TAMPA — These days, they exist in separate stratospheres. UCF’s astounding football success and proactive approach toward facilities ultimately propelled it into the Power Five, an exclusive neighborhood USF is struggling mightily to join.
But in one way, they still might mirror each other, which reflects nicely on the 2024 USF football team. The Bulls team that commenced preseason camp Wednesday bears many similarities to the 2017 Knights squad that went undefeated and anointed itself a mythical national champion.
Don’t believe it? Take the word of Bulls offensive line coach Tyler Hudanick, a left guard for that 13-0 Knights squad.
“A lot of similarities,” Hudanick said. “I never want to compare and say it’s the same. … It’s a different program, a different group of men, but you see some similar traits for sure.”
Like those 2017 Knights, who were deemed national champs by an obscure, metrics-based rankings system, the Bulls are two years removed from a dreadful season that resulted in a coaching change. Similar to their Orlando-based predecessors, they followed that wretched year with an encouraging — if not enthralling — season resulting in a bowl berth.
The 2017 Knights entered their breakthrough season with second-year coach Scott Frost (who was a highly successful former Power Five offensive coordinator) and dual-threat quarterback McKenzie Milton, who was entering his second year in the system. Moreover, that Knights team returned all three coordinators from the previous season, and a ton of experienced players.
Same as the 2024 Bulls — on all counts.
“I think from where we were at a place two years prior (to that undefeated season), we weren’t very successful,” recalled Hudanick, a freshman on the winless 2015 UCF team.
“Similar place to where (USF) is in Year 2 in having a coach where … that guy cared about your kids, cared about your players, and it accelerated your offseason. … This offseason has felt similar about being accelerated — the guys are working and learning. I see similarities for sure, and parallels.”
Which isn’t to peg the Bulls as 2024 playoff contenders, though they unabashedly state that as a goal. The Bulls have a far tougher nonconference schedule (at Alabama, home versus Miami), meaning an undefeated season appears far-fetched.
But a historic season that would include a conference title? A breakthrough autumn similar to UCF’s in 2017? Highly plausible.
“Traditionally in Year 2, especially with a returning quarterback, you should jump,” said Bulls second-year coach Alex Golesh, who inherited a team coming off a 1-11 season and led it to a 7-6 mark in his inaugural year.
“You should jump because the guys are older, they know what’s going on, but more than anything, there’s an understanding from both the coaching side and the players’ side of what are we trying to get done.”
Of the 22 UCF players who started the 2017 regular-season finale against USF, 10 were fourth- or fifth-year players, and 14 were juniors or seniors. Only one freshman — receiver Gabriel Davis — started for the Knights on that mesmerizing Black Friday evening.
USF returns 18 of the 22 starters from December’s Boca Raton Bowl. The most notable, naturally, is quarterback Byrum Brown, coming off a season in which he threw for 26 touchdowns. Like Milton in 2017, the system now is second-nature to Brown, whose numbers could reflect Milton’s historic stats from seven seasons ago.
“It’s just knowing what I’m seeing,” Brown said. “Being much more prepared better week to week, and that’s a testament to the coaches.”
Milton totaled 4,650 yards in 2017. Brown totaled 4,101 last season.
“He’s not doing as much thinking, and that’s the name of the game, where he hears a play, he knows what it is, he doesn’t have to process any longer,” Bulls offensive coordinator Joel Gordon said. “It’s just become unconscious hopefully for him at this point.”
Stands to reason that such an intimate knowledge of the system would be shared by USF’s other veterans, whose heads were swimming this time last year as they digested new schemes even as Golesh and his staff attempted to earn their trust.
Same challenge Frost and Co. experienced in 2016, before the Knights took college football by storm a year later.
“I think last year was more like a one-foot-in, one-foot-out type of deal like, ‘Can we trust these guys?’ ” veteran tailback Nay’Quan Wright said. “And I think this year, we’re two feet in. I mean, the proof is in the pudding. We see what they can do. The coaches spend countless hours in there, making sure we’re at the top of our game, so now I feel like everyone has bought in.”
Will it all lead to a conference title? A mythical national title? The answer will arrive in the ensuing months, as USF desperately strives to prove they belong in UCF’s stratosphere.
For now, they have to settle for parallel universes, separated by seven seasons.
“Last year, it was kind of a feeling-out process; we didn’t know the coaches, they didn’t know us, they were trying to find their pieces,” returning center Mike Lofton said.
“And I feel like right now everybody is on the same page. We’ve got the pieces that we need, and all we’ve got to do is just put it all together and make a run.”
Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls
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Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla.
