYU, Hornes kept showing up at the biggest moments, giving the Knights a vertical threat and a reliable target when the game tightened late.
What stood out was not just the volume of his involvement, but how central he became to UCFs approach in a high-pressure setting. Since his recruitment, Hornes has carried the profile of a player with real impact potential, and this performance only sharpened the question of how much more the Knights can build around him as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
UCF Got Its First Look At Riley Kugel And One Clear Concern
Riley Kugels first night back in a college uniform at UCF offered a little of what the Knights hoped to see and a reminder of how much still needs to come together. In an exhibition win over Rollins College, UCF came away with an 80-74 victory, and Kugel chipped in eight points as guard Dior Johnson led the way with 19.
Johnny Dawkins left the game focusing on the bigger picture, especially the defensive issues that surfaced even in a preseason setting. Kugels return is clearly a process, and the early look suggested UCF will need time to get him fully settled into the pace and demands of the roster before the real games begin. [Read more 🡒]