It seems the UCF Knight Football head coach Scott Frost went with experience — he’s named Florida Atlantic transfer Cam Fancher as the starter for Week 1, hosting the Jacksonville State Gamecocks at the “Bounce House” of Acrisure Stadium on August 28th.
Whether or not this will be a historic landmark for the program or a day that lives in infamy (or somewhere in between) for the Frost 2.0 Era has yet to be seen, but here are things we can safely ascertain from Fancher’s ascension.
The Others Aren’t Ready. . . Yet
The scuttlebutt coming
out of training camp was that Fancher was the least mobile of the main three quarterback candidates which were him, Jacurri Brown, and Tayven Jackson. While financial investment put the smart money on Jackson starting, his rumored lack of poise and accuracy throwing the football compared to Fancher was clearly a factor to keep Jackson on the bench for now.
While Brown is the best athlete of the trio, his improvement in throwing the football isn’t where the UCF coaching staff would want it to be for him to take the keys to the offense as a starter. The fact that Brown was also the incumbent and still didn’t get the job is a statement in and of itself.
That being said, don’t rule out that there’s a universe where the other two guys develop throughout the year and supplant Fancher to the bench. After all, one doesn’t start a redshirt senior with two allegedly promising young quarterbacks (one of whom was thrown a figurative bag of money in NIL funds) unless the younger guys are hurt or aren’t ready for the task.
Frost is Confident in the O-Line . . . For Now
One of the first moves Frost made in the offseason was to bring in an offensive line more aligned with his style of speed-based offense that first put UCFast on the map in his previous campaign. However, it seems that this line in the eye of the coaching staff is stout enough to protect a pocket passer on the roster long enough to make a throw.
This isn’t to imply that Fancher can’t run, but Brown and Jackson based on stories out of camp are more physically gifted than Fancher. However, if offensive line coach Shawn Clark was unable to whip this crew into shape, escapability would have been a greater factor in the chance for who would be under center.
Winning Now Matters in 2025
Obviously, a win is better than a loss every week for the team. Yet for all of Frost’s comments leading up to the start of the season since his hiring where it seemed like he was managing the fanbase’s expectations, Fancher starting strikes a different chord. This coming season in 2025, for all intents and purposes, will not be an undefeated season, but the program’s brass isn’t content just rebuilding for year three in the Big 12 conference.
In an era where donor money matters more now than ever before, and thus, fan reaction means more than it even did previously, returning to bowl eligibility is that kind of goal that is not only attainable for the Knights, but also goes a long way to inspire alumni to continue to donate funds to continue developing UCF as a power-conference school.
