UCF’s quarterback situation took a hit on Saturday, and Scott Frost confirmed Monday that Alonza Barnett III will be out for a while.
Barnett, the former James Madison transfer who arrived with big expectations after winning Sun Belt Player of the Year honors and leading the Dukes to the first-ever Sun Belt College Football Playoff bid in 2025, left the Knights’ 12-7 loss at Pittsburgh with what Frost called “a fairly significant hamstring injury.”
“He kind of slipped on the turf and his leg got put in a weird position. We’re reevaluating to see how long it will be. But he’ll miss some time for sure.”
Frost said he was waiting on imaging before offering anything more specific, but the injury happened late in the game after Barnett scrambled on a 3rd and 6 with under two minutes left. In heavy rain and ugly conditions, he was brought down from behind on the slick surface, got up right away, and limped off.
The injury clearly stung Frost, who said Barnett had been settling in more and more.
“Mostly, I feel bad for Alonza,” Frost said. “I felt like he was getting more and more comfortable in our scheme.
He did some really good things in the second half. I loved to see him run around and look like he was just playing football and making some throws and runs late.
We brought him here for a reason because we believed in him. It’s sad to see something like this happen.
It’s two years in a row we’ve had a quarterback hurt early in the year, and that’s just bad luck.”
Keyone Jenkins finished the game, coming on for UCF’s final offensive snap on a 4th and 4. Frost stopped short of naming him the starter for Week 3 at Georgia State, even though Jenkins looks like the next man up based on the depth charts from Weeks 1 and 2.
Jenkins brings the most experience in the quarterback room. He started 32 games in three seasons at FIU, throwing for 6,713 yards with 42 touchdown passes and 25 interceptions, while adding 312 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns. He also handled second-string duties in UCF’s 73-6 win over Bethune-Cookman in Week 1.
That opener was a full quarterback rotation. Barnett and Jenkins both threw touchdown passes, Boise State transfer Kaleb Annett got his first collegiate snaps in the second half without attempting a pass, and true freshman Rocco Marriott - UCF’s highest-ranked high school quarterback commit of all-time - also got in and scored on the ground.
Frost said the staff is still sorting out the plan for Georgia State.
“We have a lot of guys we think are capable,” Frost said. “We’re putting together a gameplan right now.
We have a plan for that. I don’t really want to address it right now.
We haven’t really even had a chance to talk to the team or anything yet. We’ll have a plan, and we have a lot of guys that are ready to go.”
Barnett’s setback adds another chapter to a rough run of quarterback injuries for UCF this decade. Dillon Gabriel went down with a season-ending throwing shoulder injury on the final play of a Week 3 loss to Louisville in 2021 and never played another game for the Knights.
John Rhys Plumlee missed the start of the 2022 American Conference Championship with a hamstring injury suffered in the War on I-4 finale, then played through it in the second half of the 45-28 loss to Tulane. In 2023, Plumlee hurt his leg on the final drive of a Week 2 win over Boise State and didn’t return for a month.
In 2025, Cam Fancher was injured after a hard hit in the opener against Jacksonville State, and Tayven Jackson - who took over and started most of the season - later dealt with a sprained AC joint in his non-throwing shoulder against Kansas State and then another upper-body injury the following week, missing one game.
Whoever starts against Georgia State will be UCF’s eighth different starting quarterback since 2024 and 12th different starter since 2022.
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