UCF spends spring camp focusing on correcting penalties
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UCF football often was its own worst enemy at times last season.
The Knights struggled with penalties, with the team being flagged 91 times, the fourth-most in the Big 12 and the most by a UCF team since the 2020 season.
Many of the issues stemmed from the challenges of integrating nearly 70 new players into the roster, alongside a coaching staff working together for the first time.
“We’re asking guys to do a lot of things; to think before the snap and during the snap and when you’re putting the offense in for the first time, that can be a little overwhelming for guys,” said coach Scott Frost.
“It’s just being able to stay locked in and focused. If you start thinking about who you have to block and what’s going to happen and you’re not mature enough or have played enough to remember the snap count, little things like that got us last year.”
Particularly frustrating were the pre-snap penalties, for which the Knights were flagged 40 times among the 65 penalties called on the offense. Twenty-seven of those penalties were false starts on the offense.
“We’ve got to cut down the penalties, especially the pre-step penalties,” said guard Connor Meadows.
“Those procedural issues seem to happen at the worst time,” added offensive coordinator Steve Cooper. “When we know our assignments and we have our feet firm, we’re going to execute better.”
In an effort to eliminate those types of mistakes this upcoming season, the coaching staff began breaking down the changes needed and implementing them throughout spring camp. One of the things they’ve focused on is a renewed emphasis on different cadences that seem to cause the offense to jump early.
“We’ve been working on that with [strength and conditioning coach] Coach [Zach] Duvall,” said starting right tackle Preston Cushman. “He’s out here on the field right behind you; he’s got us on different cadences, making us all mad trying to figure it out.”
Frost also credits his team’s ability to get to the line of scrimmage faster.
“Our urgency to get out of the huddle has been a lot better,” he said. “Not hustling in and out of the huddle and taking a little too long, being in a hurry and having something happen, everything feels a lot more under control now.”
When AJ Blazek arrived as the Knights’ new offensive line coach earlier this year, he brought with him a reputation for being able to limit those types of mistakes.
While serving as offensive line coach at Wisconsin, the Badgers were the second-least penalized team in the Big Ten in 2025 and the sixth-least in 2024. In his two seasons in the same role at Vanderbilt, the Commodores were the least-penalized team in the Southeastern Conference in 2022 and 2023.
“It goes to mindset. We have colors, we have numbers and we have code words,” said Blazek. “When I played [football], it was like on [the count of 2] we’re not jumping. But all you hear is ‘we’re not jumping, jump, jump’ and it can get into a kid’s head.
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“When you just change the mindset, that helps your guys and it slows the rush down.”
Blazek inherited an offensive line unit with one returning starter (Cushman) and several players who had taken significant snaps last season (Meadows, Owen Spell and Camp Lott). But the addition of transfers Cooper Terpstra, Brady Wayburn, Tyler Gibson and Henry Tabansi gives the group an experienced core to work with.
“We’re not the most talented group anywhere I’ve ever been, but if we can be a smarter group that plays a little harder, all that stuff neutralizes and you can take over,” said Blazek.
Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com
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