How the Knights Football Recruiting Builds Each Year

For UCF to truly break through and consistently make a run at the college football playoffs, the Knights need to be bringing in top prospects during each recruiting cycle. Now that the Knights have a top-notch recruiting staff, there’s a chance for more and more talent to come to Orlando and play for the Knights.

There is no one specific formula for every institution playing Division I Football, but there is a definitive pattern with three prominent elements to recruiting. That’s where the UCF coaching staff must seize and gain an advantage, beginning with timing.

Timing Matters

UCF Head Football Coach Gus Malzahn came to UCF in February. That’s a really late start for recruiting 2022 prospects. Also of note, his assistant coaches started even later because Coach Malzahn had to hire each assistant coach after he was announced as the UCF Head Coach. For recruiting, every day counts.

Focusing on the class of 2022, UCF will likely need to be very creative to make up for lost time. Many of the programs they are recruiting against have multiple years of recruiting top prospects. During future recruiting campaigns like 2023 and 2024, UCF will be in a really good position. Until then, another key component about timing and recruiting.

When Coach Malzahn sits down with the recruit, the best moment to present a tour of the locker room, those are details that the UCF staff will go over in great detail. If everything works out correctly, that’s how UCF can gain a commitment because the visit became memorable and not just another college football official weekend for a recruit and his family. Timing matters, and that leads to the second category.

Building Relationships With Recruits

Building relationships, something Coach Malzahn touched upon during his opening fall camp press conference, presents the biggest factor for what UCF Football continues to do with recruiting. While 2022 may be a little bit of hit or miss with prospects because of such a short amount of time to recruit them, that pattern will certainly change moving forward.

The class of 2023 and classes thereafter will be easier for the Knights to reel in top talent because of how long Coach Malzahn and his staff recruited each of these young men over years, not months. Think about it. The longer a person knows someone or a group of people, the more likely that trust will be built. Recruiting does indeed involve quite a bit of trust. Take UCF defensive end commitment Keahnist Thompson as an example. His old offensive line coach is now at UCF.

The coach in question would be Graduate Assistant Caleb Pickrell. During the 2020 football season, he coached offensive line at Lakeland High School where Thompson still attends. Perhaps Thompson would still attend UCF even if Coach Pickrell did not work for the Knights. Then again, perhaps he was the No. 1 reason Thompson began to gain a serious interest in UCF. Just something to think about.

Every young man is different, as are his parents and/or his distance from UCF, Thompson included. What a recruit wants to major in, and what position he prefers to play at the college level, could be the prime components to gaining a verbal commitment. The list is practically endless. The responsibility lies with theUCF Football coaching staff, as well as the recruiting administrative staff, to find the hot buttons for each recruit. That’s the starting point, and then the relationships grow from there.

Who are the Decision Makers?

This third category is an interesting topic all by itself. When recruiting a prospect, there’s likely to be a coach, parent, guardian, or confidant that will help the football recruit make his decision. Meeting and befriending that person is an important aspect of recruiting today, and it’s been that way for decades.

Once UCF finds out which person(s) will be a major part of the decision-making process, that’s when the Knights need to seize an opportunity to show that individual what UCF can do for that young person that’s being recruited. It’s not overly complicated to understand, but the earlier this process takes place, the more likely UCF will be able to land that prospect.

Many recruiting battles are won and lost during in-home visits. When college coaches go visit a recruit and their families, the programs that built solid bonds not only with the recruit, but also that decision maker within the recruit’s life, those will likely be the coaches leaving an in-home visit feeling good about their chances of seeing that young man sign with their respective school.

Since Coach Malzahn arrived at UCF, the Knights did a tremendous job building bonds with recruits and important individuals that will help them make a college selection. Whether it’s a prospect from 2022, 2023 and even 2024, UCF has been aggressive. It’s going to pay dividends along the recruiting trail year after year.

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