Heupel's recruiting struggles starting to show? 😬 Plus, a Top 10 social school and crushing the course 🏌️♀️
Eriq Gilyard was the best of what was a brutal 2018 recruiting class for UCF, and now he's decided to transfer. Is the lack of luring talent catching up?
If you need some #SpaceU gear before Oct. 22’s “Space Game” against Memphis, now is the time to snag some. UCF dropped their Citronauts line on Fanatics and it’s 🔥. Grab some swag while you still can.
Today’s read is 3.5 minutes ⏲️
Trending in the Kingdom: Recruiting lull catching up? ⭐
It definitely came as a surprise to many in Knight Nation when linebacker Eriq Gilyard decided to enter his name into the transfer portal after playing the first four games of the season. The senior linebacker from Jacksonville is third on the team in tackles and started almost every game he’s played in since 2019, but some saw this coming, per intel from UCFSports.com ($).
Gilyard’s decision to leave means yet another member of the 2018 signing class will soon be off the roster. That wasn’t a banner class for Josh Heupel, granted it’s not entirely on him.
Here’s the scoop: Recruiting is the straw that stirs the drink in college football. Hit on a few gems and you could be in the mix for the playoff. Miss on a class or two and you might be facing a rebuilding phase and a coaching change.
Gilyard’s 2018 class was among one of the worst for UCF over the last decade, and it could be what’s potentially contributing to the down year the Knights are experiencing in Gus Malzahn's debut season (aside from injuries).
Here’s a quick snapshot of UCF’s 2018 class:
7 signees are still on the team, but aren’t really key contributors, outside of DB Dyllon Lester.
6 have transferred, which now includes Gilyard.
4 players were kicked off the team for violating rules or having run-ins with police, including defensive lineman Kenny Turnier and Randy Charlton.
Keep in mind 💡: There was chaos in the final weeks leading up to Signing Day, with a coaching change and the rumors of recruiting data being wiped by Frost’s staff, so Heupel was at a disadvantage, but the class still turned out to be a massive dud.
UCF had some really good recruiting classes in the middle of this recent decade, especially 2013, 2014 and 2016, which produced a bunch of stars, all-conference talent and NFL draftees.
From just those three classes combined, UCF produced at least 10 first-team all-conference selections, some of them across multiple seasons.
Those were key contributors to the Knights 25-game win streak and consecutive New Year’s 6 bowl appearances.
It’s tough to gauge the contributions of the 2021 class, since it’s way too early to tell, but we do have enough data on the classes that preceded them, and there were some recruiting lulls under Heupel that left the talent pool lacking for Malzahn.
Of the 62 players signed by Heupel’s staff from 2018-2020, only one has been named first-team all-conference in the AAC: center Matthew Lee.
Heupel did sign QB Dillon Gabriel in 2019 (a second-team selection in 2020), but his recruitment was helped by Gabriel’s close relationship with McKenzie Milton, who was lured to UCF by Frost.
A few of the notable contributors signed under Heupel: DE Tre'Mon Morris-Brash, LB Tatum Bethune, CB Tay Gowan, LB Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste, WR Ryan O’Keefe and K Daniel Obarski.
Heupel was successful in the transfer portal, landing a few notable contributors: WR Jaylon Robinson, QB Brandon Wimbush, DL Cam Goode, WR Tre Nixon and S Divaad Wilson.
The highest-ranked recruit Heupel landed at UCF was Gilyard, a Frost holdover, and he never signed a four-star prospect during his time in Orlando. His recruiting classes were also ranked 62nd, 60th, and 75th in the country during his first, second, and third years on campus, so he never was able to capitalize on Frost’s success.
Departures, early exits to the pros and injuries have absolutely played a part in the lack of depth on UCF’s roster, but there’s no doubt the issues in recruiting are starting to show and that 2018 class, albeit amid the chaos, severely hurt the depth of this roster.
This could come in handy: The NCAA just approved a one-year signing limits waiver, which will allow schools to add up to 7 extra players in a class to account for an exodus of transfers, in addition to the 25-member signing class. Heupel will be able to use this new rule at Tennessee, for example, which lost a ton of talent to the portal. We’ll see if Malzahn takes advantage of it, too.
Deeper Dive 🤿:
UCF lands 4-star recruit, holds onto others despite losing coach Josh Heupel (Orlando Sentinel)
Josh Heupel tried to steal a recruit from UCF (AtoZSports.com)
Josh Heupel Has Been Called Out By Another High School Coach (TheSpun.com)
We see you, #UCFSocialMafia 📲
According to SkullSparks, a digital analytics and branding company, UCF is among the most actively engaged fan bases on social media, but you already knew that, didn’t you?
Fill me in: We know the #UCFTwitterMafia is strong, but data proves that UCF has a huge social media draw across all platforms, not just on Twitter, with one of the most actively engaged fan bases in the entire country.
In the month of September, UCF’s official @UCFKnights account generated 566,000 interactions on its main accounts, across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, which was sixth-most in the country, according to SkullSparks. That ranked ahead of huge, name-brand accounts like Ohio State (547K), Florida (512K), Alabama (414K) and Michigan (324K).
What likely helped give UCF that boost was the news that they’re joining the Big 12 Conference, which went viral on Sept. 10. UCF wasn’t ranked in the Top 12 in any other month this year.
The official UCF account had the second-highest rate of interaction in September across all platforms, just behind Notre Dame.
UCF has the 38th-largest social media following across all platforms, of the 150 college athletic departments tracked by SkullSparks, with almost 480,000 followers.
Making history in Virginia Beach 🏌️♀️
What a week on the links for the UCF’s Women’s Golf team at the Evie Odom Invitational in Virginia Beach, setting a number of records all while sporting some sweet threads.
Tell me more: UCF shot a 274 (-6) in the final round of the Evie Odom Invitational, beating Old Dominion by nine strokes to win the tournament. UCF's final total of 841 (+1) marks both the lowest 54-hole total in program history as well as the lowest in Evie Odom Invitational history.
Even cooler: UCF junior Tunrada Piddon won the individual title, breaking the UCF record for the lowest 54-hole total along the way. Her 67 (-3) in the final round included a hole-in-one.
Piddon has a 70.00 scoring average to this point in 2021-22, which is on pace to break her own UCF single-season record (71.9 in 2019-20).
Give me a Knugget 🐴: Piddon's hole-in-one on the 7th hole was just the second hole-in-one in the three-year history of the in Evie Odom Invitational.