The UCF Knights are going to be back home on Saturday, this time hosting the BYU Cougars. It’s an extraordinarily tough assignment, as UCF prepares for its highest-ranked opponent ever to visit the Bounce House. Still, coming off two straight Big 12 losses, head coach Scott Frost knows he needs to figure something out quickly.
One place UCF could potentially get a boost is if starting quarterback Alonza Barnett was able to return on Saturday. He’s been out since suffering a hamstring injury on September 12th. However, his status remains up in the air.
UCF Knights HC Scott Frost on Alonza Barnett
On Monday, Scott Frost met with the media. However, he wasn’t ready to share injury updates for this upcoming week.
“Not sure on the injuries yet, Alonza or anybody else,” Scott Frost said. “I think we’ll know more tonight and tomorrow. But I think we’re really close to getting a lot of guys back.
There is a chance that Frost is playing some games with BYU, hoping not to tip his hand about the UCF injuries. However, one thing is clear, and that’s that Barnett is getting closer to making his return.
“Yeah, I think he’s making really good progress,” Frost said. “He looks good. He’s doing a lot of things. I want to make sure he’s ready to go if we put him out there. You know, that position, you might not have to run for 10 plays, and then you’ve got to run away from some really big guys trying to get you. The rest of the game, I know he can do.”
Barnett found his success prior to UCF as a dual-threat quarterback. That’s hard to be when you’re battling a hamstring injury. It’s also a concern that Frost noted, because running on an injury can make things worse.
“I just want to make sure if he’s out there, he’s not going to get hurt again and he can protect himself. We’re really lucky to have the guys we have in the room. Lights has been doing a really good job,” Frost said.
“So we’ll make some decisions when he’s definitely ready to go. But he’s trying really hard. I feel bad for him. This is his last year of college football. He wants to be out there bad. I think he’s willing to be out there even if he’s not 100%. I just want to make sure that he’s capable of protecting himself.”
In two games this season, Barnett is completing 63.3% of his passes for 344 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also rushed for a touchdown.
The Difference in UCF Quarterbacks
One thing Frost clearly wanted last season was to bring experienced quarterbacks to UCF. That started with Barnett, but extended to Keyone Jenkins, who has three years of extensive experience at FIU. He came to presumably back up Barnett, but has been forced into action with the injury.
Things have been inconsistent for Jenkins. In particular, poorly timed turnovers and downfield passing have hurt him. Still, Frost didn’t want to dive into what Barnett might bring to the table that Jenkins has struggled with.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about traits of each guy. I think every player that you ever coach is unique,” Frost said.
“There’s probably some things that he does better than other guys in our program and some things that other guys in our program do really well. We brought him in there to be the guy, and it’s a shame what happened, and we’re looking forward to having him healthy.”
The good news is that UCF does still have some time to figure out its quarterback position and team health. They won’t host BYU until Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EST.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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