UCF and Rollins football teams ready for kickoff

It’s nearly college football kickoff time with the University of Central Florida and Rollins both gearing up for seasons they say are promising.

But for UCF, a lingering cloud may hang over them all season, and it’s not their 5-7 record from last year. For a team that opened the 2011 season with a 62-0 touchdown party against Charleston Southern, that record was already a disappointment. But then recruitment violations shocked the school in the postseason and turned into a bowl and postseason suspension for the Knights’ football team.

An appeal to the NCAA to remove the bowl ban could help the Knights this season, depending on when the NCAA’s review of the case comes to fruition. If the NCAA doesn’t review the appeal by the end of the season, the Knights could be playing in a bowl game this season, assuming they better last year’s losing record.

If anything could have helped the Knights, it’s one extra touchdown per game. That’s how much — or less ¬— that they lost six of their games by last season.

“I thought there were six games that one play away in each direction could have changed the game,” Head Coach George O’Leary said after the Knights’ final win.

That could depend largely on consistency improvements to UCF’s offense, which was plagued by misfires last season. For that, the Knights may have a cure: After three seasons of two-quarterback offenses, the Knights may finally be going with a full-time quarterback.

After strong showings last season and a big spring game, Oviedo High School grad Blake Bortles is readying for a second season with the Knights as the man at the helm. Though he’s only a sophomore, UCF’s head play caller already distinguished himself as a leader on the field last season, helping lead some of the Knights’ more memorable late-game scoring drives. He threw for 958 yards and six touchdowns while averaging a nearly 70 percent completion rate in his freshman season.

But in switching to Bortles full time, the Knights will gain the arm and lose the legs of their sometimes unstable two-quarterback dynamic from 2011, with the pass-heavy attack of Bortles and the option-ready wildness of junior Jeff Godfrey. They had platooned on the field last season to shake up defenses, though Bortles began to monopolize time on the field late in the season.

Godfrey officially stepped down from contention for a QB slot in the spring, deciding to work on skills as a wide receiver. That’s a new role for Godfrey, who operated largely as a pass-capable running back while under center. Only in a few oddball plays last season did he ever have the opportunity to show his receiving ability. But he already knew the position, he said.

“Coach told me to learn all of the positions on the field, and not just the X and Y,” Godfrey told UCF News and Information in early August. “Playing quarterback, I knew where everyone was going on every play, and basically I knew every position.”

With key players returning on defense and promising firestarters coming back on offense, the Knights have already caught some notice from national polls. They grabbed four votes in the AP Top 25, enough to put them in the list of notable also-rans just beyond the 25th slot. They’re one of only two Conference USA teams to make the cut, with Houston getting a single vote.

Knights fans may already have an idea of whether the polls were right by the time they see the team for the first time. The Knights start the season with two road games, Aug. 30 at Akron then Sept. 8 at Ohio State before returning home to host FIU at 4 p.m. Sept. 15.

Rollins ramps up to full season

After resurrecting the team on the gridiron after more than half a century in dormancy, quarterback Jeff Hoblick returns to lead his team with a bigger roster and a longer schedule ahead of them.

The Tars only played two games last season, losing their first to Webber International and winning 30-14 over Clemson. This year they’ll face a six-game season starting at Kennesaw State on Sept. 29.