Bortles, Johnson to leave UCF

The bad news is now worse: Just as UCF quarterback Blake Bortles announced his departure from the team a year early, star running back Storm Johnson did the same thing. The team released the announcements at just before 3 p.m. Monday.

Johnson had scored three touchdowns for the No. 15 UCF Knights in their thrilling 52-42 upset win over No. 6/5 Baylor in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. He had emerged as the Knights' most prolific runner, gaining 1,139 net yards on the ground and 260 in the air this season.

News of Johnson's impending departure came ahead of an official announcement in which many expected Bortles to say he'd enter the NFL draft.

Bortles and Johnson, both in their junior year, were responsible for 44 of the Knights' 52 touchdowns this season.

Bortles will cut short a career at UCF after leading a wild finish to the most successful football season in school history.

Bortles had been on the draft radar for much of his redshirt junior season after the Knights entered national top 25 polls, earning double-takes from NFL programs after he engineered the dismantling of Penn State, No. 7/6 Louisville and No. 6/5 Baylor. Now he's listed as a likely No. 2 quarterback pick and No. 15 overall pick in the draft.

The quarterback who grew up just a few minutes north of UCF in Oviedo had become a local star and then a national one, rising from a little known high school senior recruited by a handful of colleges largely as a potential tight end. But UCF head coach George O’Leary took a chance in 2010, platooning Bortles as a second string quarterback. Then Bortles showed what he could do to a program looking for a star under center.

With passing yards approaching 7,000 total in the past two seasons, plus mobility when the team needed it, Bortles proved O’Leary right.

He would give the Knights their second and third bowl game victories in team history, demolishing Ball State 38-17 in the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl last season and shocking Baylor in a 52-42 romp this season. In both games he turned in solid passing performances, but on the ground he showed an unstoppable will to win, taking the ball himself for a season high 80 yards rushing against Ball State and then 93 yards against Baylor.

“[Bortles] turned some plays that could have been very bad for us, into really good plays getting the ball downfield,” O’Leary said in a press conference after the game. “I think he played extremely well.”

"It's awesome to be a part of this," Bortles said after the Knights’ first BCS Bowl win in the early morning hours of Jan. 2. The only question remaining was whether he wanted to try to lead the Knights to another one.

But within an hour Fox Sports’ Teddy Mitrosilis had called UCF’s Fiesta Bowl shocker Blake Bortles’ coronation, hinting at what was to come days later.

In a recruiting class packed with highlight-reel quarterbacks including Texas A&M’s athletic gamer Johnny Manziel and a seemingly unstoppable Teddy Bridgewater at Louisville, Bortles, winning the biggest bowl game of the trio, sent his star to new heights.

The season Bortles and Johnson leave behind is one for the ages for UCF. By the end of the regular season the 2013 Knights already had the all-time school record for wins with 11. They had their first undefeated conference season ever at 8-0, plus their first ever undefeated season on the road with a 7-0 record.

But in a season in which only four of the Knights’ wins were decided by more than 10 points and with Bortles never missing a game, backup quarterback Justin Holman rarely saw playing time. He played briefly in three games and completed nine passes for 75 yards total. In his fledgling freshman year Bortles threw for 958 yards.

With Bortles hitting the road for the NFL, the No. 15 Knights are left with a big question mark at quarterback for next season. And with Johnson's sudden departure, they'll likely need to rely heavily on a combination of William Stanback, who was a rookie this season, and untested players at running back.

The NFL draft is May 8.

This story was updated at 3 p.m. Monday.