UCF Football: McKenzie Milton is Knights’ 2017 Offensive MVP
By Jesse Smith
UCF football had one of the best turnaround seasons in recent memory thanks to a combination of Scott Frost and McKenzie Milton.
The UCF Knights have been in the headlines a lot in the past week as they won the AAC Championship in a thriller against Memphis. During the game, reports broke that Scott Frost would be named the new head coach at his alma mater, Nebraska. Talking about weird right?
The Knights finished the season undefeated and ranked No. 12 in the College Football Playoff Poll and No. 10 in the AP & Coaches polls. They were overlooked in the College Football Playoff, but locked up a date with No. 7 Auburn in the Peach Bowl.
I might’ve gotten a bit long-winded in the previous statement, but there is a major reason UCF made so much noise this season and you don’t have to look further than sophomore quarterback McKenzie Milton. Central Florida is first in team scoring in the nation at 48.7 points per game, seventh in passing yardage at a clip of 339.3 yards per game and fifth in total yards at 540 per game. He is the engine to the explosive car that is UCF.
The 5-foot-11, 177-pound Milton had a monster second season some would argue that he should’ve been invited to the Manhattan Saturday, but that’s a story for a different time.
Check out the quarterback’s stats for the 2017 (keep in mind he still has another game to add to his totals):
Milton was 249-for-360 passing with 3,795 yards, 35 touchdowns, nine interceptions and a 184.8 passer rating on 69 completion rate. He’s also rushed 93 times for 497 yards and seven touchdowns on 5.3 yards per carry.
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Besides guys like Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield, he might be the best quarterback in college football and that is way he is the offensive MVP for the Knights this season. If you have seen him play, he might run the option the best of any quarterback I’ve seen the way he fakes the pitch is artwork and he waits until the last second to give his running back a better chance at getting a big gain. Milton is fun to watch and a no-brainer for this award.