A battered UCF plans to use bye week for rest, recovery

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With the first half of the football season behind it UCF gets a much-needed bye week.

The break couldn’t come at a better time for the Knights (3-3, 1-2 Big 12), who are coming off back-to-back ugly road losses against ranked opponents. To make matters worse, the team has been racked with injuries.

Five starters have missed multiple games, including quarterback Alonza Barnett III, wide receiver Duane Thomas Jr., offensive linemen Owen Spell and Jacob Maiava, and linebacker Lewis Carter.

“The first thing we need to do is get healthy,” coach Scott Frost said following the UCF’s 42-28 loss at No. 18 Oklahoma State on Saturday. “It’s not even just the hurt guys; it’s the other guys that we’ve been leaning on that have been playing more reps.”

“We’ve got a lot of guys that are dinged up, and having a whole week for those guys to kind of heal up and be ready to go is going to help a lot,” said linebacker Tackett Curtis.

UCF opened the season with a 73-6 win over Bethune-Cookman, but dropped a hard-fought road contest at Pittsburgh, 12-7 on Sept. 12. Since then, the Knights have split the next four games, defeating Georgia State (44-30) and TCU (21-13), before suffering losses at then-No. 20 Houston (27-17) and against the Cowboys.

“I knew we had a tough stretch to begin the season and we did,” said Frost. “Some of those teams are playing even better than I maybe even expected, but we’ve got six games left, a whole half of a season left and being fresh and ready for those gives us the best chance.”

It’s the fourth consecutive year in which UCF has opened 3-3 through the first half of the season. The Knights went 6-13 combined in the second half of those seasons.

“We’ve had some plays that we missed on offense,” said Frost, pointing to the Pitt and Houston games. “We’ve got to cash in on them. Getting our guys healthy will help. I still think this team can finish the season really strong.”

Keyone Jenkins has stepped up since Barnett suffered a significant hamstring injury against Pittsburgh. The redshirt senior has gone 2-2 as a starter, completing nearly 70% of his passes for 764 yards with 7 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.

There is no timetable for Barnett’s return.

Curtis believes bringing back some injured players will give the team a huge boost.

“We have some players that make a big impact that are out right now, especially Lewis Carter being from the linebacker room,” said Curtis, who leads the team in tackles with 39. “He does a great job and having somebody like him on the field really helps us out a lot.”

Following the bye week, UCF hosts No. 8 BYU on Oct. 24, followed by a home contest against Baylor (Oct. 30), a road game at Kansas (Nov. 7), back-to-back home games against Arizona State (Nov. 14) and Iowa State (Nov. 20) and then a road game at Colorado (Nov. 28) to wrap up the regular season.

The team’s combined record in the second half of the schedule is 19-12, and ESPN Analytics favors the Knights only against ASU, ISU and Colorado.

Either way, Frost believes a healthy or healthier team will only increase the team’s chances of success. That’s why this week’s bye is so crucial.

While Frost preferred not to share his bye-week plan, he said it will center on rest.

“We’ll gain more on the field by having a fresh team in the second half than we will by grinding them out over the bye week,” he said. “I was in the NFL the one year and when they get a bye week, they say ‘See you in a week,’ and the guys come back ready to go. We’re not going to do that, but the priority for us is making sure we’re fresh, recovered and healthy.”

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Jenkins admits the bye comes at a good time for him personally. His plans are simple: use the time to get better.

“I’m a little banged up, so I need to get my body back,” Jenkins said. “But other than that, I want to get in the film room with my guys and find out what we can do better. I’ll probably also get in some work with the wide receivers on some timing and those deep balls.”

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram at @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.

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