Two UCF Players Selected For Comeback Award
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The comeback stories of a pair of UCF Knights players have put them on the watch list for college football's Comeback Player of the Year Award.
Presented by College Sports Communicators, in association with The Associated Press and the Fiesta Bowl Foundation, the award recognizes three student-athletes for "overcoming injury, illness or other circumstances." It was first presented in 2018.
This season, 75 college football players were named to the award's preseason watch list, with both Knights earning their way onto it as they work to complete comebacks from injury.
1. QB Cam Fancher
While Cam Fancher already has a starting quarterback battle with Tayven Jackson and Jacurri Brown to contend with, it is,in fact, the latter portion of a longer comeback story for the Dayton, Ohio, native.
Voted as one of Florida Atlantic's team captains last season, Fancher played nine games, completing 126 passes for 1,528 yards and six touchdowns. His season was cut short after he was carted off the field late in the first quarter on Nov. 7 against East Carolina with a broken collarbone.
UCF's quarterback coach, McKenzie Milton, is familiar with the award, as he was one of its 2021 honorees thanks to his comeback season with Florida State following his catastrophic knee injury in 2018.
2. DT John Walker
…⏰⏰ pic.twitter.com/KpPWKt2Pa3
— John walker (@55problems__) July 14, 2025
Defensive tackle John Walker had never missed a football game since he was six years old. That was until a preseason injury sidelined him for the entire 2024 season.
"That was a little challenging part for me, you know, watching them practice and playing, but it also was good for me, so I could sit back, watch extra film and just really see the bigger picture of football as a defensive player," Walker said at the beginning of fall camp.
Walker was named a Defensive True Freshman All-American by On3 in 2023 after recording 24 total tackles, 10 of them solo, and five tackles for a loss.
"The thing that I'm really most excited about is everybody's getting to see exactly the work that he's been putting in in the offseason," Kenny Martin, UCF's defensive tackles coach, said the day players reported for fall camp. "You feel like he's already been forgotten about, but he's one of the best defensive tackles in the country for a reason."
The Knights' season-opener against Jacksonville State on Aug. 28 would mark his first time entering a game since Dec. 22, 2023.
"I feel way more in shape, you know, because, like I said, I missed a whole year," Walker said. "Football shape and just regular shape is totally different, so really being on that field and really getting the reps, as a football man, that really had helped me, and I feel really good."
Catch up on more UCF News below:
UCF's Scott Frost Provides New Update On Quarterback Situation
UCF Player Returning From Injury Provides Update On Condition During Fall Camp
McKenzie Milton Named One Of College Football's Rising Coaching Stars
Bryson Turner is a sports journalist who covers UCF Athletics. Turner has contributed to the Black and Gold Banneret, the home for UCF Athletics on SB Nation. He has called the Orlando area home since the age of 8 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from UCF.
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