On March 18 the last thing on the minds of the UCF Knights Football team was spring practice, this was because of the untimely death of Ereck Plancher. The Knights were set to open spring practice only a couple days after the 18th, but due to the death of a teammate the practices were postponed indefinitely. The death of Ereck Plancher definitely shook many in the UCF community including players, coaches, and fans, but as they say, the show must go on. On March 24th, a short week after the tragic loss, UCF opened up spring practice.
Last year with the help of Kevin "24k" Smith, UCF was seen more on ESPN then it had ever been seen. Kevin is now preparing for the NFL draft, and joining him leaving the team include seniors QB Kyle Israel, OL Josh Sitton, OL L.J. Anderson, OL Kyle Smith, and DL Leger Douzable. All in all the Knights will be returning nine starters (4 seniors DBs) on defense and five starters on offense.
When Spring practice opened the most anticipated competition, as it was last year, was for the starting quarterback position. Mike Greco, returning Junior, is competing against Joe Wetherford, redshirt freshman and brother of Drew Weatherford. There is no doubt in the UCF fans that Greco is the most explosive quarterback that has ever set foot at UCF next to our most famous graduate, Daunte Culpepper. The real question about Greco is whether he can throw the ball consistently. Joe Weatherford on the other hand is more of a pocket passer with good touch. Weatherford, although being a pocket passer, can move around and is still athletic enough to get outside the pocket.
The other important position, or set of positions open for competition is the offensive line. Loosing three of our five starting offensive lineman from a year ago will be tough to rebound from, but we do return three players with starting experience on the line, Patrick Brown, Jah Reid, and Jeremy DeVane. Due to the loss of Kyle Smith (All C-USA Center), the Knights will have a gaping hole to fill at center. Currently Mike Lavoie is playing center with the first team and looks to be Kyle Smith's replacement. The rest of the players that will be competing for some time on the offensive line include, Cody Minnich (SR), Ian Bustillo (JR), Mike Buxton (SO), Wes Sauvao (SO), Nick Pieschel (RS FR), and Billy Offut (RS FR). Wes Sauvao, a former defensive tackle, has been moved to the offensive line in order to add more depth at the guard position.
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